china's economy cools slightly, but still hot enough to beat the forecast. uk lawmakers close ranks to try and block news corp's bid for bskyb. first up though here in the italian capital, the government is preparing to speak to parliament for a marathon debate over the next couple days, designed to gain the necessary approval for painful austerity measures. these are ones designed to prevent this country from becoming the fourth eurozone nature to go cap in hand to the imf, the eu and the ecb. pauline. european stock market investors are watching italy's debt crisis very closely. here is where they stand at the moment. let's take a look at the moment. the london ftse making some gains, so is the xetra dax t. zurich smi is pretty much flat at the moment on this wednesday morning. nina? pauline, of course, the effects of italy's debt crisis are being next right across the board. let's have a look at where the ftse is. the milanese has lost about 4,000 points in the last six months alone as fears of contagion after the bailout is awarded have been hitting the shores in italy. it is the southern and peripheral areas of the eurozone that are most at risk. we also have the euro trading at 1.40 versus the dollar. up a little bit. boy, is that a currency that has suffered over the last few days because a lot of people have been saying that if italy is the next country that requires a bailout, it could be too big to fail. nina, we're also seeing investors flee to the safe haven of the yen. it has broken that 80-yen mark but weakening just slightly from yesterday at 79.63. china announced a higher than expected gdp figure for june which eased worries about an abrupt slowdown in the economy. but the debt crisis in europe is still keeping many investors on the sidelines. ramy inocencio is here with a look at asia's closing numbers. >> the gains across the region were pretty good yesterday. the meek kay closed up .4%. credit suisse gave them on out performed rating over here in hong kong, the hang seng closed up a little over 1% here. that's off its worst two-day decline in 17 months. the catalyst here was that better-than-expected gdp number out of the chinese main land. on the mainland the gdp number was 9.5% for june. what was expected was 9.4%. with that the composite rose 1.5%. that was helped by good news from agricultural bank of china after saying its first half net profit would rise by nearly 50%. going down under, the asx rose nearly half a percent. that was propelled by china's gdp number and a recovery in mining stocks following the $5 billion takeover bid by paul. i'll be back to talk about rich chinese businessmen buying foreign warships. >> that sounds intriguing. let's take a look at futures. they look for a higher opening on wednesday. all the indices look higher. it's a rough ride mainly because of the worries over the eurozone and the debt crisis there. the dow is poised to come out of the gates about .4% higher. the nasdaq by about the same amount, the s&p 500 also poised to start in positive territory. well, i'm here in rome, the italian capital because, of course, this city is the focal point of what is quickly becoming a really big headache for economists and politicians right around the 17 nations that share the euro as their common currency. it's their biggest worry at the moment. fear is spreading across europe that italy's huge and mounting debt and anemic growth rate could make it the next year row zone nation to need a bailout. italian lawmakers are scurrying to pass a $57 billion package. tuesday the benchmark of ten-year italian bonds, those yields to 6% for the first time in a decade making it much more expensive for this very country to borrow money. that puts italian bonds closer to the 7% that economists say is unsustainable going forward. turning to island, we also had news on that country. one of the countries that was the first to get a bailout from the ecb, the imf and the european union. moodies downgrade thad to junk status, kept its out put on island sovereign debt as negative, that drew a harsh response from ireland's finance minister and a move that some say threatens to prompts many investors to sell their holdings on irish debt. when it comes to greece, that is also in focus. european finance ministers meeting in brussels announced on tuesday they failed to reach a deal with banks to help with organizing a second greek bailout, putting, of course, that second greek bailout, the greeks say they desperately need in jep different greece for its own part, the finance minister has warned that his country will need the money from that second bailout. it just goes to show you how tight the situation here is in southern and peripheral europe. right now italy, this country, is the one that, of course, has got everybody worried. a lot of people have been saying it could be too big to fail. it's the world's eighth largest economy, very much in the eye of the storm. it may be too big to bail out some politicians and economists to bail out. we asked the head of pimco whether he was worried or surprised italy found itself in this situation. take a listen to what he had to say. >> surprise, no, worried, yes. surprised no, because europe has failed to get ahead of the crisis. when you fail to get ahead of the crisis, it becomes more disorderly and it spreads quickly. worried because italy is very different from greece, ireland and portugal. italy is large. italy is the third biggest issuer of debt. this marks a significant morphing of the european debt crisis. >> one positive we should mention is italy's bond auction on tuesday was rather successful. it had to sell the bonds at a 6% yield, but it did manage to do so. so investors seeing that as a note of positivity on the markets. last night italy's own prime minsters, silvio berlusconi urged politicians to show unity to pass painful but extremely belt ties ening measures. he said eurozone ministers and also heads of nations across the individual countries in the eurozone are doing all they can to try to prevent this economic blok from returning where it was 20 years ago. i'm joined by a professor of economics here in rome. thank you very much for coming on cnn. how worried are you about the situation in italy? is this going to be a country that will default. >> hopefully, the probability is very, very small. on the other hand it's also negligible. leaves a lot of attention and pressure on the markets. possible to pass the austerity bill that will be in discussion now in the parliament, also needs to be cooperation on the european level to try to insulate greece from the market, remove the contagions from the markets. >> how did this country end up with debts of over a trillion dollars? it's enormous. >> it was built over time. it didn't come overnight. there was a period of time in the last 20, 25 years, where spending went out of control. italy has been very reckless with its debt in the last 20 years, 15 years. there have been moments where there's been exceeding spending. in reality, what was constructed was in the past. now italy has been trying to cope with an economy that doesn't grow with a huge debt. >> we've got this emergency budget. some politicians and the newspapers are saying it could pass by sunday or saturday. if that were to be the case, that would be unprecedented for the kind of money we're talking about. a lot of them are also saying italy will need more money. >> some people say it will pass by friday. italy is very well known to pull itself up by its own bootstraps. it gives its best when it's in difficulty. maybe the bill will pass on friday. the opposition has shown a sign of cooperation and responsibility. at the same time, they need more. in discretion, this morning they're saying maybe $75 billion is not going to be the same. i think the politician realize they need to send a strong signal to the markets and they need to increase the austerity bill, the maneuver to make it bigger. >> cutting back the budget deficit to zero by 2014 is a strong message to the markets. whether it will be reachable or not, time will gel. thank you very much for joining us. pauline? nina, italy is the third lornlgest economy in the eurozone. just how important is it compared to the others. take a look at this number graham. the bigger the box, the bigger the economy. italy's gdp is more than $2 trillion. it's bigger than these three other struggling european economies put together. the greek economy is worth about $325 billion. let's take a look at portugal. portugal's gdp is about $235 billion, and ireland's economy, its gdp is worth $223 billion. when you take a look at the comparison of the gdp, nina, you realize how important italy is in the eurozone. >> that's absolutely right, pauline. a major part of the problem here that has many economists worried is the actual percentage amount that the italian debt accounts for its gdp. in greece it's expected to speak of over 157%. in this country it stands no less than 127% of out put. that is the second highest ratio in europe after greece. it's been like that for years. one of the questions many people are asking is what's the problem and what's the pressure with that right now? take a listen. >> the market has punished the italian politics and leaders as well. what we're seeing right now is basically implementation of new reforms that are pretty -- if you want to -- shy. what the market wants is an outright reform that is going to cut more expenses that's going to affect more the public companies, is going to improve the productivity in italy. >> of course, as we're just saying with our guest before from the reese institute in rome, what the market seems to want, pauline, the markets often get. there's a lot of concerns that italy may well need more than the $52 billion to $57 billion already talked about in the initial austerity measures. some say it could need as much as 78 billion euros. one thing to mention is if these austerity measures are passed by friday, saturday or sunday, one italian lawmakers says that would be a record in terms of speed. that's not a country known for taking any debate likely or taking a short amount of time to debate any particular issue, pauline. >> amazing what you can accomplish when you light a fire under some of these pollations. nina, in the u.s., the political fight over raising the country's borrowing limit escalated on tuesday. in an interview president barack obama had an ominous warning about the impasse, specifically when it comes to the government checks that millions of retired americans rely on every month. >> i cannot guarantee that those checks go out on august 3rd if we haven't resolved this issue, because there may simply not be the money in the covers to do it. >> that just isn't true. because the funds there for social security and these emergenci emergencies, the interest rate payments over to the federal reserve. i think he's using scare tactics. >> republicans are demanding spend cuts to offset any new debt and also continuing to flatly refuse any tax hikes. meanwhile democrats want a combination of cuts and an end to tax breaks that benefit the wealthy. the british government looks to back calls from rupert murdoch to drop his bid for bskyb as phone hacking allegations surrounding his uk newspapers continue to chip away at the value of his entire media empire. china's building boom shows no signs of slowing down much to the dismay of this man who calls this makeshift building his home. 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[ding] announcer: clean kitchen surfaces, utensils, and hands with soapy water. one in 6 americans will get sick from food poisoning this year. keep your family safer. check your steps at foodsafety.gov. welcome back. live from rome and hong kong, you're watching "world business today" on cnn. for media tycoon rupert murdoch, the sky may indeed be the limit. we're talking about british sky broadcasting. a downing street source tells c flfrnlthsn the british government will back opposition calls for news corporation to withdraw its bid for bskyb. the vote on wednesday might be the biggest hurdle yet to a deal tarnished by the phone-hacking scandal which refuses to die down. rupert murdoch wants do create britain's largest media company by buying the 60.9% of bskyb shares that his company doesn't already own. he's been called to testify in front of lawmakers for investigating phone hacking at three of his four papers. his son james and news international ceo rebekah brooks will also testify on july 19. on tuesday london police officers publicly answered questions about this scandal. assistant commissioner john yates said he regretted his decision to not pursue inquiries of breaches back in 2009. nina? >> pauline, police carrying out the current inquiry at the moment are saying they're examining thousands of pages of evidence as a result. we should also mention that only 170 people have actually been told that they have been targeted during this alleged hacking. that's just a fraction of what may be the real total. that's today's big number we're focusing on at the moment. 3,870, that's the total number of possible hacking victims whose details were found in those notes seized by a private investigator working for news international. he was jailed back in 2007 after he admitted phone hacking when he was employed by the news of the world, he admitted he undertook phone hacking. as a result he was jailed for six months. again, we're getting the names of the people, pauline, saying they've been targeted. so far the number, many say, could be even bigger than what's come out so far. >> this scandal, nina, is not just contained to the uk. on the other side of the atlantic, murdoch's news corporation is under scrutiny as well. u.s. senator john rockefeller has called for an investigation to find out if the media group has broken any american laws. he has raised concerns that 9/11 victims and other americans may have been targeted by british tabloid phone hackers. nina? >> pauline, of course, the phone hacking scandal has rocked investors confidence and faith in news corporation itself. this is a media group that has lost almost $7 billion in its market capitalization over just the last five trading sessions as these allegations have emerged hour after hour and day after day. on tuesday, rupert murdoch himself, his company announced a plan to buy back an extra $3.2 billion in its own shares, bringing its buyback to a total of $5 billion which is a huge amount, pauline. then again, it's also a huge amount, the money being taken off the stock price of news corp and also bskyb, the british broadcaster whose remaining stake it's trying to buy as well. >> analysts see this buyback as a way for news corp to give its share price a little bit of a boost. but that that hasn't exactly gone as plan. news corp's shares closed almost 3% lower in australia on this wednesday. news corp also ended tuesday's session on wall street in the red. coming up next, china's growth is cooling down a little bit. but could that actually be welcome news for the world's second largest economy? we'll have more on that live from beijing in just a minute. this is "world business today" on cnn. welcome back to the show. china's economy is still expanding at a faster pace than that of just about any other nation. but in the face of weaker global demand for chinese goods and other factors, china's growth rate cooled down just a little bit for the second quarter in a row. joining me now with more details is eunice eun from cnn beijing. eunice, we say cooling down, and it put that in quotes, but put that into perspective for us. >> pauline, like you said, these are very strong numbers. the chinese economy grew at 9.5% in the second quarter. that's slightly slower than the first quarter's 9.7%. it's still enviable growth. at the same time causing headaches here. wen jiabao said fighting inflation is the top priority, same he wants to avoid big swings in the economy brought on by tighter policy. the tightening policy has been feeding concerns here of a hard landing. complicating matters at the same time are concerns that china may have taken on way too much debt. in the shadows of beijing's urban jungle, the one-man show of defiance against the building boom. this man lives on this traffic island, land he says his family-owned for five generations. he refused to moves, even after local authorities demolished his original house as part of their plan to build up the city. it's not necessary, he says. there are only so many people living in the city. why do you have to build so many buildings? in the last few years, china has been on a building spree, constructing a dizzying array of roads, rail lines and real estate. after the global financial crisis, the chinese government green-lighted massive spending to help drive the economy. now there are concerns the building boom and china's growth could be derailed by debt. beijing estimates local governments borrowed about $1.7 trillion last year to fund their projects. >> we have seen a couple cases recently reported where local government couldn't pay. so if you ask me, you know, is that an isolated case, i would say probably not. there are probably a lot hidden under there. >> especially some analysts say with so many officials sprucing up their cities to impress beijing. the people here say this entire area used to be a village of 100 families. now there's only one couple left. they say everybody else had toe leave to make way for the new roads. unlike many other countries including the u.s., china has trillions of dollars in reserve, and its banks are flush with cash as people here continue to save. many here argue china needs the new infrastructure. even so wong wonders how long the building can go on. i have no other place to go he says. i cannot afford to buy one of those commercial apartments, at least not unless the building boom here goes bust. and these high prices of apartments as well as food is really feeding in to public discontent here which is one of the reasons why the authorities have been trying to get on top of it and reign in to end inflation. pauline? >> so many challenges ahead even though we're cooling down at 9.5% gdp. thank you so much, eunice yoon from cnn beijing. over to you. take a look at this. this has come in the form of a chinese national being appointed to a top level management post at the international monetary fund. the first time a chinese person has landed a job at the fund. talking about the chinese economist zu minh, named as deputy managing director by the new chief christine lagarde. she's actually found a replacement for the imf's number two, john lit ski. the white house economic adviser david lippman will be taking over as the chief deputy when lit ski retires in september. some of the emerging markets, particularly china, the largest of those brit nations is getting finally a bit of a seat at the table. pauline, i'm afraid that's it. i'm going to be saying ar receive dare chi. i'll be back in about four hours on the next edition of "world business today" where we'll be focusing on the crisis that is engulfing the world's eighth largest economy. talking about italy. all this is pivotal to the future of the eurozone, the other 16 countries that share their common currency alongside italy. pauline. >> thank you, nina. we'll see you soon in just a couple of hours. "world business today" will be right back. welcome back to "world business today," i'm pauline choiu at cnn hong kong. first let's see what's going on in europe where the markets are now about 90 minutes into the trading day on this wednesday. the major indices slipped at the open. most of those losses have been regained at the moment. here is where they stand as we are here at around 90 minutes into the trading day. the london ftse is up by a quarter percent. strong performances are luxury retailer burberry. they reported good first quarter sales. gains from mining and metal companies as well. the paris ka kwan is up a tad. automakers are up and that's driving the xetra dax up about a third a percent. in the asia pack region, stocks crept higher in the region. second quarter gdp took investors' minds off the debt crisis. gdp reported 9.5% slightly above expectations. we're seeing value buying after two days of a sell-off. the chinese data helped to boost trading partners of south korea and australia there. you see all the indices there in positive territory. finally on wall street, investors found yet another serving of europe's debt problems too much to stomach. here is allison kosic with reaction from the new york stock exchange. >> stocks in the united states waivered between positive and negative territory all session long before eventually closing solidly lower. investors remain cautious amid the on going worries about italy's debt as well as the lack of resolution on the united states debt ceiling. the dow tumbled 58 points and at 12,446. the nasdaq lost three-quarters% and s&p 500 fell almost half a percent. policymakers didn't rule out another round of quantitative easing. the sentiment wasn't totally unanimous with a few fed members feeling inflation may prompt a quicker exit than the market expects. the u.s. trade deficit swelled to more than $50 billion in may. that's the highest level in about 2 1/2 years going back to december of 2008. imports climb due to higher oil prices. analysts say it will likely reduce the second quarter gdp numbers which aren't expected to be very impressive anyhow. more data coming out wednesday including figures on import and export prices along with the nation's treasury budget. that's a wrap of the day on wall street. i'm alison kosic in new york. u.s. futures continue to climb at the moment. wall street looks set for a higher open when trading starts on wednesday. this is where u.s. futures stand in the pre market action. the dow looks like it's poised to start at the opening bell up by almost half a percent. the nasdaq composite up by a little more than that and the s&p 500 up by more than half a percent. we'll see how the day unfolds when we ring the opening bell. now a look at tech stories making headlines on this wednesday. customers of u.s. video rental company netflix will soon be forking over more for their films. movies streamed online, plus one dvd in the mail each month will cost $16. that's up from a current monthly fee of $10. this move, as you can imagine, hasn't gone over too well with netflix's 20 million u.s. customers. analysts say it reflects a move away from dvds to more cost-efficient internet streaming. video giant electronic arts agreed to purchase pop gap games, a company that makes games for mobile phones and social networks. that's a niche into which electronic arts is trying to expand. the deal is valued at as much as $1.3 billion. pandora, the internet radio station has announced it now has 100 million listeners. but critics of the company's business model point out that pandora may never be profitable. as its audience grows, pandora has to pay more in royalties. subscription and advertising revenue needs to offset these costs. so far they are not. now let's take a look at weather starting in europe where travel could be a problem in some areas on this wednesday. meteorologist jennifer delgado is live at the international weather center with your business travel forecast. where in europe are you talking about, jen? >> talking about western europe, pauline. more storms will be popping up once again today. that includes parts of france as well as over towards germany. looking at the radar right now. things are quieted down over the last hour. you can still see some storms firing up down towards southern parts of france and moving into areas including northern italy right along the alps. what's going to happen later today? we'll start to see more of that sunshine out there. that's going to energize the atmosphere. we'll see potential for storms to produce gusty winds as well as heavy rainfall. we're talking about even the possibility of large hail. anywhere you see the orange, this is going to be the worst area. in the yellow, southern parts of sweden, will be dealing with the severe weather threat as we go through wednesday as well as through thursday. that's also potentially going to be a problem for the world cup that's going to be happening later on today. some of the play-off games that are going to be happening for the women's cup later this afternoon and evening. make sure you're paying close attention to that. for the u.s., it still continues to be hot, very steamy, anywhere in orange as well as the red shading, talking about very hot temperatures, anywhere between 35 to 40 degrees. it's going to feel like 45 in some locations. that's roughly about 115 degrees fahrenheit, if you want to know the conversion. finally, we leave you is with video out of the u.s., state of connecticut, out of hartford. the sun is shining. the northeast was steamy hot yet. a little relief today. pauline, if people are traveling into the u.s. today, make sure you dress lightly because it is still very dangerously hot across this region. back over to you. >> and drink lots and lots of water. >> absolutely. this is "world business today." here is a question for you. what does an imprisoned chinese billionaire do with his money? buy an aircraft carrier, of course. we'll bring you that story after this break. neutrogena® wet skin cuts through water. forms a broad spectrum barrier for full strength sun protection. wet skin. neutrogena®. welcome back to "world business today" from cnn hong kong. when you're one of china's richest men and get bored with fine art and expensive wines? what else can you buy? if you're chinese tycoon hung gang, you could buy an aircraft carrier. we have details on this businessman. who is this guy? huang guangyu is famous for riches but basically for his riches. he was known as china's richest person in 2006. that was according to forbes, valued at around $2.3 billion. in 2007, right after he was listed as that richest person, he actually went to jail for fraud and for bribery. he's now in jail. he's been serving a 14-year prison sentence. even from behind bars, strangely he's still able to exert a lot of influence over his company which he founded, gome, krin nah's second largest electrical appliances store. with his holding company, what we're talking about now, he might be influencing the purchase of this aircraft carrier. >> and the idea is possibly to turn it into a hotel if it goes through. this isn't the first time that a very rich businessman has tried to buy an aircraft carrier. >> no. it's actually not. this is the second time this year. but i know we do have pictures we probably want to show viewers of the hms "ark royal" at the center of this story. the claim to fame is one of the lead british ships in the invasion in iraq in 2003. it was in service for a quarter century, 25 years and was just decommissioned in 2010. it's been gutteded. but he wants to turn it into a high end platform for luxury shopping and a hotel. as you mentioned, this other chinese businessman. his name is lam kin bon. he's a former ship, based in birmingham, not in jail. he's proposed two fates for the "ark royal." someone a floating college for language students across asia. but the other possibility is to make it into a floating casino and a restaurant anchored right here in hong kong. >> interesting. these people have just way too much money to burn i think. these aircraft carriers have second and third lives it sounds like. ramy, thanks so much. we'll talk about other wealthy business people. up next, we're following two bosses at different stages in their business development. while one gets his staff pumped up for a grand opening, another prepares her team for global expansion. that's coming up next on "the boss." candy? 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[honks horn] ...homes around the country. every single day, saving homes. we will talk it over... announcer: if you're facing foreclosure, make sure you're talking to the right people. speak with hud-approved housing counselors free of charge at... welcome back to "world business today." here on the show we've spent the last eight months trekking across continue meants searching for secrets of successful ceos. now we're asking what keeps a business leader awake at night. for one, our first billionaire based in mack cow, the devil is in the details. for our uk chief executive it's all about growing the brand. it's time now for "the boss." >> reporter: previously on "the boss," rethinking her customer. sarah curran raises the bar as he looks to target the male customer. >> if i take a decision, it's something i completely believe it's the right thing to do. it's not just a whimsical risk. >> in macau, a boss with plenty of confidence. >> i'm an invasion their purpose where i see the long-time future of the company. >> did you see one of those? >> the pressure is mounting for our new boss, francis liu. trainings his butlers. as the vice chairman of the company, he expects high standards. he knows in this industry it's all about the details. >> one of the major things that you want to concentrate on? >> what i'm concentrating on really is making sure the grooming is absolutely top because that's what people are expecting from butlers. >> i expect i will be the rah rah person to make sure all our staff is pumped up, all our staff is getting ready for the big opening day. i think a lot of us are very excited, but at the same time everybody is still a little worried about how are they going to perform. >> reporter: despite the nerves, francis is maintaining his high expectations. >> i think a real good butler, you should anticipate what the customer needs and actually have to act on and present it to them. >> reporter: with more than 60,000 visitors expected on the opening day, and with over 1,600 rooms to service, the butlers will be under huge amounts of pressure. that's when their months of training will be put to the test. >> we have 8,000 staff working for us. most of the staff has been recruited for three months before they start working here. for three months they have intensive training. >> do you see on the right side? it looks like there's a hand print there. it needs to be neat ended slightly. >> reporter: so far francis likes what he sees. he's confident his butlers will be up to the huge task. whatever problems should arise, he knows he can count on his trusted team of managers. >> we need to look after them. >> i know i'm running a big operation here in galaxy. i know i cannot do everything by myself even though i want to. that's not how business should be run, how organizations should be run. so i like to say that i like to be the supporter. i like to encourage my people to do whatever they feel is the best for the company. >> >> reporter: with the introductions out of the way, sarah curran gets down to work. for her this means pouring ahead with my world robe's global expansion. her aim, to grow the new pool of customers and do it fast. >> we're a small team. the business is growing really, really quickly. so we need someone who -- a real balance, someone who has the experience but equally is prepared to roll up their sleeves and help drive the business very quickly. >> reporter: to do this at this accelerated pace, she's expanding her executive team. new to the club is rob moss, the former head of marketing for online travel agency lastminute.com and now my wardrobe's marketing director. >> when it comes to areas such as marketing, with the team i've been able to sort of bring us to where we are today. but actually now is the time to bring an expert in which is why rob is here. >> getting here wasn't easy, though, with a small and relatively young marketing department, sarah had to try and test several candidates. >> online marketing is far more weighted towards a lot of data analysis. so rob coming from an econ background. it's irrelevant his background isn't in fashion because we have fashion experts. he's an intelligent guy and gets it very quickly. >> reporter: sarah is a boss in a rush. she gives rob little time to settle in. luckily for her, he shares her vision and her drive for growth. >> i've got a high level of autonomy. with that comes a high level of expectation of what the company expects of me which is great. that's exactly how i like to work. >> reporter: next week on "the boss," two bosses with two distinct marketing strategies. in london, sarah's new edition reveals his plan to attract new customers. and in brooklyn, steve hinde taps new york's iconic designer milton glazer to help grow his brand. and that's "the boss" for now. let's take a look at the european stock markets as trading is under way. the london ftse is up by .20%, the zur rick sm i. up by about .10. it looks like the markets are shaking off the worries about moody's downgrading ireland's credit rating to junk status although the focus is very much on italy as possibly the next domino to fall as politicians there are trying to quickly push through an austerity measure there. now let's take a look at how the markets in the asia pac region ended the session. it looks like they were all in positive territory as we've been reporting. the reception to china's second quarter gdp was fairly good. it looks like the figures that came out really were received well because china's gdp slowed down slightly even though it's still at 9.5%. there was this concern of this hard landing that beijing is trying to slow down the growth there too quickly. so 9.5% was a good number for the analysts that had been expecting a sharper slowdown of 9.3% gdp. it looks like the nikkei has ended up by .4%. the hang seng up by more than .4%. the main aussie bench down in sydney up by .4%. investors across the world have been losing sleep over the european debt crisis. now that we've arrived at the middle of the week, they must be pretty tired. there's good news for overworked businessmen in japan who feel the need to nap at their desks. we want to show you a neck tie. this is not any ordinary tie. it contains a hidden air vent right there allowing it to inflate into a pillow. this was made by an american company called the numuri tie we translates as sleep tie in japanese. you blow up the air vent and lie your tie on your head on your desk and take a nap. you attempted to try this at your next meeting? it can be yours for less than $20. out won't lose any sleep over that. be sure you don't accidentally throw it into the laundry. that is saul for this edition of "world business today." thanks for joining us. i'm pauline choiu in hong kong. i'm pauline choiu in hong kong. good-bye for now. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com