back to you. >> thanks so much, ramin. ramin mellegard at the tokyo stock exchange. >>> chinese officials have opened a second front in their solar power war with the european union. they filed a complaint with the world trade organization over european subsidies to the industry. chinese commerce industry says members of the nations are unfairly supporting solar equipment makers. they say it's anti-competitive towards imports and have serious consequences. the eu ran an investigation in september into the suspected dumping of chinese made solar panels. they see the complaint as a counter attack. a eu spokesperson issued a short statement. that is all for me for now. i'll leave you with how the stocks are performing this tuesday morning. >>> one last day and one last push. u.s. president barack obama and republican challenger mitt romney are making their final pitches before americans head to the polls. obama visited three swing states. he told a crowd in wisconsin that romney would resurrect the republican policies of four

back to you. >> thanks, ramin. ramin mellegard at the tokyo stock exchange. >>> well, the people who made japanese money, the operators of the national mint are pitching to overseas governments. officials at the japanese mint osaka office are expecting to receive the order soon for 5 million bangladesh taka coins. they're made of stainless steel and worth about two yen or about three cents. the authority joined five bidders for the job that was opened by the bangladeshi government. japan's advanced minting technology was reportedly a factor. japan's mint has produced foreign commemorative coins in the past this will be the first time since world war ii to mint a foreign currency. after contracts are siend wi-- e bangladesh government. the mint hopes to receive other orders. that is all for now. i'll leave you with markets here in asia. >>> israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu says his forces will not tolerate attacks in retaliation for shells that flew across the border. syrian morters fell for a second day on

ramin joins us now. where is this report coming from? >> this is the government's own monthly report. it really highlights the impact of falling exports in japan which japan relies so heavily on. government analysts downgraded their assessment of the japanese economy for the fourth straight month. japan's exports were sluggish as shipments remain stagnant. this is due to a global economic slowdown.

we go to ramin mellegard at the tokyo stock exchange. quite a solid move across the board in the u.s. >> definitely seeing a follow through yuko. let's go straight to the opening levels so you can see what i'm talking about for the nikkei and the topix for this -- for today november 20th. 9,171. closing at a high. it's been up almost 6%. we'll see how the trade today. 2 billion shares were traded today. that compares to 1.3 billion last wednesday before the markets moved substantially higher. a lot of focus of course on the weeker yen. because of the premise that the possible new government led by ldp leader abe will be more aggressive in its stand against deflation as well as further monetary easing measures. and that's really brought in an influx of foreign buyers as well going for large cap stocks. some of the blue chip exporters that we've seen gain. but also looking at some of the undervalued banking and financial shares as well which have gained as the stock markets gain as well. as their portfolios gain in value. let's have a look

ramin joins us now. where is this report coming from? >> this is the government's own monthly report. it really highlights the impact of falling exports in japan which japan relies so heavily on. government analysts downgraded their assessment of the japanese economy for the fourth straight month. japan's exports were sluggish as shipments remain stagnant. this is due to a global economic slowdown. this is due to falling sales after government subsidy for car buyers came to an end. turning to the economic outlook support says movements are expected to continue for the time being. let's check on the markets. the dollar is keeping a firm tone against the yen. it almost hit a seven-month high of 81.46 in the overseas market. euro general 1037.67 to 272. let's turn to stocks. the weaker yen is definitely spurring orders on export related issues. tokyo share prices have been trading higher extending gains. 8,957 up 127 points. almost one and a half percent from thursday's close. let's have a look at other asian markets. we can see the contras

ramin mellegard joins us from the business desk.here are so many trade negotiations going on worldwide. what are the details in this case? >> catherine, representatives of japan, china, and south korea are trying to get together this month to talk about starting negotiations for a free trade pact. the countries have agreed there are benefits to strengthening economic ties as the move towards free trade accelerates worldwide. leaders of the three countries had agreed in may that they would begin the trade negotiations by the end of this year. preparations had been made in working-level meetings but prospects for the talks were unclear in the shadow of the japan/china territory i am dispute over islands in the east china sea. the official launch of fta talks is now expected to get the green light. on the sidelines of the east asia summit in cambodia on november 20th. >>> u.s. president barack obama declared his intention to raise taxes on wealthy americans. he says he wants to discuss this openly with republicans who control the house

ramin mellegard joins us from the business desk. we saw many americans celebrating the re-election of president obama but it seems the mood was different on wall street. >> it really was. we're seeing the reactions following the elections. investors really concerned about tax and spending issues and that's going to be a major focus going forward. government spending cults and tax hikes are set to go into effect at the end of the year. the so-called fiscal cliff. investors worry obama will be unable to resolve the crisis with the house of representatives still controlled by the republicans. the key index on the new york stock exchange fell sharply when markets reopened after the election. the dow jones industrial average at one point lost over 360 points. the index finished the day at 12,932, down 2.3% from the previous day's close. new york stocks dliped from the start as investor concerns shifted to how obama will address the country's economic challenges. they're particularly worried the fiscal cliff could weigh down u.s. growth i

for that we cross over to ramin standing by for us at the tokyo stock exchange. we saw big losses across the board for stocks globally last week. what's expected this week. >> good morning. there's some concerns for global stocks, and we see their concerns about the so-called fiscal cliff, of course, in the united states. a combination of tax increases exami and spending cuts and could push the u.s. economy into a recession as all eyes are on how that develops. here in japan, too, the nikkei was down 3.75% last week, so we saw that play into the markets as well. the gdp figure is coming at 0.9% for the july-to-september period. we'll see how that is translating into the opening levels. let's go to the opening levels for the nikkei and topix for many monday, november 12th. both indices are down by half a percent there. the nikkei closed out last week at a four-week low as the yen gained against the dollar and euro. the japanese currency rose. really investors shifting money into yen-based assets and the higher yen weighing on export issues. this is at a time when