for now the nikkei down over 190 points. we'll see how that trades throughout the session. back to you in the studio. >> thanks a lot. the nikkei has plunged further down over 300 points or a loss of 3.4% so far this friday morning. the yen is at 79. dollar yen 79.05. back to the main news. >>> the japanese government is planning to buy up cesium tainted beef that has reached the distribution chain. the plan will include beef with radio active cesium at levels within the national safety limit. the agriculture ministry developed a plan in response to calls for more support by beef cattle farmers. under the plan the government will buy 3500 head of cattle which are suspected to have been fed rice straw containing cesium in excess of the safety limit. the cattle will be cinerated. farmers who are unable to ship their cattle due to restrictions will receive about $630 per head of cattle. the government will also provide financial support to prefectures that are buying up beef cattle which have become too old to ship due to the ban. august 6th marks the 66th anniversary of the a

overall, the nikkei was off 2 1/2%. in hong kong, the hang seng losing 3% and the shanghai composite faring not so bad, down just 1% for the day. one other factor, literally rattling the markets in japan today was the powerful earthquake that hit near the end of the trading day and not far from the march earthquake, it prompted some selling by -- but those losses >> and as you can see, germany faring the worse. dax is down 3% at the lows for the year. not a good day in europe at all. the banks, not doing well. we saw huge declines yesterday for the banks commerce, all sharply lower and this morning, the banks are under pressure. five plus percent for lloyds, deutche banks. yesterday, european markets tumbling 4%, 5%. it was the worst daily performance for most european markets in 32 months so that means we're dating back to december of 2008 and certainly, the height of the financial crisis. so that's certainly not good news for europe shaking out today as well. the euro yesterday was down nearly 1% vs. the u.s. dollar. t

the nikkei had already opened higher. oing to be a deal and these late afternoon shenanigans sort of unsettled it a little bit. when the deal was announced the nikkei popped up again. the latest information has the nikkei up 1.5%. >> will you stand by and help me out with this? i want to bring in kyung lah standing by to talk to us about the asian markets. ali velshi, you can analyze it for us. talk to us about that kyung. >> don, i can tell you that as the president was speaking i was refreshing my screen to see what was happening with the nikkei and the nikkei was up sharply. what happened this morning is when the nikkei did open just under an hour ago, the stocks were high. it was expected to be high because of the rumor of this debt deal. but certainly what we're seeing here already in 45 minutes, 50 minutes of trading is that asian markets are welcoming this news. the cloud of uncertainty that president obama was speaking about is not just in the u.s. financial markets, it's also in the worldwide global markets. somet

the nikkei average ended the day at 8,944, down 1.6% from monday. it was the first time for the key index to fall below 9,000 since march 17th right after the disaster in northeastern japan. >> market analysts say investors are paying close attention to how the u.s. federal reserve board will deal with the market turmoil at its meeting scheduled later in the day. >>> in asian markets share prices continue to tumble across the board on tuesday. in hong kong the hang seng closed down more than 5% from monday's close. at one point, the index dipped below 19,000, renewing a 15-month low. in taiwan stocks closed at 7,493, down $0.79%. this was slightly lower than monday's close after recovering from a 5% loss earlier in the day. south korea's kospi closed at 1,801, down 3.6%. the index temporarily dipped nearly 10% marking the 13-month low. india's sensex index slipped almost 0.8%. >>> 66 years ago, japan was reeling from the aftermath of hiroshima's atomic bombing and then hit again, another nuclear weapon brought widespread death and destruction to nag

the nikkei closing down about 3.7%. the low the point since one week after the east japan earthquake. let's go to kyung lah in tokyo. you have the currency issues, you have the global economic issues now. >> reporter: certainly, at least if you're a trader today you felt like you can't win. one of the market analysts we spoke to said there was one word that summed up exactly how traders felt today, how the market felt today, and that is spooked. if you think of how japan ended the market day yesterday, slightly optimistic, up a quarter percent. the bank of japan introduced more monetary easing. when asia went to bed, things were looking good. then wall street came online, the dow plummeted, so investors in asia woke up with anxiety. they were very confused. they weren't quite sure exactly what led to such a large dip since a lot of the economic fundamentals, at least from this perspective appeared not to shift that much. five minutes before the nikkei open, before the tokyo stock exchange officially opened for business,

the nikkei and the to pix both trading in the negative, in fact the nikkei down by just over 100 points following on from losses that we saw in the dow, as you mentioned there the dow was down for an eighth straight trading session in a row, and that's the longest losing streak actually that we've seen on the dow since october 2008, after the lehman crisis so neglective open here, now basically a deal may have gone through congress to avert a default, but markets still pretty jittery rarding fundamentals both for japan's economy as well as the u.s. economy, you mentioned there consumer sentiment and also a lot of eyes are going to be on the u.s. jobs number, which is coming up on friday, and that follows faltering data we already have seen on housing and manufacturing side in the u.s. also moodies investor services came out and made a statement saying that it still has a negative outlook for the credit rating of u.s. however, it said that because of the debt deal that just got pushed through congress, it says that that virtually eliminated any risk of a downgrade and it's keeping its aa

the nikkei came close to the 9,000 level yesterday. we've backed off from that but still creeping up to levels we've seen only two weeks ago. we'll see how it fares today. the u.s. session a little bit of a mixed session. we have consumer confidence number is a little worse than expected by economists and that continues to give further evidence of a faltering u.s. economy but then as you said the minutes from the last fed meeting providing a little bit of a boost to sentiment as some officials there are calling maybe for stronger measures to boost the u.s. economy. switching to the currency markets just having a look there at the dollar/yen and euro/yen, dollar/yen continuing around the upper 76 yen level so the yen holding strong there but the euro falling a touch currently at the 110 yen levels compared to 111. this time yesterday. and that was after continued worries about euro sovereign debt after a less than spectacular italian bond auction and also consumer sentiment falling in europe as well. we're going to keep track of exporte

the nikkei ended the day down 0.6%. much like the hang seng in hong kong. concerns about the u.s. credit rating downgrade triggered the sell-off earlier but today those worries shifted to europe and a possible ratings downgrade in france. that convinced asian traders to unload bank shares and those of carmakers like nissan and to give you a perspective of how bad it's been in tokyo, the nikkei has fallen 8% in less than a week. we did see some good news in other parts of asia though. the two bright spots, kospi and shanghai index ending in positive territory so some bright spots amid the bad news in tokyo. >> akiko fujita, thanks. >>> the number of foreclosures dropped last month to the fewest four years before closure rates dropped last year when allegations surfaced about banks approving foreclosures too quickly. banks are moving slowly since they aren't anxious to seize more houses with so many on their hands. >>> the tough economy is one of the reasons americans are pulling the plug on cable and satellite tv. eight of the nine top providers lost subscribers in the second quart

the nikkei average ended the day's trading at 9,038. that's an increase of a little more than 1% from tuesday. the nikkei climbed 200 points during trading at one point, but sell orders increased after the u.s. dollar fell to the upper 76 yen level on the forex market. investors let go of export-related shares such as automakers. >>> in the rest of the asian markets, share prices showed a recovery on wednesday. south korea's kospi ended slightly higher at 1,806. up about 0.3% from tuesday's close. the market rebounded from big losses on the previous day when it touched a 13-month low. in shanghai the key composite climbed to 5,876. in hong kong, the hang seng at 19,783, after renewing a 15-month low at one point on tuesday. india's index ended at 17,130, up 1.6%. >>> the prices of goods traded among businesses in japan rose in july for a tenth consecutive month. japan's central bank said on wednesday the corporate goods price index stood at 105.7. that's up 2.9% from a year earlier, the highest gain since october 2008. the index is a me

already the nikkei is down 4%. the chief correspondent al ali velshi has been following the early morning trading. let me start off wf this question. ben says don't worry, this is just the markets doing what they do. do you think ben is right? >> i think ben is much more right than wrong on this. one of the things i hate is the dow because we have to look at it. lots of things happen in the financial world that you never see. bond yields going up and down. the bond market globally is twice as big as the stock market and the dow is one market of many, but it's got that big sign, that big board that we watch. so we can't -- you know, it's imagining your gas prices going higher and higher. just getting your blood pressure going. >> so tell me about tokyo this morning. you're watching this closely. >> the the bad news right now is the tokyo nikkei 225 index is off 6.6%. the good news is it was off 4.0%. it didn't go down as much as u.s. markets did, and then it pulled back a little bit. our correspondent in tokyo spoke

. >>> tokyo stocks fell on monday with the nikkei average dropping more than 2%. is was due to mounting worries about the global economy despite a g-7 announcement pledging to coordinate actions to stabilize financial markets. the nikkei average ended at 9,097 down more than 200 points from friday's close. market sources say sell orders surged due to growing concern that the downgrade in u.s. government debt will have a negative impact on the global economic outlook. they say attention is now on the u.s. policy committee meeting set on tuesday. >>> share prices in other asian markets fell across the board on monday with some indices renewing the year's low. sell orders prevailed due to growing concerns that the region won't be unscathed by the u.s. and european debt crisis. in hong kong, stocks were sold across the board. immediately after the opening. the benchmark hang seng index lost more than 2% from friday's close. in shanghai, the key composite index closed monday's session at 5,816. it's 3.5% lower. in singapore, the bench marc temporarily dropped 3.7%. in s

let me take you to the nikkei first. it closed down to about 1.25%. yota posting its first quar r quarterly loss in two years coupled by the stubbornly strong yen, others are feeling the pinch as well. of course, a stronger yen eats away at the profits that are repatriated. there's talk that japan might intervene with monetary easing. over here in hong kong, the hang seng fell on the weak manufacturing data. hsbc is listing here, pares down earlier. it plans toiquette $3.5 billion in cuts as well as lay off 30,000 of its staff. meantime over in the mainland, the shanghai composite closed nearly 1% down. there's speculation that china's central bank might raise interest rates again as soon as this month perhaps to keep up the fight against inflation. banking stocks as you might expect fell. also air china and china eastern as well as china southern, theyal fell about 3%. that's on new passenger fuel surcharges which take effect today. and heading on down to australia, australia also saw losses of about 1.5% here. that was, of course, due to manufacturin

the nikkei and topix trading in the positive. pretty much taking the cues from the dow and nasdaq and s&p overnight. now the u.s. markets initially got hit by some economic data in the housing sector. new home sales which yet again showed a contraction for a third month in a row with new home sales falling to a five-month low in july. there was also a rare earthquake which hit the east coast of the united states. initially causing a little bit of a dip, mostly in the insurance sector, but then all sectors pretty much rebounding very strongly into the close. hopes of a possible new set of measures -- easing measures by the federal reserve will be a focus there and that drove sentiment higher in u.s. markets. all eyes are going to be on fed chairman bernanke when he attends that meeting in jackson hole, wyoming this week. let's touch on the currency markets as well. the dollar got pinned back a little bit after the housing numbers. currently trading around the 76 yen levels. pretty much still far off from the assumed levels that a

the nikkei closing down 1.7%. so while mott a good day on asian markets today at least some relief at the end of what was a pretty tense day. tanya? >> atiko, so slight good news there. thank you veve much. >>> and with the faa collecting airline ticket taxes again, several major airlines are rolling back temporary price hikes. fares went up recently while the faa was shut down. southwest, jetblue and american were among the airlines to end the temporary price hikes. however, customers are not likely to notice the difference. >>> so w wt's going on? with the markets going down the tubes here's one solution, get shaggy. men are taking on the rugged look as the economy gets in deeper trouble. sales of men's hairstyling products are down 15% while everyday fragrances are down 10%. hugh lawrie, brad pitt and sack gal if i knack cast are examples of those letting it grow. >>> a popular singer is attacked on the street putting him in the hospital. >>> the first video of two brothers and their sister on the run after shoo

the nikkei closed down more than 2%. the hang seng was the big loser of the week. the shanghai composite, down 0.4%. and the asx 200, gained through the weekend. we're going to pick this up again on monday. >> here we go again on monday, i'm sure, ramy. that's fascinating. i suspect people would think that the gains would be bigger than that. volatility, such intense levels. at the end of the week, it looks like it's almost wearable. interesting stuff. ramy, thanks for that. crunching the numbers for us. >> more numbers to crunch i'm afraid. >>> on wall street, the u.s. stock markets rebounded on thursday. what we had is optimism returning to the markets, thanks to, in part, a report showing that jobless claims fell to a four-month low. at the closing bell, the dow was up by almost 4%. it was a gain of nearly 4.5%. but the s&p 500, the broader index, and the nasdaq. the u.s. stock markets really showing a strong rebound. but, andrew, we've seen swings and gains. swings between losses and gains every day. it's really a different picture to the one we saw a month ago

the nikkei there, it overcame a lackluster start, obviously before the intervention. after the intervention the market turned positive, not convincingly, less than 0.25%. exporters getting the lion's share of the buying today as the currency weakened. that certainly helps to reign in the appreciation of the currency. if you look at the other markets as well, the shanghai, up just a fraction. up about 0.25%. hong kong, the hang seng is down 0.5%. financial stocks among the biggest decliners of the day. rio tinto, one of the big mining companies in the world, bringing out its first half results. and a little weaker than expected, actually. $7.6 billion, that's a net figure, after-tax figure. doesn't look too bad. less than analysts community had been expecting. the ceo, coming out with a couple of key warnings. one on rising interest rates in its key developing markets like china and also some real issues about the euro debt crisis and also the debt problems in the u.s. which he says could lead to destabilizing commodity prices which have worried the big mining houses.

and age of the nikkei has touched a new five month why was the worst of all the u.s. economy upset signs that the japanese authorities stand ready to quell any further against strife and of course the strong young easy way going to supporters intro carol choi it's almost two and a half percent master dropped more than five percent. european markets bounce back from earlier losses where the prospect of a double dip recession in the u.s. and europe is still weighing on the markets. something onto russia here the indices are extending the losses are chiasmus for much of one and a half percent. in the first column monday straightest like retreated from those shops also now it's just on the one percent down to my sixes point three percent well. that wraps up the business goals of small stores you have to know what side our business. twenty years ago are just country. to search it's a.

the nikkei up just a fraction. nina. >> turning now to the u.s. pre-market action, after some sharp falls on on thursday's session, stocks looking a little shaky as we head towards the start of trade on wall street. futures pointing to just a slightly higher open at the moment, but almost flat. futures up in excess of about a tenth of 1%. >> let's take a quick look at the apple reaction now. it did it end up losing ground on wednesday in reaction to the resignation of steve jobs as the company's ceo. you'll remember in the pre-markets, the losses for apple were up on to 7% at one stage, but they did narrow and once trading started, the buyers were there. shares finishing less than 1% lower on on thursday. jobs of course an inspiration to many people including the company's co-founder, steve wozniak. here's what he told piers morgan about his former boss. >> after seef met me and we compared ourselves, what pranks we had pulled and what electronic -- what we'd done in electronics, and i come up with some very strange genius computer design, i didn'

the nikkei and topix trading lower. nikkei lower by about 100 points. in fact. and that's quite a start to the august month actually so far in the first few two trading days this week. and that's after the deal to raise the debt ceiling in the u.s. looks to be almost done. the dow initially in the u.s. trading session actually jumped almost 140 points. as you mentioned, the ism manufacturing data came out which was lower than what market analysts expected. that pushed the dow lower. it's now its longest losing streak since july of last year. markets do look to be somewhat relieved, though, with this deal having been patched together. still some work to be done on that. but having a look at the currency levels, the yen has backed off a little bit against the dollar. as you said there, currently around the mid77 levels after having broken below 77 in the u.s. trading session. and actually markets are going to be closely watching to see if there's any market intervention by japan's authorities to buy dollars. we've got to keep track of that very closely. now on an e

the nikkei down 2.5%. hong kong down more than 3%. closed in this region. shanghai down by just under 1%. the australian market taking another big hit. australia very sensitive to expectations of global economic growth because it's so heavy staffed with resources, mining companies as you see there. not a lot of confidence about the state of the global economy if you look at the s&p numbers there, nina. >> it really is all about the economy and not at all about corporate earnings. wall street got socked on thursday as renewed concerns about the united states and other nation's economies once again sent major indices plunging and sent commodities like gold to record highs. from new york, alison kosik takes a look at what we can expect in the future. >> the united states and europe are dangerously close to recession. that's the headline from a note released thursday by morgan stanley. the investment bank says the u.s. is at risk of experiencing two consecutive quarters of negative growth over the next six to 12 months. morgan stanley went

the nikkei, not far behind closing down 3.72%. owing. ali. >> you see money going out of stocks, you see commodity-rich countries like australia benefitting from it. the unusual thing is money was coming out of everything. nobody was making money today. thank you so much for joining us. >>> after the dow's bad day, you might be wondering about your own portfolio, your own 401(k). it's important, friday, 26 minutes after the hour. the world is still here. this is your a.m. wakeup call. >>> friday, august 5. this is your "morning wakeup call." i'm ali velshi. the world is still reeling from that drop on wall street that dow posted the steepest one-day point drop since the financial crisis three years ago. job market numbers are released this morning. may and june, that's the where jobwise we were expecting. we expect they added 70,000 to 08,000 jobs in july, far her than what we need to get out of the pickle with the national unemployment rate of 9.2%. a all of the political drama, there could be more where that came from. 80% of ame

the nikkei down 2%. all the key markets there. shanghai falling more than 3. 3..77%. has been a catch-up going on. the strategists now in bad territory. down more than 20% from its high in the current cycle so australia certainly feeling the brunt of the selling globally as the concerns about the site of the global economy and still the euro debt crisis concerns play havoc, certainly in this part of the world, charles. >> okay. we're going to return to a key partet of the main story, that is moves by european central bank to buy up government bonds. by the way, the overall stock market index numbers, we are seeing strong buying of spanish and italian commercial banks. well, the ecb's announcement into the european bond market bond market to stop deals from spanish and tlain bonds from rising. with more on what might follow we're joined again by nina dos santos. investors like it. what is going on? >> this is a complicate thing, isn't it, charles? on the one hand the ecb in a statement didn't specifically mention those two key words, italy and spain but it did signal t

the nikkei up two-thirds percent. e back, news the finance minister is to become the sixth prime minister in the past five years. >>> that's it for this edition of "world business today"'s thanks for joining us. i'm andrew stevens in hong kong. >> i'm charles hodson in london. you're watching cnn. the world's news leader. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com

look at the nikkei, the hang seng and ftse, all of them up. there are concern about what cutting government spending will do to the economy, however, with unemployment in the united states at 9.2%, the housing market lousy, people aren't buying stuff. this is not a great time for the u.s. government to go all scrooge on us. cnn money talked with economists about this. one said the cuts are relatively small and shouldn't have a huge impact. another said the cuts could be the straw that breaks the camel's back. economically speaking. so is the u.s. okay with moody's now? remember, the ratings agency said it would put the nation's bond rating on a review for a possible downgrade for the chance that august 2 would come and go without movement on the debt ceiling. here's what moody's chief economist told cnn. >> listening to what they have to say, i think this would be sufficient, yes. you know, now all the rating agencies have different opinions. some may go down a different path. i think bradley speaking this is -- broadly speaking, if it comes t

the nikkei 5% down, clawed its way back, still in the red though. look at the other big markets around the region, the main index in australia finishing actually would you believe in the red, up by 1. %. i wonder how long those gains will last with those trends in london. shanghai investors not too ov overwhelmed by the inflation numbers and mum buy, sensex trading down by 1.7%. i think the story here or the indicator here is hong kong just flipping again back sharply negative, following what's going on in europe. >> yeah, what can one say? >>> frustration, fear and uncertainty about the state of the global economy took their toll on wall street on monday. the dow plummeted 634 points. there we are, ending the day comfortably below 11,000, the first time it went through that particular barrier in months and the nasdaq off by nearly 7% and the s&p 500 also sank more than 6%, so these are the kind of numbers that we're seeing on the european markets as well. so let's have a look ahead to tuesday, and here's where we're, where we are in premarket actio

the nikkei slipped .6%. wall street is set for a higher opening, we'll keep our fingers crossed as the dow closed down. the dow lost more than 2,000 points in less than three weeks. a "washington post" columnist and professor says the market grew too fast and the adjustment now is happening is normal. >> in the long term america's very sound a. the markets are going to be sound and we'll be back to normal. >> he says the worry for silicon valley, how can capitalists find the payoff if investors aren't going to ipo in this environment. >> a protest that is quickly becoming a battle. a group is at odds saying the chain is infringing on their rights. marla tellez is live in san jose with more on the story. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, laura. most of us have experienced this before, you're walking into a grocery store, like a safeway and you you approached by a petitioner, somebody asking you for a signature. safeway wants to put a stop to this, they are serious about it. tailing to take some of the w

still the nikkei here, it is nearing its lows, closing five months. it closed down about 0.6%. financials led the fall, japan's largest bake. also the yen is again nearing its post-war high trading at 76.57 as nina mentioned. that hurts exporters. honda and nissan fell about 3.5% each. the hang seng fell down about 1%. banks again, here the same story. they fell 3.5%. and seoul -- and seoul actually eeked out a gain about 0.6 here. the bank of korea actually decided to keep its benchmark interest rate ready at 3.5%. that stability is what investors want to hear. also the asx 200 opened down, rose, then it ended back. miners tinto and rnc were down. the big four banks lent support the other way. they closed up about 1.5%. i also want to take you to the chinese mainland. the shanghai composite. that actually ended higher by 1.25% rallying in one and a quarter hours. i hope the central banks keep rates steady which is helping to calm the markets there. >> ramy, breaking through yet another barrier. what's the latest? >> yeah. sort of getting tired of this over and over, but the gol

the nikkei and the hang seng both closed lower. right now the ftse and the dax are also down. let's go right to kristie lu stout live in hong kong for a market check. good morning, kristie. >> good morning, ali. the initial relief over the resolution of the debt deadlock, that's given way to pessimism as they focus on the fundamentals and those are weak manufacturing data from the u.s. which exporters around here in asia and a strong yen which is hurting japanese exporters. it is a similar story in europe. all the gains yesterday, all in the reverse. it's a very weak session across the board. >> we got first quarter results yesterday -- or today, i guess, from toyota. we've been hearing from the major auto manufacturers in japan after the earthquake and tsunami. what's toyota looking like? >> yeah, i hate to say i've about got more gloomy news for you. toyota has just posts its first full quarterly result ares since the deadly earthquake and tsunami back in march. ali, the numbers don't look good at all. toyota made a net profit of $14 million in the first quarter. that's it.

the nikkei up by more than one. back to australia for a moment, there's been welcome news for the budget airline tiger airways. almost six weeks after its planes were grounded by the country's airline safety regulator, tiger aways australia is preparing to take to the skies again. the ban of its flights has been lifted. the share prices you see there already soaring up by nearly 2%. turning now to a ban of a different sort, a court? germany ordered samsung to stop selling the tablet in certain areas. it's a major victory for apple in its long-running legal battle in a battle that will take a bite out of its market. the galaxy tab copies several features from the ipad. it's expected to appeal the ruling. samsung down by about .5%, nina. >>> let's circle back and take a look at what happened on wall street on tuesday. as we were saying, stock markets there rallied on the back of the news that the u.s. federal reserve plans to keep interest rates at historic lows for another two years to come. america's central bank als

but the markets overseas in europe and the nikkei in japan and the asian markets were down big. they reacting off 500-point drop or what lies ahead? >> reporter: they are reacting to yesterday. we had that huge plunge that we haven't seen in three years. but also, the nikkei lost nearly 4% this morning while the hang seng also continued to plunge 1,000 points. that was almost 5%. a lot of that comes with regards to a lot of concern about the debt over in europe as well as here in the u.s. so hopefully this will give a little more confidence and hopefully we'll see the markets continue to climb as the day goes. >> hope so. >> from your lip's to god's ears. we're all holding on to our 401(k)s going please. >> thanks, ashley morrison live in new york. >>> governor brown is sounding off on cnn to vent his frustrations. >> if the country cannot make decisions about how it spends money or how it deals with basic problems but instead squabbles with scapegoating finger-pointing and blaming, i think that is an ominous sign going forward. >> governor brown also commented on his own budget

the nikkei down by about .5%. also reacting to weaker than expected numbers from dell and a poor outlook on the dell front. so many electronics markets in japan. the shanghai composite down about a third of .1%. the australia market getting a bit of a boost by 1.3%. take a look at europe which is the epicenter of the global economic concerns. as you see there, the ftse down .75%, the xetra dax down by .65%. there has been some buying, a little bit later. quickly to the u.s. now. we'll see what the u.s. markets were doing. they had another down day. the dow down about two-thirds of 1%. still concerns about the state of the u.s. economy. of course, the eurozone problems, nina. that meeting between nicolas sarkozy and angela merkel was seen as a crucial meeting particularly as it was planned at the height of the volatility last week. so people really were looking for answers, weren't they? >> it was billed as krun ch time for the eurozone, andrew. the three proposals that merkel and sarkozy has put forward to try to s

the nikkei closing up another 1%. hong kong up 1.7. anghai continuing to show concerns about the inflation picture after the move by authorities in beijing on friday to rein in bank lending. australian markets up, but not so much. charles, it does seem to be this u.s. consumer spending number is rippling through markets at least in asia. i guess that's not surprising given asia's, the u.s. is a clear export market. >> it's interesting, isn't it? i think the sensitivity of the markets to this kind of good news does suggest that we're perhaps not really in a bear phase but a reserve judgment on that. let's go back to wall street now. u.s. futures trading lower, not by much after monday's strong gains. we are seeing a little bit of a -- bit of profit taking there off by a third to a half a percent. quarter of a percent. despite the huge run-up on monday. cnn's allison kos ib haskosik h more. >>> insurance stocks helped to lead the broad-based gains as did a strong rebound in consumer spending. the dow's rise marks the fifth time this month

the nikkei lower. one says the markets grew too fast. the adjustment is normal. >> america is very sound and the markets are going to be sound and will be back to normal before you know it. >> he says the big worry is how can venture capitalists find their payoff if the companies they invest in aren't going to ipo in this ugly environment. the man accused of running down a 9-year-old boy in san francisco will be facing a judge this morning. police say the 21-year-old, andrew vargas, was drunk when he ran into ryan white after a giants game. the community rallying around white who is at the hospital with several fractured bones and traumatic head injury. at a fund-raiser raising more than $6,000 for white's family. white's cousin told us supporters and -- told us and supporters the 9-year-old is recovering. >> you can tell at this point that even though he's uttering a few words here and there that he knows what's going on. there is a lot going on behind those eyes. he is regaining strength. >> the family will remain in san francisco till

taking a look at overseas trading this morning, in tokyo the nikkei grew 104 points, while in hong kong the hang seng rose 388. >>> just weeks after standard & poor's slashed the nation's prized triple-a credit rating, the company's chief is stepping down. the company announced yesterday president devin sharma will leave s&p by the end of the year and will be replaced by a former citigroup executive. the resignation comes as the agency faces a justice department inquiry over its rating of subprime mortgage securities. the s&p says the mover has been in the works for months. >>> back on wall street gold shot up nearly 2% hitting an all-time record high, just shy of $1,900 an ounce. bank of america fell sharply again yesterday. down almost 8%. the nation's largest bank has shed more than 50% of its value this year. >>> meanwhile, hewlett-packard got back some of the 20% it lost on friday after announcing the end of its pc business. hp was up more than 3%. lowe's inched up 1% on news of a $5 billion stock repurchase program. boeing got a boost from $1.6 billion helicopter deal from the bri

at least as you can see the nikkei and how it is trading? >> reporter: let's start with the numbers. the market in tokyo did open down sharply, 1.5%. it is slightly recovering off that low. we're down about 1%. and in making some calls to traders this morning here in tokyo, what they're describing, the mood here as is tense. and frankly, all that bickering out of d.c. over the weekend isn't helping matters. they already feel fed up with washington politics. even on this side of the planet. because it is having a true economic impact in asia pacific. tokyo is the largest stock market here in asia. it is also the second largest holder of u.s. debt. what they want to talk about are some market fundamentals. they want to hear that there is going to be some sort of turn-around and what they know is that this is a brave new world where it is no longer a aaa world for the united states. >> interesting though. a 1% decline going in the market. that is a run of the mill sell-off. that's nothing that makes it into the history books. >> reporter: certai

taking a look at overseas trading this morning, in tokyo the nikkei lost 50 points, but in hong kong the hang seng was up 76. >>> a familiar wave of worries hit wall street tuesday as europe's debt problems undid a three-day winning streak. in paris yesterday a long-term debt reduction plan from german chancellor angela merkel and french president nicolas sarkozy did little to calm worries about europe's economic problems. investors had hoped for the introduction of a single euro bond. instead, the two leaders proposed a new tax on financial transactions. that took a toll on bank stocks here at home and dragged down shares of new york's stock exchange parent nyse euro next. meanwhile an uptick in global manufacturing offset concerns over the still sluggish housing market as investors sold off oil in fears of weak demand. some surprisingly upbeat earnings limited some of the day's losses. walmart shot up 4% on its rising income and higher full year forecast. likewise, home depot rose on the heels of healthy earnings and a boosted year end outlook. that retail optimism may fade this mor

taking a look at overseas trading this morning, in tokyo, the nikkei dipped 113 points, while in hong kong the hang seng dropped 272. worries about the weak economy and mixed earnings made for another bumpy day on wall street wednesday. dell's disappointing outlook fanned fears about next quarter's growth which spread to the broader tech sector. dell was the s&p's worst performer shedding 10%. >>> fellow pc maker hewlett-packard was also hit, falling nearly 4%. the tech slide continued after hours with network management company netapp citing as much as 14% after missing revenue expectations. elsewhere on the earnings front farm equipment maker deere was one of the biggest drags on industrial stocks. >>> abercrombie & fitch had disappointed news after the back to school shopping season. its share dropped more than 8%. on the up side, target ended the day 2% higher thanks to better than expected earnings. office supply retailer staples also weighed in with strong earnings thanks to demand overseas. traders also fretted rising inflation could keep the fed from offering another round of

in tokyo, the nikkei skid 202 and the hang seng dropped 455. >>> as we reported, wall street will have its first reaction to the first ever downgrade by standard & poor's. after a weekend to digest it analysts have fingers crossed today's stock impact will be relatively modest. asian markets across the pacific were heavily down. also in asia oil continued its sharp fall. now below $84 a barrel. the downgrade may have other immediate effects. a number of key american components including fannie mae and freddie mac are likely to be downgraded themselves later today. that could make mortgages more expensive adding stress to an already unstable housing market. today investors will also focus on europe's ongoing debt crisis. officials there worked throughout the weekend to try help italy avoid a bailout and halt fears of a debt default. on both europe and america's downgrade the group of seven industrial countries issued a statement late last night saying they were taking all necessary measures to support financial stability and growth. >>> well, tomorrow the fed meets, expect to hold inter

in tokyo the nikkei fell 56 points, while in hong kong the hang seng lost 188. >>> as we reported earlier, worried the chain reaction of european debt quakes could steam roll american finances. stocks were sent tumbling once again wednesday. wall street's focus shifted overseas on new concerns france might follow the u.s., becoming the next country to lose its triple-a rating. france's president nicolas sarkozy came back from his rivera vacation for an emergency meeting. shares in france's biggest bank plunged almost 15%. top banks in england, italy, and germany were also hammered. europe matters to the u.s., because about 29% of foreign sales for s&p 500 companies last year came from there. >>> no surprise financial stocks led markets lower here as well. bank of america, citigroup, and goldman sachs each lost more than 10% of their market value. safe haven gold rose above $1,800 an ounce for the first time ever. another safe harbor, the ten-year treasury note rose sharply, while its yield tumbled. the dow has now lost more than 2,000 points in less than three weeks. yesterday's volatilit

in tokyo, the nikkei slipped 207 points while in hong kong, the hang seng tumbled 428. >>> weak economic data and poor earnings negated whatever debt bill relief there was on wall street tuesday and spurred fresh concern about the economy's health. they cut spending for the first time in nearly two years. coming a day after weak manufacturing data and after last friday's chilling government figures showing the economy growing at the slowest pace since the recession, the street's mood has suddenly become grim. all 30 dow stocks fell, all but 13 of 500 on the s&p fell. wall street is in its longest losing streak since october 2008. . ten-year treasury yield fell to its 2011 low as investors sought save havens. gold was up about 1 1/2%. general electric and home depot led stocks lower with losses of 4% or more. pfizer's second quarter profit, expectations and forecast was bright, nevertheless, shares fell over 4 1/2%. archer daniels midland dropped after promising expectations. coach lost 7% after reporting a loss in profits. also adding to the bleakness july auto sales rose only slightly,

the nikkei has scaled back from its earlier gains. in the u.s. overnight, we saw quite a good day. wall street was bouncing back. the dow gaining nearly 4%. the nasdaq rising even higher. the safe havens, gold and the swiss franc were sold off. we are live from singapore and london. and agents didn't rob small he was hurt and helpless speaks for the first time. paying tribute to the serious thought. we looked at the chinese halloween. >> a roadside bomb has killed five nato troops in southern afghanistan. it comes a day after the alliance said it killed the taliban insurgents responsible for shooting down a helicopter. >> there is a fight going on out there. this is not the first helicopter of force that has been hit. a lot of work is involved. the human loss is tremendous. it was a pretty hard thing to watch. it is not going to affect the course of the campaign. we were back in business with our afghan partners the very next night. that is where we were going to stay. >> the taliban seem to be shifting their position when it comes to some kind of political engagement. is that your

taking a look at overseas trading this morning, in tokyo the nikkei fell 93 points, while in hong kong the hang seng dropped 408. >>> believe it or not, bleak economic news actually drove stocks to impressive heights tuesday, and that's because investors hope more weak data will force fed chair ben bernanke to step in with some sort of stimulus. that's despite no one fed official saying anything to encourage such speculation. bernanke gives his speech this friday in jackson hole, wyoming. >>> a local manufacturing survey that pointed to a down shift in activity helped fuel those rescue hopes, as did fresh housing data showing sales of newly built homes hitting a six-month low in july. exxonmobil and chevron both shot up more than 4% as oil settled up more than $1 a barrel. tech stocks nvidia and jds uniphase were among the big gainers. both rising about 10%. while american express and jp morgan chase added 4%. >>> bank of america was the lone blue clip in the red sinking to a 2 1/2 year low on growing concerns the nation's largest banks lacked enough capital to meet new global standard

taking a look at overseas trading this morning in tokyo, the nikkei skids 359 points. while in hong kong, the hang seng tumbled 938. >>> as we reported earlier, gripped by fears of a new recession, thursday the dow jones fell more than 500 points, its ninth steepest decline ever. as sudden as the collapse may seem, it's actually been brewing for days. over the last 13 days the dow lost more than 1,300 points, roughly 10.5%, an estimated $2 trillion in market value disappearing over two weeks. yesterday's problems were triggered in europe. markets there were hit by a massive sell-off sparked by concerns over the troubled economies of italy and spain. the global wave of jitters and selling hit asian markets this morning. as that wave hit here yesterday, all ten industry groups on the broader s&p 500 fell. bank of america, citigroup, and hewlett-packard were among the stocks hitting new 52-week lows. despite boasting stellar earnings, both kraft and gm fell. >>> a retreat from stocks, gold briefly hit a record high but then tumbled. oil fell even more than stocks. 6% or mo

the nasdaq plunged 174, and taking a look at overseas trading this morning, in tokyo the nikkei stumbled to 153 point loss, but in hong kong the hang seng plunged 1,159. >>> as we reported earlier, america's financial downgrade hit wall street like a bomb on monday. with losses far greater than most had expected. stocks tumbled despite moody's, standard & poor's rival, reaffirming its triple-a rating on america. so how hard and how fast was the selling? well, trading volume was the highest since september 2008, the fourth highest on record at just under 18 billion shares. to put wall street's recent losses in perspective, consider that in late july the dow was flirting with the 13,000 mark. yesterday it fell below 11,000 for the first time since last november. the nasdaq and the s&p 500 are both down by 18% since the end of april. >>> the nation's smaller companies have been battered as well. the russell 2,000 index of small stocks has lost nearly 25% from its most recent high in april. wall street's so-called fear index shot up 50% yesterday. its steepest one-day rise since february 200

. >>> looking at overseas trading, in tokyo, the nikkei grew 94 points. in hong kong, the hang seng grew 452. wall street of course welcomed what little relief the fed had to offer yesterday. and markets overseas followed suit. investors drew comfort from the fed's promise of low interest rates through 2013. however, as traders continued to buy up gold, seen as a safer bet, it's clear many are still concerned about how long this relief rally might last. one big reason for that caution, the central bank's sobering language about the u.s. economy, which it expects to stay weak for another two years. likely the reason why the fed also left the door open for more stimulus down the road. investors' initial reaction made for a wild day of trading. treasury prices spiked, briefly dropping the benchmark yield to its all-time record low. markets seesawed back and forth six times until stocks made a steep and steady climb before the closing bell. oil futures swung higher, thanks to a new report showing crude inventories fell the most since june. >>> the day's dramat

effects the japanese markets and the nikkei gone down. i have to be concerned about where -- how that money is doing. for some vestors that keeps them from jumping. >> doesn't mean i would never get in at a lower point. i am scared right now. >> reporter: investors have reasons to feel that way, a study shows only 5 companies went up in value. robert handa, ktvu channel 2 news. >>> gold prices sored to record levels as investors reacted to the unternty. -- uncertainty. gold finished at $1,719 an ounce. silver was also up, $40 an ounce. investors consider pressures medals a safe havep. you could find continuing coverage on www.ktvu.com, click on the wall street tab located on the home page. >> the remains of the 30 americans killed over the weekend in afghanistan will be returned to the u.s. tomorrow. 22 navy seals were among those kills when they shot down by enemy fire in the wardak province of afghanistan. they were called in to assist army leaders caught in on a fire -- fired on by insurgents using a rocket-propelled grenade. >>> troop

taking a look at overseas trading this morning, in tokyo the nikkei skid 202 points. while in hong kong the hang seng dropped 455. >>> as we reported earlier, today wall street will have its first reaction to friday's first-ever u.s. downgrade by standard & poor's. don't necessarily expect armageddon. after recent heavy losses and a weekend for investors to digest the downgrade, analysts have fingers crossed today's stock impact will be relatively modest. still, asian markets across the pacific were heavily down today. also in asia, oil continued its sharp fall. now below $84 a barrel. the downgrade may have other immediate effects. a number of key american financial components, including mortgage financers fannie mae and freddie mac are likely to be downgraded themselves later today. that could make mortgages more expensive, adding stress to the already unstable housing market. >>> today investors will also focus on europe's ongoing debt crisis. officials there worked throughout the weekend trying to help italy, the world's eighth largest economy, avoid a bailout, and

looking at overseas trading this morning, in tokyo, the nikkei dropped 224 points while in hong kong, the hang seng tumbled 16. world markets have taken a beating as global recession fear rears its ugly head once again. the current bleak economic outlook fuelled more losses overseas this morning. markets were down as much as 2% in japan, hong kong, shanghai and australia. investors fleeing stocks snapped up gold, hoping the precious metal will prove to be safer in the long run. yesterday's fresh high of $1836 put gold up some $350 an ounce since july 1st. >>> on the street, oil tumbled more than $5 a barrel. the ten-year u.s. treasury note hit its lowest yield ever and the average mortgage rate fell to its lowest level in at least 40 years. >>> escalating worries about europe's debt, "the wall street journal" reports u.s. regulators are looking at the u.s. arms of big european banks to make sure they have enough money for day-to-day operations. on the economic front, the hits just keep on coming. beginning with new jobless claims that jumped by 9,000 last week. consumer inflation is a

taking a look at overseas trading this morning, in tokyo the nikkei grew 94 points, and in hong kong the hang seng rose 452. >>> as we reported earlier, wall street welcomed what little relief the fed had to offer yesterday, and markets overseas this morning followed suit. asian shares bounced back overnight as investors there drew comfort from the fed's promise of low interest rates through 2013. however, as traders continued to buy up gold, seen as a safer bet, it's clear many are still concerned about how long this relief rally might last. one big reason for that caution? the central bank's sobering language about the u.s. economy, which it expects may stay weak for another two years. likely the reason why the fed also left the door open for more stimulus down the road. >>> investors' initial reaction made for a wild day of trading. treasury prices spiked, briefly dropping the benchmark ten-year yield to its all-time record low. markets seesawed back and forth six times until stocks finally made a steep and steady climb before the closing bell. oil futures also swung higher, thanks

the nikkei is closing within the minute and right now just down less than 1%. many european markets are just now opening. we have two perspectives tonight. we begin with cheryl hurd who joins us from palo alto. this was a global issue but there's an underlying impact right here in silicon valley,  isn't there? >> reporter: it is. whether you're a big investor or small investor, it's important to have someone in the know at the top. stock market has a lot of folks jittery but experts say it's important to take a deep breath and relax. >> we may have been too euphoric, so this is just a normal adjustment that's happening. >> reporter: that stock market adjustment may be normal for some, but nerve-racking for most. >> i think it's pretty scary right now. >> reporter: "washington post" columnist believes he knows why. >> there is reason to worry about the stock market dipping the way they are, because venture capitalists are already running scared, that their next batch of companies can't go public. >> reporter: a few of those companies are in silicon valley. som