took a lead after round one are still ahead. election process has months to go. it's scheduled to wrap up in march. beljan -- belgian police have ruled out terrorism. authorities are puzzled about the reasons for carrying out this gun and grenade attack in downtown. those are the top stories from cnn, the world news leader. i'm zain vergee. "world business today" starts now. hello and welcome to "world business today," it's thursday, december 15th and i'm nina dos santos at cnn london. and in hong kong, these are the top stories. export angst, disappointing stock day and manufacturing malaise sound alarm bells here in asia. cracks are appearing in the eu's agreement that was men to the save the single currency. and chinese internet senses are way in as anger over a land grab continues. debt and economic distress have dragged western economies down over the past few years, it seems as though asia had been appearing to defy gravity. now it seems the signs are that things could be changing as the euro zone's debt crisis sends a chill through the world's global economy. let's have a look on japan first up. we've had interesting figures out there. japan's quarterly survey came out showing a grim outlook among big japanese manufacturers struggling, on the one hand, strong currency of the yen and slack export demand. we saw a preliminary number from china's hsbc's purchasing manager's index and that in turn showed that manufacturing in the world's second biggest economy is now contracting. the financial times reports that chinese exporters of stocks have been particularly badly hit, especially those who export to europe. two of hong kong's biggest ipos this year fizzled today. >> we're going to get to those disz appointing hong kong ipos in just a moment. first, the asian stock markets finishing low across the board. investors reacting to all of that negative outlook that we've, particularly in terms of economic indicators that nina was talking about both out of china and japan. and take a look at the impact pfr here's the shanghai composite, down sharply, more than 2% a session. the nikkei down more than 1.5%. and generally, yes, if you're in europe you're famous because everybody's talking about the crisis in continental europe right now. really impacting the markets quite heavily, nina. >> manisha, it seems the euro zone crisis has been hogging the highlight, many investors say, for way too much time now. perhaps it's best not to be considering floating your company. we saw what two disappointing debuts on the hang seng in hong kong. uchina life and chow tai fook lost almost $2 billion each. we know so much of what's going on with the markets and the ipos as well is about sentiment, what people think, pessimism is dragging down the business mood in japan, in particular, a key survey of sentiment among the country's largest manufacturers came in worse than expected this quarter. it's the tankan. they were expecting a reading of negative 2. this is how it compares to the previous three quarters. japan is still trying to recover from it's devastating earthquake and tsunami earlier this year. global economic uncertainty, of course, and a strengthening currency really impacting on sentiment as well, nina. >> manisha, let's hone in on that particular strong currency that's been persisting and affecting japanese businesses that export to the united states for quite some time now. the strong yen has been an ongoing headache for policymakers. look how much it's gained over the u.s. dollar over the past year. the lower the number, the stronger the currency. the bank of japan updated its asset-buying plan in october. in an effort to reign in the rising currency after it touched a record of 75.35 against the u.s. dollar. it seems the rally has been taking the heaviest toll on japanese exporters. as you'd imagine we have significant exporters in japan like toyota and nissan. here are some of the worst performers so far this year. we've had the likes of toyota motor corporation down 20% with steeper losses for honda, sony and panasonic which are significant exporters to the united states. every time these companies sell an export to the united states, what they bring back in dollars is worth less and less as the yen strengthens. >> they're really feeling the krurnlg. let's look at stock-specific news now. take a look at this. we've had shares of olympus plunging this year, down nearly 47%. it was the worst performer on the tokyo stock exchange today. it lost, take a look, more than 20% by the close. investors were not best pleased with the company's revised balance sheet for first half of the year which came out after close on wednesday. it showed a net loss of nearly $415 million. again, on that stronger yen. it's having a huge impact on the company and weak camera sales. now that olympus met the critical deadline to prevent delisting. the company is focusing on future leadership. >> translator: it is certain that mr. woodford is one of our options but we'd like to make a proposal. it is possible to leave the final decision about it to the shareholders' judgment on the new management team. >> let's take a check on how european stock markets are faring at the moment. we're about an hour into thursday's session. you can see, we're putting on healthy gains, mine you they're not above the 1 percentage point mark. this is the focus here. how to save the single currency. also how to save the 17 countries that operate within that and to get their budgets in line. as you can see, we have the dax up to the tune of shy of 1%. similar picture for the cac 40. ftse 100 and zurich smi, outside the euro zone are the ones that aren't going quite as well, manisha. let's, with all of this in mind, take everyone back to what happened on wall street. yep, the bell went and stocks on wednesday tumbled as the crisis in europe continues. the weak euro means less return for u.s. exporters as well which led the losses on wednesday. at the close of trade, the major indices were off by as much as 1.5%. with those in mind, let's see where things stand right now in terms of the futures and what we can expect later in the session. i told you a lot of this is about psychology and sentiment. it really hasn't changed much later. we do have the futures right now pointing higher. let's keep an eye on what happens, of course, in europe, as the day goes on and how that might impact these futures. >> throughout europe's attempts to deal with the sovereign debt crisis, the german chancellor, angela merkel has stressed the need for unity. it may have come as some surprise when her own secretary general abruptly resigned on wednesday. it was over the question of a vote for a bailout fund for europe. >> translator: we have decided to correct constructional mistakes that were made at the beginning of the economic an monetary union, the path to a fiscal union in terms of a stability union has not been finished but we have started it and i think we will not turn back. >> despite mrs. merkel's determination to press ahead with the fiscal union, the german government, it seems, is not the only one which is in strains over the project. and that has been put forward here. let's take a look -- excuse me. less than a week after european leaders agreed almost unanimously to deepen their economic integration, questions about this particular plan have already begun to arise as jim boulden now reports. >> reporter: it's reality time back home. in warsaw, protesters rally against poland's tacit agreement to lose some sovereignty to join a fiscal compact. while poland doesn't yet use the euro. in london, bickering continues after cameron vetoing the treaty for fiscal union. >> isn't the sensible thing for him to do is re-enter the negotiations and try and get a better deal for britain? >> first, i make no apologies for standing up for britain. >> reporter: so no cracks in the british government's determination not to sign up. but difficulties are appearing elsewhere. ireland for one may have to hold a referendum to agree any changes. prime minister told parliament there is a lot of detail to be worked out. >> it is, of now, a political agreement. obviously given what's involved here, there are detailed technical and legal considerations that will need to be carefully teased out or analyzed by experts before any legal text is adopted. >> reporter: sweden's prime minister said tuesday since the country didn't use the euro it will not agree to all the euro zone discipline rules. the czech government says the proposed pack is still just a blank piece of paper. and that it won't just sign that blank paper. >> we would like to be present at the able when it's debated. we are not ready to sign up to it at this moment. >> translator: german chancellor angela merkel told the bundesta goo the euro dipped to its lowest level in 11 months and italian bond yields are on the rise again. eu leaders promise to sign off on the fiscal compact at their next summit in march. but will the markets give them that time to fill in the details and fill in the cracks? jim boulden, cnn, london. as jim mentioned there, some european member states are sounding a note of caution about the fiscal deal struck last week in brussels. some of the most hess tan the players those countries in the european union but outside of the single currency. anders borg explained this to richard quest a little while ago. >> we think the legal obligation and sanctions should be primarily directed towards the euro countries. for us it would not be acceptable if we would be forced to change the constitution to be able to join, so we would not accept the constitutional change implied by the depth break. eventually we could see strong advantages for a country like sweden to be a part of these meetings. >> that's the finance minister of sweden which is one of the ten european union member states outside the euro zone. it's unlikely to be the only one of those countries unwilling to submit itself to the kind of disciplinary action that's been mooted for countries that does not use the euro. nina. still to come on "world business today," when land grashs have been a bone of contention. this latest one has led to a village under siege. we just wanted to show you that beautiful winter sunset dipping below the hong kong skyline on victoria harbor. this is us live on "world business today" in hong kong and london. welcome back. starting today, u.s.-made vehicles exported to china will be slapped with a hefty duty. on wednesday, beijing announced duties on u.s.-made cars that will increase the price by 21.5%. big move there. this comes amidst rising tensions between the two nations. this is how ford and general motors ended on wednesday. investors are fearing the worst with both stocks down more than 3% when it comes to ford that one was down 3.15%. a a slightly heavier loss for general motors. u.s. vehicle exports to china were worth about $4.2 billion as you can see on this particular big number we have behind me. and for the first ten months of the year. and that means it makes it the third largest market for u.s. vehicle exports behind only the likes of canada and also germany. so there's plenty of money on the table here and about 4.2 billion is the figure that's at stake. >> that is quite a number. now, in china, it started as a land grab. then there were protests and a death and ransom demands and now internet sensors have blocked villages in the south of the country where authorities are holding residents under siege for a fifth day. it's happening just 100 kilometers or so from right where i am, hong kong. in a fishing village where the population of about 20,000 in the southern chinese province of xuandung. the disagreement began over village lan taken by the local government. after days of protests against the land grab with a man died in police custody on sunday. police say it was a heart attack, others murder. residents fended off a police advance, defending with barricades. there are claims that authorities are offering to release four men they hold in custody in exchange for an end to this standoff. one man who has been following this from the start is malcolm ford. this is really a remarkable story and i think this is something that unfortunately china's very familiar with, this idea of land grabs, unfortunately, particularly in places where there are a lot of poorer farmers. what exactly do you think is happening here? >> reporter: it is a familiar story. the difference in this case, the village managed to drive out the local communist party and drive out all the police. we were there earlier this week, i spent two days in town and there were no authorities beyond the villages. how long can they hold out for? the police have encircled the town and cut off their food and watt and are basically sitting back and letting the village sweat it out. >> tell me about your experiences there. why did you leave? >> reporter: we left the town basically because the villagers told us it was a bit of a devil's pact allow is us into the village and speaking to us. on the one hand they were worried when the issue is resolved the local government will come after them and punish the people who let us in. on the other hand, they said they didn't have access to the chinese media to get their story out so they need us. once the story did get out, then, you know, the question was how to minimize that risk. we felt this is the right time to stand back for a little while and see how things unfolded and not put the village into any more risk than they're already in. >> we mentioned this before, the fact that you know, china is all too familiar with stories similar to this, the land grab story. there's a discrepancy to some extent between what the local authorities are doing and what's happening centrally. can you explain that for us? >> the problem that the villagers have is with their local officials. they feel that that party secretary and that deputy party secretary had basically sold off their land from underneath them and embezzled the money and hand paid them the compensation they thought they were due. those two men are now under investigation by the local government. for the past few months, the villagers have been negotiating with the local government asking to have their land returned. but at the end of the day, the local government decided, so far, that that's not going to happen. it's a judgment of solomon type affair hoping beijing will see the local government is also corrupt and will rule on their side. >> could be a big turning point. malcolm moore, thank you for that. >> manisha, let's encourage our viewers to stay with us here on "world business today." after the break we'll have more on the warm weather picture we've seen here in europe. don't go away. who 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. time for the weather now. let's go over to jill brown for the latest forecast. >> we have had stormy weather the last few days. looks like we have a few more days with wind and rain and snow and ice as well. that's probably going to cause delays at the airports. so far things aren't so bad today. 15 to 30-minute delays, mannly due to wind. we have a few locations reporting low clouds. that's caused some delays, brussels starting to get in on it. 60 to 90-minute delays. except more of that across central europe. i'll tell you why. as it spreads a swath of snow from switzerland to austria and poland, it will mix in rain and ice. once you get ice in there, that can cause delays. the snow we're expecting isn't necessarily going to be heavy but with a little bit of ice that will bring some problems. we may get some severe storms, especially on friday. rain and the strong winds continue to follow this. we have more reports of wind advisories today. the last few days we've had reports of wind gusts over 100 kilometers per hour. we might have a few more of those. look at the rain coming in here and heavy downpours. there's your snow or rain and snow mixed. the higher elevations will have the heavier snow, maybe up to 20 or so centimeters. the lower elevations, we're looking at 1 to 4 centimeters of snow. not a huge swath but with gusty winds it will feel miserable out there, damp and miserable. munich, you may get a little sun for today. after that it's snow for the next few days to come. london, snow mixed in at the end and then it dries out. rome possibly getting in on the chance of severe thunderstorms with this one. want to take a quick look at the tropical storm. by the way, it's back to a tropical storm now, coming into the philippines, heavy rain expected for the next 24 hours and stronger wind gusts until this gets back out into the south china sea where it should diminish. "world business today" continues after this. from cnn hong kong, i'm i' manisha tank. and i'm nina dos santos. you're watching "world business today." let's take a look at the european stock markets. it's those euro zone markets in particular, the dax and the cac 40 that are doing the best today. again be the euro zone is hogging the limelight. manis manisha? >> that's a rebound market-wise, i have to say. it was a down day in asian trade. exporters, manufacturers, both areas lower in tokyo in particular. japan's quarterly tankan survey showed business sentiment amongst large manufacturers was worse than expected. it was negative 4 versus negative 2 in previous quarters. that particular sentiment index coming in worse than expected. people do get very unhappy. you can see the impact across the board. we also had more inklings about what we can expect out of china, really putting pressure on the shanghai composite in the euro zone. two of the year's biggest ipos here in hong kong failed as well. this didn't help matters. china's third largest life insurance company, new china life, down 10% and chow tai fook lost more than 8%. it was all pomp and pageantry as they celebrated the listing. by the close its performance will no doubt have taken some of the shine off the proceedings. it may be unfamiliar to most outside asia but chow tai fook is the world's largest jewelry company by revenue and it has big plans for the future. ramy inocencio explores what's demanding asian deman f mamand that glitters. >> reporter: let your eyes adjust to the shine. this is chow tai fook, the biggest jeweler you may never heard of. half of their profit comes from gold, the other half from silver. this ring retails for $64,000 and from diamonds. this here is a 25 carat diamond. it retails for more than 2.6 million u.s. dollars. if i may. and i have to admit, that i have never held something as expensive until this day in my life and i probably never will again. but if luxe like this is too rich for your blood, a piece of the company itself might be easier on the wallet. it sold for less than $2 a share in its initial offering last week because of fears of a global slowdown, yet some analysts forecast stability in the stock. >> there's no reason to think this ipo will fail in terms of collapse. there's a lot of vested interest. >> reporter: one of those reasons is gold's rising value. year to date, the price of the safe haven has surged nearly 11%. another reason is that mainland china has been on a spending spree. indian consumers spent the most for gold in the third quarter says the world gold council but china wasn't far behind. year-on-year it stepped up gold purchases by 62%. analysts say it will soon be tops for two reasons. >> one is consumption will continue to increase as people have more wealth and second is, i think people will also become more sophisticated. right now they're basically going for retailers that they trust. >> reporter: and chow tai fook is trying to take off as that brand, especially for mainland chinese. >> translator: we have mainland chinese two buy the jewelry on the mainland but come into hong kong to put mind at ease. >> translator: chow tai fook has more styles in hong kong than on the mainland and the jewelry is better quality. >> reporter: this may body for a bright future for the company. the last two characters in chow tai fook's name means great fortune. investors will be hoping for that in years to come. ramy inocencio, cnn, hong kong. over in the united states, wall street seems like they couldn't shake off the worries on the european debt crisis. here's alison kosik with a reminder of what happened wednesday. stocks sold off wednesday amid more concerns about the short-term health of the euro zone, the shared currency fell to its lowest level against the u.s. dollar since january. that put pressure on major u.s. exporters like caterpillar and tech giants like intel and cisco systems. overall the dow lost 131 points ending at 11,823. the nasdaq fell 1.5% and the s&p 500 dropped more than 1%. more profit-taking in the gold pits. gold prices fell more than 4% wednesday to below $1,600 an ounce. the precious metal broke through a key technical level that could signal more multiyear lows in the days to come. while gold falls u.s. treasuries are holing up as a safety play. bond prices rose wednesday and the yield on the benchmark ten-year fell to 1.91%, the lowest level since late november. the yield on the 30-year bond fell below 3%. dark days in the solar sector, shares of first solar tumbled 21% wednesday after the company issued a weak outlook for 2012. lower demand and oversupply of chinese-made solar panels has basically caused prices to collapse. that's taken a toll on companies across the solar energies. that's a wrap of the day on wall street. i'm alison kosik in new york. let's take a look at how things might shape up when u.s. stock markets get trading in just under five hours from now. here's where the futures market stand. the early indications are that we could see something of a slightly higher open, especially when you take into account the fact that the dow jones industrial average futures are now up to the tune of 0.5%. it's looking good but i'll give that caveat so far. as u.s. presidential hopefuls ramp up campaign efforts they're increasingly looking for cash. fund-raising is part of the race for white house but as mary snowe reports, some candidates are being criticized for where they're looking for money. >> reporter: as mitt romney tapped new york donors for campaign crash, democrats flew this airplane banner calling him out of touch, reminding new yorkers of a $10,000 bet romney made against rick perry at the last republican debate. the progressive group, moveon.org seized on romney's visit, calling him the poster child for wall street and the 1%. the romney camp dismissed it as the white house being scared of facing romney the general election. senior political analyst david gergen says democrats targeting romney solely for wall street contributions is hypocritical. >> barack obama raised tons of money the last time around and he'll raise money this time. wall street has turned more hostile towards the president since he's been at the white house. it's natural mitt romney would go there. >> reporter: when it comes to campaign cash from wall street, mitt romney is leading with $3.8 million to $1.7 million for barack obama. take a look at goldman sachs. back in 2008, goldman sachs was one of the top contributors to the barack obama campaign. so far, mitt romney getting about 367,000 from goldman sachs employees to 50,000 for barack obama. those numbers are compiled by sheila crumholz. she says the finance sector was the fourth largest donor to barack obama's campaign in 2008. while many complain about being portrayed as villains, she says wall street donors are not strangers to the obama campaign this time around. >> they are also hosting fund-raisers and trying to draw in donors from wall street. they have a number of wall street representatives on their volunteer bundler list. >> reporter: one of those list as a bundler fund-raiser is democrat jon corzine, former haefd goldman sachs, former new jersey governor and now u.s. senator is being questioned about a $1.2 billion missing from his former firm. an obama campaign official says corzine is not currently fund-raising for the campaign. it's been made clear that if corzine or any other employees are charged with wrongdoing, their contributions will be returned. mary snowe, cnn, new york. let's bring you breaking news which has come to us in the last few minutes. according to french media reports, the former french president, jacques schirac has been convicted on two counts in a paris courtroom by judges in paris. these particular allegations relate to his time as mayor of paris between 1977 and 1995 when he's accused of having hired members of his own political party for nonexistent jobs and putting them on the civic payroll. the french media reports indicate the jacques chirac, the former president of france has now been found guilty on two counts of corruption relating to his time as mayor of paris back between the 1970s and 1995. coming up next on "world business today," 'tis the season to go shopping. we'll tell you what's topping kid's wish lists this year. live from hong kong and london, this is "world business today." a warm welcome back. london's famous toy store hamleys is getting rid of its boys and girls section. the blogger laura nelson said that policy was sexist, calling it gender apartheid for children and that boys and girls department lead to social conditioning. now the toys are posted by brand and type instead. emily says the new layout is easier for customers. their websites front page still list the top toys for boys and the top toys for girls separately. laura nelson told cnn's richard quest why she felt quite strongly about this. >> they were so in your face as soon as you walked into the toy shop. and then when you went up the escalator and went on to the different floors, there were very different toys on the girl's floor as opposed to the boy's toys. >> right. >> i think this is fantastic, because there is no mention of gender whatsoever now in the store. >> laura nelson is claiming victory but we should also point out that hamley's says the changes are simply as a result of a planned refit they were going to implement anyway. >> i have two little boys and they wanted to play with trains and cars. i didn't tell them to. they're the ones who told me. speaking of toys, here are five of the toys that the british toy retailers says will be on the top christmas lists this year. let's rock elmo for sesame street selling for $50. we can move on to leappad explorer, tablet for kids. and the newest nerf gun, $60. clearly a must-have, not if you're a parent. and moshi monsters treehouse. here it is. that would cost you $70. and then doggie doo. it's a game. my producer suggested we use the nerf gun to take this one out. i don't know, i think that's going too far. >> the definitive expert on christmas toys is santa claus, isn't it? he popped in for a mince pie and a chat. >> good evening, santa. >> good evening. >> tell me. >> reporter: what are children asking for this year? >> well, one 4-year-old asked for a credit card. >> no? >> yes, yes, it's true. or a rolex watch. dolls and barbies still popular at the moment. a lot of ipads. >> now, are boys and girls asking for the same things? >> no, no. it's princess dresses, girls are asking for princess dresses. actually, lego is very good for brain. girls and boys do ask for the lego. >> what do you say santa as an authority on the subject in this credit crunch time of the year, what do you say when somebody says i want an ipad or i want -- >> well, it's all about giving and it is a surprise. it's good to have a good surprise. we can't really say, we'll see what we can do but we can't promise. >> it's a bit like the euro zone. it's all promise and not necessarily delivery at the end. >> what happened to making your own gifts? i don't know. still ahead on "world business today," taking your clothes off for cash. a day in the life of a model. that's all when we return. as you can see, gold hasn't lost its luster. it's currently up by about 8.34. welcome back. you're watching "world business today." let's take a look at how european stock markets are trading. they're in the green as well. the picture across this region shows cautious optimism despite the fact that we've had news that the ureuro zone. not teaing the shine off investors appetites, though, manisha. a negative picture here in asia, talking of taking the shine off things, the sentiment did that in two major indexes. there are the numbers for you. shanghai being impacted by a negative outlook. the tankan survey came out of japan. we talked about it earlier in the show. worse than expected, mean us in 4. many analysts expecting minus 2. showing that the euro zone crisis has fed through to asia, particularly on terms of exports and what manufacturers here could expect to be sending to other parts of the world, nina. let's change tact a bit, imagine a job with no dress code, no colleagues and nothing to do but to sit very, very still. that's what rachel welsh does every single day as a model. complete strangers turn up and turn her into a real work of art. for some it would be too revealing. for her on the other hand it's a picture perfect world at work. >> i have been life modeling for 15 years. i started modeling when i was traveling. and i've never been to a live class in my life. i thought how difficult can it be? i don't think i anticipated what it's like to actually stand in front of somebody naked. somebody you don't know and have them really look at you and draw you. and it's a very intense experience. and you do feel very vulnerable and exposed. there's no other word for it. >> fill the space. >> when i began life modeling, i didn't feel like many women. i didn't feel comfortable with my body image, because of course we're all bombarded with images of perfection in the media. that's not real and it's quite boring. it's not interesting to see somebody who's just perfect. there's not a blemish on them. it's gnat renot real. what's interesting about people is what makes them different and unusual and unique. >> there's a shadow under her arm. >> one thing that people don't realize is life modeling is quite demanding. you will be expected to hold a pose for the longest will be an hour. i have fallen over and i have at one point i remember i was doing a pose and i had one leg up. i didn't realize all the blood came out of my leg completely. they said could you stan up and come over here and i stood up and went straight sideways. >> sometimes it's a classical lady. sometimes it's crazy lady running around the room type of pose. i've often found it useful if i have a problem i'm trying to work out in my life. i have a chance to sit there and stand there and focus on it. i don't know, there's something about the fact that it's a creative environment, creative environment i'm in. it seems to allow me to get through things like that that might have been worrying me or bothering me and i'll find a solution. >> probably one of the most successful ways of showing light is to actually create the dark around it. >> i think with nudity, people find it very, very challenging. it is quite intense when you see a naked person, not necessarily that your reaction will be a sexual one or whatever but you're going to have a reaction. you can't not. i think it's made me the person i am. it's given me so much confidence and it's opened me up to a whole education of art and meeting people and having much more confidence in how i relate to people and think -- it was something -- if i didn't have it in my life, there would be a huge gap there because it's so important to me. and it's made me happy. finally, what would you do if you found a fortune in the back seat of your taxi? for this cab driver in the central chinese city of wuhan there was only one thing to do, he turned it in. the careless passengers got his 1 million hong kong dollars back. he was very lucky. that's more than 125,000 u.s. dollars. what did the driver get for his trouble? two more stars. he's a four star cab driver instead of two. i hope having four stars is the top of the pact, because he deserves it. that's it for this edition of "world business today." thanks so much for joining us. i'm in hong kong. and i'm nina dos santos in london. hopefully we'll see you four hours from now for the next edition of "world business today."