loyalists. gadhafi's sons say they are both in custody and wanted by the fcc and war crimes charges. yemen's embattled president has arrived in riyadh. he's expected to sign a power transfer deal to end ten-month-long political crisis in his country. the parents in a high-profile missing child case are scheduled to testify before the phone-hacking inquiry in london on wednesday. the mccanns were highly scrutinized when their daughter, madelei madeleine, was reported missing in 2007. they'll join other victims of media intrusion who will give evidence before the inquiry. those are the top stories from cnn, the world's news leader. i'm monita rajpal. "world business today" starts now. it's 9:00 a.m. here in london. good morning, i'm nina dos santos. >> and it's 5:00 p.m. here in hong kong. i'm andrew stevens. you're watching "world business today." the top stories this wednesday, november the 23rd, stock markets sink into the red worldwide. as poor manufacturing numbers from china raises concerns about global growth. australia's controversial mining tax passes an important political hurdle. and the arab spring takes a toll on one of europe's oldest travel companies. let's get straight to the european stock markets which opened about an hour ago. trading off to a bit of a negative stock for once not dictated by events in europe but instead stirred up in the u.s. growth forecast for this year and also a slowdown in chinese manufacturing. initial pmi data could make matters worse when it's released today. the markets did stage a little bit of a fightback. here's where they stand broadly speaking. almost all of them down at the moment. a bit of a negative start to today's session, andrew. >> yeah, very negative start to the session here and a negative end to the session as well. losses just keeping on coming across the asia-pacific region as investors wait for that elusive good-news day, a long time coming. the bad news coming early on wednesday as the provisional chinese manufacturing data numbers you were talking about, nina, signaled a surprise contraction this month, taking the pmi survey to a 32-month low. i've got more on that in just a moment. but the pmi wasn't the only factor hurting prices as well. we also had that gdp revision hitting the numbers here. and australian mining firms being hit hard by a vote in favor of a 30% mining tax in the country's lower house of parliament this morning. that does take it one step closer to law. tokyo closed for the holiday. this is how the numbers closed. you see hong kong under 18,000 with a drop of more than 2%. australia, down nearly 2%. and seoul kospi reacting to what's going on in the u.s. because the u.s. is such a big exporter market for south korea, getting a hit there. let's turn to news of that squeeze on the chinese manufacturing output this month. now, hsb's flash purchasing managers index, that takes up to 90% of the final reading which comes out next week. it's coming well below forecasts. the survey points to a figure of 48.0 for the month of november. anything under 50 signifies a contraction. now, analysts had been expecting a reading of around about 50.1. last month's official pmi reading showed a slowdown in growth to 51.0. but still it was growth. so what's happened? well, basically, it's something of a triple whammy for the chinese economy. number one is china's own efforts to slow its economy which is hitting the manufacturing sector. number two and number three, weakness in europe, weakness in the u.s. as we saw that gdp revision. now, this sharp increase could, though, signal an easing of monetary policy in beijing, nina. that's something the world bank just yesterday warned was necessary to weather the current financial storm. >> andrew, is it likely that china's going to try to do something to prop up growth? could we see any changes to try and underpin its growth rate? >> i think there are a couple of things we need to keep in mind here, nina. one, this is a flash number. so we've got to wait for the final number before we see what's really going on in the manufacturing sector. number two, export orders actually held up above that 50 level. so there's still some movement in the exports sector. number three, and this sort of ties into whether there will be movement or not, certainly china has a lot more room to move because with those mching slowdown numbers comes a showdown in inflation, and that will lead to broader inflation numbers. will they move sharply in the near future? the betting is probably not, nina. what we have already seen, actually, is what's known as selective easing. we've seen lending caps being lifted, lending restraints being lifted to maul and medium-size industry just to help that sector of the community, that secretator of industry. unlikely to see easing of interest rates. we may see banks being allowed on easing up on amounts they have to deposit. certainly the order is no panic is likely to be seen in beijing, but known they'll be watching this very closely. >> yeah. china is, of course, the world's largest creditor to the united states. it will probably be keeping a close eye on this next story, andrew. growing concern over the stalled u.s. economy has dragged down wall street. on tuesday for a fifth straight trading session in a row. and economists, analysts, investors, everybody's worried about this going forwards. the commerce department said that the u.s. gdp reading grew just 2% between july and september, revising its earlier estimates sharply downwards as well. let's look at the closing numbers. this is how the session finished. as you can see, arrows into the red. just the likes of the nasdaq composite faring slightly better, broadly speaking flat, but the other two down about 0.4%. it may not get all that much better later on today because worries about china's dip in manufacturing activity also pushing u.s. futures lower. this is where we stand in terms of the premarket action on these three main markets, as you can see, a number of them down to the tune of about 0.75% and falling further as, of course, people look further into the small print. remember, we've also got that euro zone pmi data later today. euro zone is also a significant economic partner for the united states. andrew? not to mention asia as well, nina. any slowdown in the euro zone hits the big exporters here, obviously. those numbers, wall street futures not the only thing that's falling this day, this hour. a slowdown in the, a slowdown in chinese manufacturing conspired to force a downturn in the price of oil this wednesday. falling by about half a dollar in electronic trade, currently fetching around $108 a barrel. nymex crude is down by more than $1. now, as financial markets n endure their toughest months since 2008, well, the u.s. federal reserve wants to know how banks would survive and if they would survive a repeat of those kind of circumstances. on tuesday, the central bank ordered the country's leading 31 lenders to undergo stress tests aimed at answering that particular question. let's take a look at exactly what they came up with in terms of answers. in tests conducted back in 2009, 19 banks had to take part because they had assets of over $100 billion or more. but regulation, particularly financial regulation introduced since, namely something called the dodd/frank reform act means banks with at least $50 billion on their balance sheets must also comply with these tests. they've also had to simulate a major economic meltdown such as what we saw back when lehman brothers collapsed, proving their ability to try and keep a buffer zone on at least 5% of their capital in the face of 13% unemployment, also another statistic that they'll be testing for is a slump in economic activity as well as crucially a european debt crisis. now, all 31 of these particular institutions which includes some pretty big names here muss keep operating as usual, but it's these six, the largest of the lot that will be tested harsher than any others in terms of their criteria. and it's because basically we all know what happened with lehman brothers and the crisis that prompted. these are equally as big institutions and equally as important to the world's financial melting pot. still to come, a big win for the australian prime minister, julia gillard. mining companies aren't too pleased. the latest on the country's controversial mining tax. that's next. there's a moment where everything comes together. where there's magic. and you now understand what nature's been hiding. ♪ at dow we understand the difference between innovation and invention. invention is important. it's the beginning. it's the spark. but innovation is where we actually create value for dow, for society, and for the world. ♪ at dow, we're constantly searching for how to use our fundamental knowledge of chemistry to solve these difficult problems. science is definitive. there is a right answer out there. 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thousands of dollars in potential... out-of-pocket expenses with an aarp... medicare supplement insurance plan... insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. call this toll-free number on your screen now... for this free information kit, including this... medicare guide and customized rate quote. australian mining stocks took quite a bit of a hit in today's session. take a look at that, the world's largest mining companies ending down to the tune of about 3%. we also saw metals down. so a difficult day there in the commodities sector. welcome back. live from cnn hong kong and london, you're watching "world business today." nina, it may have been a difficult day for the commodities producers, but certainly it's a great day if you're the australian prime minister, julia gillard. she has got through her controversial 30% super tax on coal and iron ore mining efforts. it got through barely, just scraped through the lower house of parliament after a marathon session this wednesday. the tax is known as the mineral resource rent tax, the mrrt. and the reason it got through is because julia gillard could get support from the greens and the independents to make it work. they were happy that the tax had been lowered from the original proposal put forward by kevin rudd, the former prime minister, of a 40% tax. they've also lowered the threshold raised from companies' earnings, 50 million aussie dollars a year to $75 million. they've raised the threshold there. now, that also protects the smaller miners, obviously. but earlier, julia gillard said this is a tax that's good for everyone. >> what this means is a fairer share for australians right around the nation. what this means is that our super-profitable mining companies will pay more tax. and that tax will be used to cut company taxes, to give australians more power and to build more infrastructure. >> so andrew, it's a bit of a victory for julia gillard, but the question is what happens next next? >> well, first of all, nina, this is not in law yet. it has to go to the upper law, and that debate is planned for early next year, if this is passed, and it looks like it probably will be. the tax will then go into effect on july the 1st. it is expected to generate billions of dollars for the government. and this was the selling point of julia gillard. she was saying we're going to use that money, spend it on things like infrastructure. also pensions for australian workers. she's saying we want australians to share the wealth of this windfall profits, she would say, from the australian mining companies. she will also use some of that money to cut taxes for small businesses. let's listen to wayne swann, the australian finance minister. >> what's a very big win for 2.7 million small businesses, a very significant tax cut for those small businesses, a $6,500 instant asset write-off will help with small businesses, particularly those that aren't in the fast lane of the mining boom, and it's i very big win for the australian work force. a very big win for 8 million workers. a significant boost over time and a significant boost to some low-paid workers as well. >> mind you, some of these mining companies must be pretty worried here. is this tax likely to stop investments for at least to a certain extent to cut back on mining investment in australia? it's a huge part of the economy there. >> yeah, absolutely a huge part. it was interesting because with had kevin rudd first proposed this, the australian mining industry went into overdrive with dire warnings about it was going to be virtually the end of the australian mining industry if this 40% tax went through. it's now 30%. there have been warnings still that marginal developments, marginal mining developments may not go ahead. interesting, the icbc, the biggest bank in china, has also warned it may not be lending to projects which are marginal. julia gillard, though, she's obviously very wary of damaging the industry. and this is why. because australia is actually the biggest exporter of iron ore and coking coal, used for steel making. it's booming thanks to even more increased demand from china and also from india. take a look. there's been a surge in investment in the third quarter which ended in september in projects around australia. today the australian bureau of statistics said the construction activity jumped by a record 12.5% to $47.5 billion. where? well, most of it came in western australia. why? it is the epicenter, if you like, of the mining industry for australia. so it gives you an idea of where most of that construction money is going. it is going into the mining industry. now, the government estimates that investment ahead will be around $430 billion. that's what they say is now in the works. and that's equal to about one-third of australia's gdp. now, what the government says, nina, is that these numbers are going ahead despite the fact that we now have this 30% tax about to be imposed. it will likely be imposed. still $430 billion. obviously the government saying it's not going to have that big of an impact on production and development. >> still, it's a brave move from an economic point of view, isn't it? next, we'll be focusing on one of europe's biggest tour operators which has a popular slogan which is don't just book it, cook it. travelers seem to be staying away and cooks shares have been down as a result. we've got in incredible video to show you coming out of new zealand. take a look at this. a helicopter was trying to install a giant christmas tree on auckland's waterfront when the aircraft apparently became entangled in wires. you see the tail broke off. the aircraft shook and spun violently and then crashed to the ground. amazingly, the pilot suffered just a few cuts and bruises. and no one on the ground was hurt either. the crash is now under investigation. extraordinary stuff there. welcome back. live there london and hong kong, you're watching "world business today." nina, if i were a pilot with that sort of luck, i'd be out buying a couple of lottery tickets. >> those kind of pictures take your breath away, don't they? he's lucky to be alive. talking about air travel, today is one of the busiest days of the year for the united states. as americans prepare to hit the road and also the skies for the thanksgiving holiday. but will the bad weather get in the way? let's go over to meteorologist jennifer delgado standing by at the cnn international weather center. jennifer, is it looking good? >> we are still looking at showers on the radar. but overall, we are going to see some improvement as we go into the afternoon. as i show you on the radar right now, we don't have any watches, but still dealing with some rain. you can see even snow out there. we'll continue to see that precipitation as we go through about the next six to eight hours out there. and then as we go later into the day, we're certainly going to see improvement, cooler air behind that. but still through parts of new england, they're going to be dealing with some snow out there. we're talking some locations picking up possibly we're talking about six to eight inches of snowfall. about one-third of a meter of snowfall through parts of new england. so still tricky delays out there and still a lot of flights are backed up from cancellations from tuesday's and monday's bad weather. as we look across parts of europe, we've been talking about northwest europe and how they've been dealing with fog in the morning. well, look what's happening. this is coming out of london heathrow. visibility down to one-third of a kilometer. we're talking one-tenth of a mile. make sure you're checking ahead with your local airline if you're traveling out there because foggy conditions through parts of northwest europe. let me show you yesterday. this is actually coming out of london. you're looking at members of the arsenal club. they're actually jogging in the foggy conditions. and you're looking at more photos coming out of central parts of germany. you're looking at some of the birds enjoying the start of the morning. as i show you on the satellite, overall once we get this fog mixed out of here, we'll see a lot of sunshine returning as well as for france and toward the east. stormy conditions through the mediterranean sea. now i leave you with video actually coming out of south america. this is actually out of buenos aires. what you're looking at there, this video was taken yesterday out of buenos aires because there were lots of cancellations with flights because of volcanic ash coming from the volcano in chile. the problem is all that ash has been spreading over towards the east. we had cancellations, as i said, through argentina as well as in uruguay. as i take you over to the graphic, a lot of clouds and bad weather over the last 24 hours through chile. really hard to see that ash plume. but i can tell you this. we do have strong winds. that's going to be pushing that ash over towards the east. and that looks like more cancellations possible today if you're going to be traveling through south america. right now back over to you, nina. i hope you're driving safely in that fog in the morning. >> yeah, it really is pretty foggy, even foggier than the pictures you were showing us. jennifer delgado, many thanks for that. staying with the united kingd kingdom, thomas cook is looking for a safe harbor. take a look at the chart. this particular graphic shows us how shares of this debt-burdened tour operator have plunged, about 95% in total since the month of january. now, they fell by more than 70% on tuesday alone. at the moment it seems they have recovered just a little bit. they're up currently just over 25%. they have a debt burden worth more than $1.5 billion at the moment. >> tough time to be a tourist operator. in fact, it's a tough time for just about everyone in the tourist business at the moment. not least because two of the top mediterranean destinations have gone through revolutions. jim boulden now shows us what thomas cook has been up against. >> reporter: it's been about 150 years since thomas cook and his son began providing package holidays. for people in britain who rarely, if ever, traveled on vacation before. the middle class. today's thomas cook is not just a holiday booking service. it has more than 30,000 employees under a number of travel brands. it's also a big uk airline and has operations throughout western europe. thomas cook sends europeans all over the world. but all that diversity hasn't made thomas cook immune to today's problems. a slowing economy and rising unemployment is hurting bookings from within the uk. thomas cook says the euro crisis is responsible for a 20% drop in bookings out of france and belgium compared to last year. and it says travel to its key north african destinations like tunisia has not come back as expected. and, of course, the scenes in egypt and these scenes in thailand with the floods have caused disruption to popular destinations. >> thomas cook has had quite a lot of bad luck recently or indeed bad decisions, depending how you want to look at it. they went into russia thinking well, this is a profitable market. but the russians and thailand where there's been floods and egypt where there's been political turmoil. >> reporter: thomas cook said it will delay publishing its results until negotiations with its banks are complete. but it said it is a, quote, robust company and expects to report an operating profit for the year up to the end of september thanks to decent business in germany and scandinavia. but thomas cook said it looked monday at recent bookings and says it's worried that europe is deteriorating so quickly and could get much worse, that it's time to go back to the banks and ask for a new line of credit. an urgent need for cash for a company that's been around since queen victoria. jim boulden, cnn, london. still ahead on "world business today," the volatile fortunes of the asia-pacific currency markets. our asia business analyst has all the details. >> this year japan's yen has jumped to a new record high while the indian rupee has the distinction of being asia's worst-performing currency. i'll tell you why. from cnn london, i'm nina dos santos. >> and i'm andrew stevens at cnn hong kong. welcome back. you're watching "world business today." let's see what's going on on the european stock markets. these markets have been trading about 90 minutes right now. we're used to seeing the euro zone's own crisis determining the direction of these indices day after day. it's not only having an effect on other markets but at the moment it's ugs growth and chinese manufacturing that's rattling investors now. we're now in mixed territory. we were down for almost all of these markets about half an hour ago. but as you can see, recovering slightly and continuing to recover. we now have the dax up by about 0.3%. certainly looking better there than it does here. markets across the region suffering from yet another selloff this wednesday after those chinese manufacturing numbers came out, revealing a surprise slump in output this month. the hsbc flash manufacturing index down three points from october and well under the 50 mark that signifies a contraction. and that figure fell significantly below forecasts as well which sent this shudder through the markets. shanghai's composite continues its losing streak, now down for six days in a row, down about 0.75%, its worst streak since may. the australian index also pulled down by the miners, down nearly 2%, that's after the australian lower house of parliament took a 30% mining tax, a little closer to reality. it's voted it through. it just has to now pass the senate. here in hong kong, the banks are taking a beating, down again by more than 2%. the nikkei closed today for a holiday. probably just as well, really, nina. >> yeah. all eyes are very much focused on china, aren't they? china's slowing economy could be putting investors on edge on wall street where the markets are set to open in about a few hours from now. now, the dow and s&p 500 and nasdaq all ended yesterday's session in the red. alison kosik has all the details from new york. >> a very bumpy tuesday on wall street. the major averages swung between solid gains and steep losses as investors split their attention between the united states and europe. at the close, the dow slipped 53 points to 11,493. the nasdaq edged down fractionally. and the s&p 500 lost almost half a percent. a revised third on third quarter gdp showed the u.s. economy grew much better than the second quarter's 1.3% growth but lower than the initial 2.5% estimate. the weaker reading came as businesses drew down their inventories. the federal reserve released the minutes from its latest policy meeting. the central bank said it expects growth to remain moderate in the coming quarters. but that the u.s. recovery could be at risk if the european crisis worsens. meantime, the amount of customer money gone missing at mf global keeps growing. the trustee in charge of dismantling the collapsed firm's brokerage unit says the shortfall could be more than $1.2 billion, double the previous estimate. coming up wednesday, a busy session on the economicalen darr. investors will get readings on durable goods orders, personal income and spending, weekly jobless claims and consumer sentiment. that's a wrap of the day on wall street. i'm alison kosik in new york. some of asia's major currencies are being buffeted by lower growth and major debt issues in the u.s. and europe. our asia business analyst joins us now for a tour of the troubles. a broad tour as well. >> it definitely is. the aussie dollar weakened, and that pushed it to its weakest point in more than a month. this is due in part, as you mentioned, to chin that's flash pmi. looking year to date, the aussie has lost actually nearly 5% of its value against the greenback. of course, australia's supersensitive to economic news out of china, in the case of china's pmi, slower manufacturing in asia's biggest economy means demand for resources. meantime, the prize for worst performing asian currency of the year goes to the indian rupee. most of the movement here actually happened just in the past week or so. its worst slide in three years right here. year to date, it's lost 16% ofity valof i its value. today the rupee did recoup a bit of value on speculation the research bank of india, the rbi, though it's not confirming that. it's now trading at about $1 to 52 rupees. finally, no discussion about volatile currencies would really be complete without the japanese yen. it hardly moved today. hardly moved today, if i can pull that up. there it goes. but year to date, it strengthened more than 5% against the greenback right here. in this time frame, it actually notched several new post-war highs, as you can see by the graph. the latest being right here on october 31st at 75.32 to the dollar. and now jpmorgan today says the yen might even strengthen -- continuously strengthen through late 2012 perhaps breaking the 70-yen barrier. in a note just out today, the bank said it expects the global economy to stabilize later next year, and that could push investors. we're looking at currencies because of what's happening in europe as well as the u.s. >> thank you. our asia business editor. nina. there's lplenty more to com. we'll look at france and also ask why this is now feared to be the next big economy to face some serious trouble ahead. [ dr. banholzer ] every once in awhile there's a moment where everything comes together. where there's magic. and you now understand what nature's been hiding. ♪ at dow we understand the difference between innovation and invention. invention is important. it's the beginning. it's the spark. but innovation is where we actually create value for dow, for society, and for the world. ♪ at dow, we're constantly searching for how to use our fundamental knowledge of chemistry to solve these difficult problems. science is definitive. there is a right answer out there. [ male announcer ] the same 117 elements do the fundamental work of chemistry. ♪ the difference, the one element that is the catalyst for innovation, the one element that changes everything is the human element. ♪ okay... uhh. the bad news, it's probably totaled. the good news is, you don't have to pay your deductible. with vanishing deductible from nationwide insurance, you got $100 off for every year of safe driving, so now your deductible is zero. the other good news ? i held on to your coffee. wow. ♪ nationwide is on your side ( laughing ) it's actually a pretty good day when you consider. that's great. let's take a quick look at the price of gold. as you see, continuing to come down from its highs of last week, trading at about $1700 an ounce, a drop of $5.10. in the currency markets, meanwhile, the euro, the pound and the yen are all falling against the u.s. dollar. stronger u.s. dollar, it seems, despite the fact that the u.s. economy shows signs of additional weakness. the euro now at 1.34. the yen just a shade over 77. welcome back. live from london and lohong kon you're watching "world business today." now, as its borrowing costs rise, france might be the next european country it seems to slip into a crisis. as jim bittermann reports, it's precisely the world's global interconnectedness that's making france such a risky bet. >> reporter: along the most famous avenue in france, the claum champs elysees, the christmas market is under way, and they're pulling a few euros out of the pockets of passers-by. despite a grim economic climate across europe, a if you days into the holiday sales, the seasonal entrepreneurs have a sunny outlook. >> yes. no. optimistic. >> if we have a good winter, i think it will be a good, interesting year. >> reporter: but optimism on the microeconomic scale hardly reflects the concern from the macro point of view. for one thing, there's the exposure of french banks to other indebted countries like italy. there's the indebtedness of france itself which president sarkozy has tried to bring under control with some austerity measures. and finally, there is the threat that france might soon lose its aaa credit rating, something which could trigger a new round of market speculation and push up french interest rates. >> 75% of france's national debt is held by foreign investors. so that would have much more of an impact than it would, say, on the united states or japan which have already been downgraded or even in italy. so it is a huge worry. >> reporter: still the economists say that one sure way to get off the merry-go-round as one country after another in the euro zone comes under attack is to bring the unified currency under a unified political control by empowering the european central bank to take on and stand behind european debt. something that germany has, until now, opposed. but some here believe or perhaps hope the german position could be changing. >> there are a few new facts. the first one is that there starts to be an impact from the recession in the european on the german exports. and this is, of course, so they are starting to feel the pain. >> reporter: at a time of year when many people start to believe in santa claus, thoughts about avoiding an economic crisis here seem to rely on hope trumping reality. but as one of the christmas merchants put it, if you can't be optimistic, why go to work in the morning? jim bittermann, cnn, paris. whether it's a little light beer or a little romance, things are better when you get together. it's all about making the best of those partnerships in our series called "the boss." that's next here on "board business today." whwho need imagine... one scooter or power chair that could improve your mobility and your life. one medicare benefit that, with private insurance, may entitle you to pay little to nothing to own it. one company that can make it all happen ... your power chair will be paid in full. the scooter store. hi i'm doug harrison. we're experts at getting you the power chair or scooter you need. i didn't pay a penny out of pocket for my power chair. with help from the scooter store, medicare and my insurance covered it all. call the scooter store for free information today. so our big number today, 24 million. market research firm vatgy analytics says that's how many smartphone s china shipped domestically in the third quarter. that's 1 million more than the u.s. meaning china has now surpassed america to become the world's biggest smartphone market by volume. i guess it had to happen. welcome back. live from london and hong kong. you're watching "world business today." let's take one final look at how the european markets are faring this hour before we wrap things up for "world business today" later in the show. let's have a look at how they're faring in terms of the major picture, as you can see, it's still mixed. but we're actually heading further on the down side last time we looked as these four markets were rising. now it seems even the dax is up, now shedding some of those gains. two reasons for this, and for once they're not linked to the euro zone debt crisis. on the one hand, there has been a cut in the u.s. gdp forecast reading and also chinese pmi manufacturing data coming out, weaker than expected. those are the kind of things that are causing some of the weakness in the european markets for the moment. >> pretty much the same reasons that the asia-pacific markets are down this wednesday as well, nina. the main trigger here, those provisional manufacturing numbers from china showing a substantial slowdown in output this month. that came as a surprise to analysts who had forecast some modest growth. now, with the tokyo stock exchange marking a public holiday, this is how the other key markets are ending the trading day. as you can see, hong kong, seoul and australia all around about 2% lower. nina? well, today on "the boss," two of our leaders are working on making the perfect relationship. in london, e-harmony's shorn cornwell thinks he's found the perfect partner for his dating business. on the other hand, they're introducing a taste of italy to an all-american beer. crossing the corporate cultural divide now in "the boss." >> reporter: previously on "the boss" -- harmony in the e-harmony. as sean cornwell takes his staff out on the town. >> we spend a lot of time together. and i think it's important occasionally to make sure that everyone just kind of pauses for a second and just has some fun. >> reporter: and in new york, steve hindy faces up rising prices. >> it we can do it across all brands, we'd be able to meet the $3 million in extra costs we're going to have next year. ♪ >> reporter: there's an italian flavor at the brooklyn brewery tonight. and the boss, steve hindy, is sharing the spotlight. >> these are our partners. >> reporter: it's the launch of brooklyn's latest creation, a blend of flavors and cultures. it was created in partnership with the amaccord brewery, a family-owned firm based in a town in italy. >> we've done several collaborations with european breweries, but we came up with the idea here of an actual joint venture. so this is a business partnership between us and them. >> reporter: it's a unique project for the brooklyn brewery. the beer masters of both breweries worked together for months on the recipe. but it's brewed entirely in italy at amacord's facilities. at this exclusive launch party, guests from the new york restaurant and beer world are certainly making all the right noises. >> it's great. it's light. it's a bit hoppe. it's got that little sunny essence to it, summery. >> reporter: while not everyone's lapping it up, steve believes there's a gap in the market for his new venture. one of his most ambitious collaborations yet. >> you know, there are more italian restaurants in the united states than any other single kind of restaurant. and they don't really have any craft beers that fit with their theme. and we think ama is going to do that. >> reporter: this beer is part of a wider strategy to fill brooklyn's global profile. >> 15% of our sales are export now. and it's growing every year. we could become a serious international brand in the next couple of decades. >> reporter: steve has reason to hope brooklyn beer exports are up some 80% this year, way above projections of 50%. helped by the weak dollar. and steve's confident this beer will live up to first impressions. >> if we can begin to sell this brand into italian restaurants, maybe we can sell a little brooklyn along the way, too. ♪ >> reporter: across the atlantic, another european collaboration is up and running. the international vice president of e-harmony, sean cornwell, is in berlin checking on one of his most important ventures. this is e-darling. >> i think two, three years ago we were looking at the continental european market. and we saw the big opportunity there. we definitely wanted to be part of it. but we asked ourselves, are we best equipped, we being e-harmony, to enter that market on our own and do an organic growth strategy? when we were really frank about it, we realized that it was going to take a huge amount of resource, that localization into non-english languages was not a core competency of e-harmony. and ultimately that making an investment in e-darling actually made a lot more sense for us. >> reporter: e-harmony invested in european dating site e-da e-darling in late 2009. for sean, the real selling point was a foothold in some key and growing markets. >> e-darling covers all the major continental european markets that you would expect. so france, germany, spain, netherlands, scandinavia, italy. e-darling is also in three very fast-growing markets, poland, turkey and russia which is incredibly exciting. >> reporter: running e-harmony in europe and juggling a significant stake in e-darling is a challenge. for the collaboration for work, sean knows he must stay alert to changes in the market. >> it might be helpful, i think, to go through on a market-by-market basis, just kind of the high-level snapshot of how each country's doing. >> reporter: and make sure the partnership benefits both parties. >> i think one of the key things that we look for in this partnership between e-mar monha and e-darling is the ability to learn off each other. >> reporter: both e-harmony and e-darling believe in long-term relationships. and both are committed to making theirs work. >> i think what we want to do with e-darling and e-harmony in terms of the long-term vision is really make sure that the two companies are broadly aligned. that we create the same mission, the same vision, the same kind of culture in the companies in terms of really believing in long-term relationships and the importance around those. >> reporter: next week on "the boss" -- in london, sarah curran takes online shopping offline. and from the chips to the popcorn, as francis lui gets ready for a new addition to his macau empire. that's next week on "the boss." and don't forget, if you want to comment on that or any of the stories you watch on our show, get this touch with the whole team on our facebook page. just go to facebook.com/cnnwbt. let us know your thoughts. nina. you can also contact us and let us know your thoughts on twitter. you can follow the whole of the cnn "world business today" team @cnnwbt. check out tweets about the team about what we're covering on the show. probably who we'll be interviewing as well. >> absolutely. but for now, we will say farewell. you've been watching "world business today." nina and i, of course, will be back a little later this day. for the moment, though, good-bye. i'm andrew stevens in hong kong. >> and i'm nina dos santos in london. you're watching cnn, the world's news leader. it's good-bye for now. we'll see you later. if you've just signed up for medicare or will soon, there's no time like the present to consider all your health insurance options. does medicare alone meet your needs? 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