seeing some of those stocks actually bullying up the nikkei and the topix. the nikkei hasn't closed above 9,000 since september 1st and been caught up in the stronger yen throughout that period and weaker than expected manufacturing data out of the u.s. and this week further economic data, retail sales coming up and manufacturing data out of the new york and philadelphia manufacturing region so another one which is closely watched. still, europe does remain the main picture here and driving force for a lot of markets surrounding debt repayments by the likes of greece and also concerns about germany's involvements in helping to bail out weaker eurozone economy so that's a focus throughout this whole week. switching over to currencies, the euro has been a major focus in the last sessions. it's regained a little bit of ground against the yen and the dollar after hitting 103.88 during early hours, it backed off to 103, keeping down japan's key blue chip stocks over the last few trading sessions and that helped to keep the nikkei below that key psychological 9,00

let's see if we end up for a positive for six day in a row on nikkei. we will see how that continues today. back to you. >> thanks a lot, ramin. that was ramin from the tokyo stock exchange. >>> now let's give you a look at some other market figures. >>> that is all for this hour in business. back to catherine now. >> thanks very much. >>> nationwide earthquake drills are taking place across japan today on the 88th anniversary of the great earthquake in 1923. government estimates suggest as many as 11,000 people could die if an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.3 strikes below the northern part of tokyo bay. it talks about what might have if it occurs in the tokyo metropolitan area. a task force has been set up to gather information on the damage. following the march 11 earthquake and tsunami, the participants will practice how to transport relief supplies to the disaster hit areas. they will dry to drill for what happens when millions of commuters cannot return home when transportation systems are disrupted. the tokyo metropolitan government and other p

let's look at the nikkei and topics right thousand np nikkei is down over a hundred points and no real surprise, as you said, they are following the declines in europe, u.s. and also key asian indexes yesterday. in fact we saw a two-year low yesterday. now let's be pretty clear though, the euro zone debt issue continues to command market attention and that's really following the focus on greece, spain and italy. and that's a focus for stock, bond and currency traders. and if you have a look at currency levels right now, again, just having a look at the euro against the yen, you can see there it is still weaker against the yen and dollar. it fell below 104 in new york trading. rebounding a touch off those losses. but again following the breaking news, that u.s. ratings agency standard and poor's down grade editly's sovereign date rating. the next focal point for a lot of market players is the meeting which kicks off today and wraps up wednesday. it was extended by one day by fed chairman bernanke. and the markets are really going to be keen to see how they take in recent economic data o

the nikkei down another 100 points and the to pix down five points as well. nikkei down after it managed to regain 9000 last thursday and dropping since then, question marks over the u.s. economy and also how key exporters in japan will fare ifhe u.s. ecomy is not getng back on track. looking at currency markets as well a crucial factor with the strength of the yen and the problems in the eurozone economies also weighing on the euro trading around the 108 yen levels compared to upper 111 this time last year. also in germany, chancellor merkel's party lost a crucial election over the weekend and that also raised questions about germany's commitment to constantly keep bailing out the weaker or faltering eurozone economies. euro yen trading around the lower 108 levels. let's keep an eye on banks and brokerage, and there's a pending lawsuit around u.s. lenders, including the u.s. unit of nimura holdings, brokerages and banks trading lower in the last few sessions. uswti crude oil prices fell another 3% in the futures, because n where mex was closed no floor tradi

the nikkei and the topix following that. having a look at the opening levels this thursday morning, the nikkei down by over 100 points and the topix down by almost 9 points. and that's reflecting the overall global sentiment by the move by the fed yesterday. after we used the words significant downside risk referring to the u.s. economy. the fed were expecting markets to extend the purchase of u.s. treasuries known as the operation twist after a similar move back in the '60s. but markets were also hoping for something a little extra, a twist and a turn, if you will, as the markets were saying that the fed's move was maybe not enough really to boost the economy after some of the steps that it's just taken. and the financial sector really reflected that. it was the heaviest hit sector in the u.s. we're going to be watching out for stocks here as well. that's followed the fomc meeting and followed downgrades of three major u.s. banks, bank of america, wells fargo and citigroup. bank of america was down by 7.5%. you can see the

markets overnight, and actually snapping three days of losses for the nikkei andpi the u.s. and more importantly what's going on in the eurozone will be key focus for investors here in japan on a couple of on. rsy there is a possible lawsuit from a u.s. housing agency which has named several banks including nur holdings u.s. unit in relation to mortgage-backed security sales leading up to the lehman crisis. now we've been following knnomu holdings 10%. second how all o ts i affecting the currency markets. if you look at the currency levels, how all of this volatility is affecting the yen, you can see treha t y is actually just weakened a touch there, after the swiss national bank move actually the eo toum around 10% against the swiss franc and also we did see the dollar gaining against the yen a touch. not thatucf a move but nevertheless that may play into a rebound, if you will, for exporters today. the swi centralba's me yesterday was a bit of a surprise and market players here will definitely try to see how all of that will play through t onlyod in japan but u.s. european

but relative calk here for stalks with the nikkei and topics opening pretty calmly. i mean, just dipping in and out of negative and positive. not any major moves. yet we did see the nikkei fall for three trading sessions on the back of the euro debt concerns. may trade in a narrow range so for today. the head of the meeting, wrapping up late every today. all of the turmoil about greece and questions about the euro zone debt has also meant that yen remains one of the safer assets around. and having a look at the currency levels as well, we can see that it it is still holding strong against the basket of currencies currently at the upper 104 levels against the euro and sticking to the 76 yen range eat getting to the dollar. the dollar may be sidelined ahead of the meeting and so we may not see that much of a range in the currency markets either during the tokyo stock trading hours. we should keep an eye out on the tech sector. we did see the nasdaq dragging lower and philadelphia semi conductor index trading lower as well. however, in after hours share trading of oracl

for now the nikkei just in the negative. back to you. >> ramin, thank you i for that. >>> now in other news, japanese automakers are expanding their operations in booming southeast asian markets. the move comes as exports are shrinking due to a strong yen and demand is sluggish in the u.s. and europe. mitsubishi motors says it aims to nearly double the market share in southeast asia to 12% in four years. the target countries include thailand, independent neez yarks malaysia and the philippines and vietnam. to achieve this goal, mitsubishi plans to make thailand an export platform for the asian markets. it will build a new plant and double output in two years. the company will start to make compact cars in indonesia and malaysia also. >>> toyota says it will boost its production kpaps capacity in indonesia by more than 60% and launch new compact cars there. nissan will also introduce over 10 new models across the region. >>> now let's look at what is coming up in japan's business calendar this week. domestic auto production i

the nikkei up by 1%. second day of gains for the nikkei. getting a boost from a weakened yen there, charles. that helped companies like toyota and sony. >> i didn't want to preempt jennifer delgado but there aren't any typhoons i'm aware of here in europe but i'm not a meteorologist. the markets are open today. they're all pointing downwards at the open. here's how things look, just an hour and four minutes, 64 minutes, into the trading day. we are seeing a tiny bit of continued strength, actually. up by about 0.25% for the xetra dax. paris cac current up by 0.5%, zurich smi up by 4%. we are seeing losses on the london ftse. the markets think that angela merkel will win that vote. we'll come to that later on. in the past hour, nokia of finland announced it's slashing 3,500 jobs by the end of 2012 and that's sent its share price down 1.3% in helsinki. i think one can safely say, andrew, unfortunately, that is a star in the descendant. >> absolutely. 23 y if you look at that share price cut, investors don't think nokia has the turnaround on t

nikkei and topix trading higher this friday. back to you. >> thank you for that. >>> and now let's get you a look at some other market figures. >> that's all for business for this hour. now it's back to catherine. >> thank you very much. >>> researchers say a melt down of the number two reactor at the fukushima daiichi nuclear power plant could have been avoided if cooling water had been injected four hours earlier. fuel meltdowns occurred at the plant's number one, two and three reactors. it has been estimated that most of the environmental contamination was the result of an explosion at the number two reactor. researchers at the japan atomic energy agency created a computer simulation of the number two reactor to see if its meltdown could have been prevented. the plant operator began manually pumping cooling water into the number two reactor at around 8:00 p.m. on march 14th. the following day, the reactor overheated and a hydrogen explosion occurred. the first simulation examined what would happen if the water injection had s

japan's nikkei index hit a six-month low. it had a hole day, actually, on friday so was catching up with the sharp declines on wall street and other asian indices. selloff continuing in hong kong with the hang seng losing more ground on top of last week's heavy losses. off by 1.5%. and shanghai off by 1.65%. but let's have a look at electronics sector. that was actually hit hard, too. presumably on fears of a global recession or at least a recession in europe and the united states. shares in panasonic and sharp were down by more than 4%. >>> trading gets urn way if wall street in a few hours. this is following a fairly brutal week for u.s. stocks. the roller coaster ride ended with gains by friday's close. as manoj was mentioning. on the day the dow ended up a third of a percentage point. the s&p 500 advanced nearly two-third. nasdaq gaining more than 1%. but here's over the week the dow dropped to nearly 6.5%. the s&p lost a little more than that. and the nasdaq shed more than 5%. these are figures reminiscent of 2008, frank

the nikkei in tokyo up by 1.8%. that came on the back of yet another improvement in manufacturing confidence. that's with up for the fifth consecutive month, for the move september, which is good news for the japan manufacturing sector, which is, of course, such a vital part of the economy. i mentioned australia, the benchmark there, not far behind, up by more than 1.a%. index in shanghai slipping back by about 0.5%. it was up yesterday when all the other markets were done. nina? >>> andrew, let's move along and talk about the how the u.s. markets look set to open up later on today. the futures indicate we could see some of these markets opening up positively but only by about 0.25%. we should point out that the futures looked just a little bit rosier last time we looked, about 25 minutes ago. some of them were even indicating a 0.5% rise at the open. of course, there's a number of hours to go and anything could happen before wall street starts trading later on today. >>> from uncertainty on wall street, move to the

the nikkei and topix trading higher for the first few minutes of trading. back to you. >> that was ramin mellegard from the tokyo stock exchange. >>> tokyo electric power company has begun sending out forms for people affected by the nuclear disaster to apply for compensation. similar forms have already been e-mailed to evacuees but tepco has become under fire for making the procedures complicated. a legal team was set up last month to help people affected by the crisis at the fukushima daiichi plant, since the volunteer lawyers started this counseling service last month they have received about 400 inquir inquiries. many were complaints the forms sent out by tepco were too complicated. other applicants say they're dissatisfied with the tilt's compensation terms. the company sent out some 7,000 forms on tuesday. the legal team says the utility's payment terms are negotiable and if applicants are unhappy with the offer they're given, they can take their case to a government organization that will mediate compensation disputes. >> translator: tepco has not ex

the nikkei managed to head higher after a fresh two and a half day low. today the stock index is higher but not any major moves. as we've been covering every single day this week the eurozone economies and the volatility playing into the stock bond and of course the currency markets and let's have a look at how the debt levels are with the yen against the euro and the dollar, the yen is holding against the euro at the lower 105 levels and around the upper 76 levels against the dollar. both these levels continue to be a little bit of a problem for japanese exporters with u.s. and european based economies. the biggest chunk of sales for japanese exporters, household names, sony, canon, nikon and if you factor in where japanese economies are shifting production overseas and increasing sales in places such as china and emerging economies such as indonesia, the fact remains that the u.s. and europe still remain very big markets for japanese exporters. separately, coming up as well we have key economic data out of the u.s., retail sales and producer price index

we're going to see how all the markets react to that in asia, but for now, the nikkei and topix trading lower. >> thank you, that was our reporter from the tokyo stock exchange. let's look at other market figures. >>> that is all for now in business news, now it's back to katherine. >> thanks very much. observers say north korea appears to have changed part of its national slogan due to a lack of progress in economic reconstruction. north korea held a rally on thursday, the eve of the anniversary of its funding. in a speech at the gathering, repeatedly mentioned a goal of becoming a strong and prosperous nation. [ speaking in a foreign language ] >> according to a tokyo-based news agency, radio press, north korea previously used great nation, but that has been simplified to nation recently. a strong and prosperous great nation was displayed in huge letters in a stadium during the annual national games last year, but the phrase "2012 strong and prosperous nation" was exhibited at this year's event. the competition started last month. a north korean official says there's little difference

the nikkei as well as australia up almost 2%. the kospi is well up over 3%. the nikkei reversed its slide to its lowest close since april, 2009. u.s. stocks. a fairly choppy session. the dow is up 270 points. a powerful typhoon has hit the northern philippines, bringing with it winds of 140 kph. it is the largest arm to hit the philippines this year can and has forced the authorities to evacuate more than 100,000 people, close schools and ground flight. our correspondent joins us on the line two hours from the capital of manila. we know it made landfall. what can you tell us about conditions there? >> basically, it seems to be traversing across the island, which is one of the largest islands in the philippines. half the entire population lives there. i am in the western area. it is not here yet. heavy rains for hours now. overnight, there has been heavy rain. electricity is out in many different places. i have been speaking to people in the area, which has been hit. and they said that power is completely gone. a lot of trees are down. houses have been damaged

you can see the nikkei is up. global markets caught up in any kind of news regarding the eurozone issues. helps put a positive spin. even if it's just for the short-term. but we're seeing the positive spin reflected in tokyo markets this morning. also that helped key sectors in the u.s. and european markets, the financials, retail, manufacturing sector. we'll keep track of those stocks over here as well. in fact, a lot of japanese blue chip stocks have hit lows in recent sessions because of eurozone debt-related issues. and the likes of toyota hitting an eight and a half year low just yesterday. a lot of other exporters trading lower because of the stronger yen. let's look at the currency levels again. you can see there the stock prices moving up gave a reprieve for the euro. currently the 103 levels. it touched upper 101 in u.s. and european trading hours yesterday. it's come back a touch there. there is a bit of a concern now about the recent strength of the yen. and that's concerning the earnings coming out for

nikkei up by a quarter as was sydney. china's premiere says the battle remain as top priority in the near future. premie premiere wen says they should -- china's inflation hit 6.5% in july. that far exceeded beijing's targets. mr. wen is backtracking a little bit from the stronger comments he made earlier in a financial times opinion piece that happened in june. at that time mr. wen said we are confident prices will be firmly under control this year. obviously, nina, they're not at the moment. >> not indeed. >>> now, it's not every day that the closing bell rings from san francisco. the tech company sales force.com rang the bell remotely from a cloud community industry event in california. back on wall street, u.s. markets ended a grim month on a higher note. the gains were moderate ones at best. all under a half a percent as you can see there. it left investors cautious. the consulting firm says that the number of planned job cuts fell 23% in august and separately payroll processor adp said private payroll sectors rose b

the nikkei closing down another 2.2%. 8590 yen is where the nikkei now stands, the lowest level thisong kong, the notable exception, was up. hong kong trading closes later than any other trading. it caught the tailwind of the stronger euro open and hong kong was down all day and turned positive as the european markets opened. that was the story there. certainly a sell-off, a lot of interest, charles, obviously in what happens to the u.s. now. >> absolutely. because, of course, we had the labor market holiday on monday. so catch up will have to take place when those markets open in five hours time. it does look as if it will be a much lower or somewhat lower, off by 1% or so, particularly the s&p 500 off by 1.2%. but i think it's interesting because, again, in the past half hour, the losses have narrowed a little bit. this is very much still the futures market. we really have to wait and see what happens when the dow opens in five hours time, andrew. >> yes. it's going to be a huge week in the u.s. on the economic front, because american jobs are very much the focus as congress return

nikkei up by 2.8%. hang seng up by 4%. and shanghai composite, a modest 1% and the s&p up by 3 and two-thirds of a percent. the philippines suspended trade on tuesday as typhoon made landfall in the country. the markets boosted by gains in the commodity sector. falls of 17% in the previous seven days. oil prices also up and reversal too for gold. higher following four days of losses. >>> now, wall street, we actually renewed hopes that european policy makers will take action to resolve the conflicts worsening debt crisis. the dow, nasdaq and s&p 500 moved higher on monday. the dow topped 11,000 closing out more than 2.5% and the s&p wasn't very far behind. financial stocks were among the best performers. the nasdaq ended the day up by 1 and a third percent. as for today, u.s. markets look set for a positive open when tuesday's trading begins. here's where the u.s. futures stand in the pre-market action. up by .75%. there may have been cheer on wall street but a different story in greece on monday. it appears to be getting

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move to stock markets now in asia the picture has changed somewhat the nikkei is the deeper in the negative territory the hang seng has had to give up its gains despite chinese data showing consumer inflation slightly in august financials however holding up against the negative movement in japan the nikkei is indeed in negative territory following a revision of japan's april to june gross domestic product to a lower level now is take a look at the opening picture in moscow now after two days of gains i'm afraid arrows have to be read actually the r.t.s. is supposed to be down one percent my six point eight percent this is on the back of negative movement in the united states and in asia and expectations that european markets will also open the negative territory. well so far september has been a month of respect for the stock markets compared to a heavy selloff in the previous month however it is too early to celebrate says chris we fear from troika dialog he believes stocks are at risk of having an even bigger slump in october. october is always the most dangerous month in global equity ma

the nikkei, by the way, in tokyo closed today. they probably had the best day of all. meanwhile, commodities, get a sense of that. we saw oil dropping yesterday, coming up a little bit today. up .6%. to $81 a barrel. gold, meantime, down again slightly at $1737 per troy ounce. let's take a look now at how it closed yesterday with nicole on the floor. >> selling continues on wall street. dow, nasdaq and s&p dropping in a big way. dow jones industrial average was down 527 points at its lowest and at the end of the day, down 391 points. doesn't make you feel any better. on the contrary, you see selling after selling. four months of selling. dow jones industrial average for the month of september down 7% so the pressure has been on this market across the board, it's not one group. we saw a lot of the financials come under pressure and hit 52 week lows, names like goldman-sachs, morgan stanley and ubs all at 52-week lows. i got to tell you, the selling is broad based, everything from energy to retailers to drugs and such. so with that, we saw all 30 dow components in the re

overseas trading, in tokyo, the nikkei rose 29 points, but in hong kong, the hang seng fell 135. >>> and the seemingly never-ending roller coaster ride did continue on wall street wednesday. just a day after cascading lower, stocks zoomed up. the comeback trail. it started in europe, where stocks boupsed back from two-year lows after a german court rejected lawsuits aimed at blocking germany's efforts to aid greece and other struggling euro nations. in july, companies posted the most job openings in the last three years. and, a fed survey found consumer spending in july and august drove the economy to modest growth nationwide. suddenly stocks were back in, all 30 dow stocks rose after spiking 9% tuesday, wall street's volatility index or fear factor tumbled 9%. and suddenly, safe havens were out. the yield on the ten-year treasury note rose back above 2%. gold tumbled 3%, down $56 an ounce. yahoo jumped over 4.5% after firing ceo carol bartz, a move some analysts say now makes yahoo a takeover target. bank of america rose 7% after its own management shakeup. and on a nvidia rose 7%.

the nikkei and hang seng is losing more than 1%. shanghai and hong kong, those rose slightly as you can see. well, two financial stocks were hit especially hard in tokyo by those fears. that mu nomura fell nearly 4%. >>> right now, let's take a look at how things are faring. look to set to open a little higher when wall street begins trading and the obama deficit reduction plan and federal reserve two-day policy meeting are some of the things that are on investors' minds along with further concerns about the eurozone. fee leash jete lohr has our wall street wrap. >>> deep into the red before recovering by the end of the session & investors want to see it show a clear-cut commitment of shoring up greece's finances as well as austerity measures and the dow fell 108 to 11,401 but well off earlier lows thanks to a hate day rally. the s&p shed 1%. shares of netflix tumbled more than 7%. the former darling explained recent rate hikes and separation of its dvd rental service. it's now making an even clearer separation by changing that name

take a look at the nikkei, down by 1.8%.xporters being hit on renewed concerns about the strength of the u.s. consumer. the strong yen that you are mentioning only making things worse. energy stocks getting a hit as oil prices fell. one stock i want to point out in hong kong. there is another reason for this falling down. it has been leaking about 3,000 barrels a week. chinese authorities have had to shut that down. hang seng down 8%. a chinese consortium is down after the construction bank was sold. the financial times said the state administration of foreign exchange is the group that manages the foreign reserves was among the buyers. beijing's involvement comes as chinese bank shares is under pressure. it was three days ago at $8.3 billion which was raised to buy ccb. going back to the chinese by the looks of it. >> let's take a step backwards because the pessimism started on friday. zero u.s. jobs growth. that is causing fear of a u.s. recession. the markets erased last week's gains. all of the indices had all of their g

nikkei down by 1.21%. it came right off the top, as you see there. and it's below that 9,000 number. that's important for japan. around the rest of the region, not much to cheer on either. i should point out a lot of it has to do with the auto companies and companies. sony down 2%, honda down 2%. it all ties in with that jobs number we're about to see. hong kong down by nearly 2% today. the shanghai composite continuing to fall. now down all week. that comes from the move made a little less than a week ago by authorities in beijing to rein in inflation even further and the inflation concerns remain very much in front of shanghai. also the australian market coming off of it. i think mining companies are taking a hit. resources are going to be needed as much as the global economy slows near. >>> closing bell on wall street showed us that investors really didn't have much to cheer about. the main markets all ending the day lower. they were all down by more than 1%. banking stocks in particular fell, upsetting. as jonathan expected, manufacturing support

taking a look at overseas trading this morning, in tokyo the nikkei was down a fraction while in hong kong the hang seng dropped 418. >>> stocks mostly rose thursday. a day of high volume and high volatility and one that introduced yet another overseas uncertainty factor. the dow and s&p 500 posted healthy gains but the nasdaq was knocked lower by wild selloff of u.s.-listed chinese stocks on news of an investigation into accounting irregularities. dew tumbled, one of the biggest losers. big tech pressured the nasdaq. amazon was off 3% following a sharp rise wednesday. apple fell hard on end of quarter profit taking. other big techs and internets were hit. advanced microdevices plunged after cutting its forecast. yahoo! lost over 5% while netflix sank 11%. companies vulnerable to an economic downturn turned down. tiffany fell almost 7% while coach sank 6%. there were gainers and some good news. first time unemployment applications hit a five-month low last week. the government raised its estimate of economic growth for april to june. in a triumph for angela merkel, german deputies app

. >>> taking a look at overseas trading this morning n tokyo the nikkei sank 142 points but in hong kong the hang seng nudged up 96. >>> once again, worries about what will happen if greece defaults on its debt took a toll on markets yesterday. fortunately, a late day rally helped stocks recover most of the day's losses. investors were encouraged after what one greek official called a productive conference call with european lenders but there may be more volatility today. asian markets were mostly lower on news that s&p has now downgraded italy's debt rating. speaking of downgrades, the security and exchange commission subpoenaed several firms on possible insider trading ahead of the recent historic downgrade of this country's credit rating. else wear, the head of the house judiciary committee says an outside investigator is needed to determine whether politics played a role in a $528 million federal loan for bankrupt solyndra. >>> a weakening outlook from u.s. home builders did little to help stocks yesterday. however, home builder lanard got a boost from stronger than expected earnings

taking a look at overseas trading this morning, in tokyo, the nikkei rose 195 points but in hong kong, the hang seng dropped 537. >>> for wall street to keep up its current winning streak, big ben and the fed hold the key as to where stocks are head this week. the s&p 500 posted just under a 5.5% gain last week. the nasdaq gained over 6% and the dow rose just under 5%. for stocks to click like that this week, investors hope the federal reserve will take dramatic steps to revive the economy during tuesday and wednesday. most analysts think a big bond buy, a qe3 is a long shot. wall street will look for clear signs european leaders will follow through on their new urgency to tackle the debt crisis. sunday, greece pledged to make tough decisions to secure default & but announced no big austerity measures. new data this week will be no less than six reports on the housing market. wall street will closely watch fedex, often seen as a measuring stick for how the economy is performing. >>> finally, reports 34% of americans who took a summer holiday are struggling with depression after return

the nikkei finishing flat after trading mostly higher.d the rest of the region, financial stocks among the strongest performers of the session. in both japan and australia. the s&p up by nearly 1%. hong kong down 0.6% and the shanghai around 2,390. charles. >>> wall street kept up its buying spree on tuesday at least for most of the session. allis alison kosik has our wrap-up from new york. >> reporter: continued optimism that the european debt crisis is close to resolution sparked a buying spree. reports chipped away some of the gains near the end of the session. at the close, the dow jones 100 to end at 11190. it had been up as much as 325 points earlier. the nasdaq and s&p 500 each climbed more than 1%. >>> energy and materials shares led the rally, and most bank shares managed gains. citigroup, wells fargo and morgan stanley added about 1% to 3% on the day. commodities bounced back as well with oil, gold, copper and silver prices off with solid gains. consumer confidence edged up fractionally in september, falling short of wall street

taking a look at overseas trading, in tokyo the nikkei was up 80 point. in hong kong the hang seng was closed for a holiday. >>> a glimmer of hope for one of europe's ailing economies. the dow was down by 167 point but stocks staged a major comeback thanks in part to a report china is considering a significant purchase of italian government bonds. meanwhile, the possibility of a greek default dragged france's biggest banks down as much as 12%. treasury secretary timothy geithner is making a last-minute trip to europe this week for an unprecedented appearance at a euro finance meeting. bank of america inched up on cost-cutting plans to slash $5 billion in annual costs and cut a staggering 30,000 jobs. >>> shares of netlogic microsystems shot up 50% after wireless chip maker broad com agreed to buy the company for $3.7 billion. >>> mcgraw-hill rose 4% on news it's splitting into two separate companies. >>> tenet health care tumbled 10% after cautioning its earnings will take a hit next quarter. >>> warren buffett landed himself an interesting new portfolio

in japan, the nikkei down 0.63, the hang seng in hong kong, down about one quarter. the shanghai composite ended virtually flat. the monetary policy tightening does appear to be working. inflation in china slower in august from july's three-year high and that's boosting hopes that beijing will be able to refrain from more tightening measures. now inflation was down to .2%. that's down from 6.5% in earlier months. but that's still well above the government's target of 4%. and in new zealand, the mood there is one of excitement and anticipation ahead of the rugby world cup which kicks off in less than half an hour from now. not only rugby fans are in high spirits. take a look at the investment community as well, the country's stock index ending 0.5%. they can do a full day's work and then watch rug boeh as well. >> plenty of people here in the united kingdom will be watching that as well, andrew. to wall street where the three major indices finished lower, the dow jones industrial average dropping a little more than 1% at the close. same with the s&p 500. the broader i

taking a look at overseas trading this morning, in tokyo the nikkei fell 97 points but in hong kong the hang seng inched up 14. >>> on wall street tuesday, investors bet that european leaders could act soon to stop its spreading debt crisis. news french president nicolas sarkozy and german chancellor angela merkel gave buyers a measure of hope for the debt-ridden region. however that optimism faded overnight as asian stocks slipped on fears that eurozone leaders lack a clear plan to solve its sovereign debt crisis. back on wall street, industrials led the day's gain. general electric added nearly 3% while cummins jumped 6%. oracle gave the nasdaq the biggest boost, rising nearly 3%. apple shares inched up 1% on renewed expectations for investor incentives. best buy shares plunged 7% after an unexpectedly weak quarterly report. august retail sales are on tap today along with producer priced inflation data. a discount light from high end line missoni crashed target's website on tuesday. in the wake of demand for more privacy controls, facebook is rolling out so-called smart lists today to

taking a look at overseas trading this morning, in tokyo, the nikkei stumbled 201 points while in hong seng plummeted 836. the same worries about europe that sparked a broad sell-off on wall street friday caught up with asian markets today. despite strong data out of china this weekend, investors sold off stocks and sent the euro to a six-month low this morning. global markets were rattled friday after a top german board member resigned from the european bank reportedly over its controversial bond buying program. elsewhere, yahoo!'s ousted chief resigned from the company board after saying she would stay on in that role. probably didn't help that after being fired, barts told fortune magazine that yahoo!'s board were "dufasses". >>> cargill is recalling more ground turkey after an arkansas plant tested positive for salmonella. >>> gas is up to $3.67 a gallon. and photographs of amelia airhardt fetched a high price at auction pulling in more than 3 $1,000. >>> one of the greatest games ever by an nfl rookie and serena williams let's her temper get the best of her. >> our record highs in

taking a look at overseas trading this morning, in tokyo the nikkei was up 195 points while in hong kong the hang seng climbed 273. >>> it's been all europe all the time on wall street lately and this week after months of losses that focus is paying off. yesterday investors rallied around a joint move by five major banks including europe's central bank and the u.s. federal reserve to make it easier for eurozone nations to borrow money. tim geithner meets with those in poland. gold was spiraling up 2.5% yesterday. and on street, investors overlooking hotter than expected inflation data and weak manufacturing data. morgan stanley rose 7% on news chairman will retire at the end of the year. swiss bank ubs plunged 10% after news that a rogue trader racked up $2 billion in unauthorized trades. a 31-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of fraud. after the bell dismal quarterly earnings, r.i.m. is down 50% for the year. netflix tumbled 19% after predicting its summer price hike will cost it a total of 1 million customers. >>> the irs raked in $500 million from 12,000 tax cheats who came

taking a look at overseas trading, in tokyo the nikkei was up 19 but in hong kong the hang seng lost 190. >>> after rallying early tuesday, traders ran for cover late on euro debt concerns. investors hit the sidelines thanks in part to s&p's downgrade italy. now ranking below slovakia and on par with malta. >>> needing more loans soon to avoid bankruptcy, greece promised further sector cuts but did nothing. the international monetary fund struck an ominous tone over europe with its chief economist saying simply, europe must get its act together. here at home the fed wraps up its two-day meeting announcing what stimulus measures, if any, it will make later this afternoon. netflix tumbled tuesday, getting wall street's thumbs down for separating streaming and dvds. >>> molycorp plunged after a price drop in rare earth minerals. ibm rose after settling an europe investigation. ralph lauren hit an all-time high after an upgrade. carnival was up sharply after the cruise line beat forecasts. oracle was up and down in after-hour trades, posting revenues slightly above expectations but also

the nikkei rising slightly this session despite a disappointing result in japan. there are the closing numbers for you. you see the hang seng pulling back somewhat. you had some of the bigger chinese listings doing rather well today. more focus again on china and whether or not it can weather the economic storm raging all over the world. >>> now, of course, all eyes are on the u.s. federal reserve as it tries to breathe new life into the ailing american economy. as a two-day meeting ends this wednesday, a new strategy is expected. it is called "operation twist." as felicia taylor explains, it's not completely new. >> reporter: the fed's first "operation twist" was launched back in 1961 during the kennedy administration. the fed originally called the program "operation nudge," but legend has it that traders nicknamed it "operation twist" after the dance craze at the time made famous by chubby checker. ♪ and now 50 years later, the twist appears to be back in fashion. the fed could announce as soon as this week that it's dusting off the program in another attempt to

the nikkei down by 2.3%. the exporters in japan taking a hit as the euro weakened against the yen.electronicsmakers all down between 3% and 4%. hong kong, big sell-off in hong kong as well. down 4.2%. the selling got quicker towards the end of the day, which is always a bad sign. shanghai, the markets closed today. but there were interesting economic numbers coming out from china referring to trade. and finally, the australian index as you see, down 3.7%. that was the big mining companies on fears about the strength of the glebl economy. nina, it's still very much, it's the euro story, the u.s. is sort of off the boiler somewhat at the moment. it's all about what's going to happen with the euro. is greece going to default? will it end up outside of the euro zone? what does that mean for countries like portugal own other worrying economies. so many questions going on. investors going into bonds. that's their safe haven today. >> perhaps not greek bonds or portuguese or irish bonds, of course, andrew. >> yes. >> the issue just comes back and each time you think it's gone away it come

taking a look at overseas trading this morning in tokyo the nikkei grew 85 points, but in hong kong the hang seng lost 119. >>> tuesday's winners were wednesday's losers on wall street where until europe gets its house in order, trade is expected to ebb and flow with developments across the atlantic. renewed concern over european debt led to stiff drops in energy and metals which both zoomed higher tuesday. gold fell and copper tumbled as did shares in freeport copper and gold. shares in coal producer alpha natural plummeted 11%. oil was off $3 a barrel sending energy stocks falling. the dow jumped higher after opening on a report august orders for manufacturer goods fell less than expected. but news and rumors from across the pond darkened the mood with international auditors slated to pass judgment on new loans for greece today. new disagreements broke out over greece's bailout. and germany's angela merkel, a strong supporter of expanding europe's bailout fund, fought off a revolt on her own government on the issue. still there were bright spots. amazon rose after unveiling its new to

japan's nikkei ended the day down more than 2%.g seng also ended the day down about 1.5%. >>> congress was supposed to be off this week but stayed in d.c. to get this bill passed. the house passed a bill last week, but the senate did not approve it. the plan would fund the federal government through mid-november. the proposal also includes extra disaster aid for fema. that fund could run dry as early as tomorrow. >>> the imf may need billions of dollars in extra funding. that's according to managing director christine lagarde who made the comments while in new delhi, india. she says the imf may have to tap its members for extra funding. lagarde says the global economic kr crisis is to blame, and the funding would go to countries in need like greece, italy, and spain. >>> two american hikers held in an iranian prison are on u.s. soil for the first time in two years. josh fattal and shane bauer spoke out in their first news conference. iran arrested them along the iraq/iran border, held them in jail for two years for spying. fattal t

in tokyo, the nikkei dipped 55 points.hile in hong kong, the hang seng shed 46. >>> well, when the fed chairman speaks, wall street tends to listen. investors didn't like what they didn't hear. stocks tumbled after ben bernanke delivered an economic outlook which includes no stimulation of investment measures. investors had hoped for some kind of cash injection. a rise in weekly jobless claims added to yesterday's gloom. today we'll see what they thought of president obama's jobs package. g-7 finance ministers meet in france. u.s. banks led losses yesterday after notching big gains wednesday. j.p. morgan found nearly 4%. bank of america lost nearly as much on a report that restructuring could lead to the loss of 40,000 jobs. yahoo! xlims climbed 6% after a shareholder demanded a reshuffling of the board. elsewhere, fbi agents raided the california headquarters of solendra after they filed for bankruptcy and laid off all of its workers despite receiving $530 million of federal stimulus. >>> a sobering sign of the times, nex

taking a look at overseas trading this morning, in tokyo the nikkei skid 110 points, while in hong kong the hang seng slipped 372. wall street's four-day rally ground to a halt thursday thanks to jitters ahead of today's august jobs report. a mild increase of about 75,000 jobs is expected, despite weekly jobless claims falling thursday, other down data had investors gloomy about today's numbers, such as a drop in factory employment. overall factory activity came in only just above growth levels. construction spending fell unexpectedly in july. public outlays dropped to their lowest levels in five years. and thursday the white house cut its economic growth outlook for the next two years. goldman sachs fell 3.5% on renewed scrutiny from the fed over past mortgage and foreclosure practices. and "the new york times" reports the agency overseeing fannie mae and freddie mac will sue more than a dozen banks for billions over mortgage securities sold at the height of the housing bubble. "the times" jamesed bank of america, jpmorgan chase and deutsche bank. august auto sales rose 7.5%, way bette

taking a look at overseas trading this morning, in tokyo the nikkei rose 29 points, but in hong kong the hang seng fell 135. >>> the seemingly never-ending roller-coaster ride continues on wall street. just a day after stocks loomed lower, the comeback came back up. it started in europe where stocks bounced back from two-year lows after a german court rejected lawsuits aimed at blocking germany's efforts to aid greece and other struggling euro nations. adding to the upbeat tone, in july companies posted the most job openings in the last three years. and a fed survey found consumer spending in july and august drove the economy to modest growth nationwide. suddenly stocks were back in. all 30 dow stocks rose after spiking 9% tuesday. wall street's volatility index, or fear factor, tumbled 9%. just as suddenly, safe havens were out. the yield on the ten-year treasury rose back above 2%. gold tumbled 3%, down $56 an ounce. yahoo jumped over 4.5% after firing their ceo, a move some analysts say now makes yahoo! a takeover target. >>> struggling bank of america rose almost 7% after its own

taking a look at overseas trading this morning, tokyo the nikkei was up 5 points but in hong kong the hang seng fell 119. >>> stocks rose for a third straight day tuesday on continued optimism europe is finally dealing with its debt problem. rising hope has pushed the s&p 500 up more than 4% since last thursday's close. the biggest three-day gain since mid-august. over the last two days the dow has made up more than half of last week's 737-point plunge. this week wall street's volatility index has dropped more than 10%. euro optimism also sent commodities higher. gold rose tuesday for the first time in a week. copper jumped almost 5%. not surprisingly, freeport copper and gold was up 4%. specialty metals company allegheny technologies led the s&p up over 7%. oil spiked more than $4 tuesday in new york. but fell overnight in asia to just over $83 a barrel. research in motion led the nasdaq surging on speculation investor carl icon has taken a stake in the blackberry maker. walgreen fell 6% after ending its relationship with express scripts. home prices rose for a fourth straight month

. >>> taking a look at overseas trading, the nikkei grew 85 points.n honk gong, the hang seng lost 119. >>> tuesdays winners were wednesdays losers where until europe gets its house in order, trade is expected to ebb and flow with developments across the atlantic. stiff drops in energy and metals which zoomed higher tuesday. gold fell and copper tumbled as did shares in freeport copper and gold. shares in coal producer, alpha natural, plummeted 11%. oil was off $3 a barrel sending energy stocks falling. the dow jumped higher after opening on a report august orders for manufactured goods fell less than expected. >>> news and rumors from across the pond darkened the mood with international auditors slated to pass judgment on new loans for greece today. new disagreements broke out over greece's bailout. and germany's angel merkel fought off a revolt with the government on the issue. >>> still, there were some bright spots. amazon rose after unveiling the new touchscreen tablet shall the kindle fire. price tag, only $199. >>> earnings, ja-bil circuit soar