battles between police and protesters. egyptians took to the streets on thursday upset at how police handled or they say mishandled the football riot that left 79 dead a day earlier two people were killed in suez on thursday. u.n. diplomats have come up with a new security council resolution on syria and how to deal with them. it draws specific language russia doesn't like including references to sanctions and military intervention. i'm manesha -- monita rajpal. "world business today" starts right now. >> hello and welcome to "world business today." happy friday to all of you. i'm nina dos santos at cnn london. >> and i'm andrew stevens at cnn hong kong. the top stories this february the 3rd, friday, it's megamerger in the making. xstra tchlt at and glencore. bentley rolls out a vehicle worth around $200,000. and it's nearly super bowl sunday where the halftime ainvestment rts can cost as much as a movie. the mining group xstrata are in talks to merge with glencore. the deal could be worth as much as $88 billion and according to some reports it could be formally announced as soon as early next week, glencore is the world's biggest commodity trader and xstrata one of the biggest mining firms. it could result in a monster company big enough to make up most of its rivals. >> it is sizable and unsurprising that the deal, if it does actually manage to go ahead, is expected to send a series of shock waves through the entire mining industry because i merger would create the fourth largest mining company leaving only the likes of b hchhp and rio tinto as bei the couple that are bigger than that. giving us perspective is david lenox and joins us from sydney via skype. good evening to you over there on the other side of the planet, david. >> good morning, monita. >> certain >> this news is interesting because glencore has owned about a third of this company for an awful long time and xstrata has been a target of many a rumor. >> i guess glencore around 34.5% since ex-strata basically broke away from the group back in 2002. i guess the exchange occurred when xstrata brought all the coal mines that glencore did have at that particular point in time so it's not surprising when you look at the actual initial public front of glencore, one of their strategies was to decrease the value that they would extract from trading and actually increase the resources or the reserves that they would be generating revenue from in terms of direct mining. so it's not a surprise that glencore has actually made the move at this point in time. >> why is that? is that because the commodities bubble some have been saying seems to have burst since glencore had that enormous ipo you're referring to. >> no, basically i think you'll find that glencore's move now because since the actual public float was made, their shares have been in what we call lock up where they haven't been able to put out additional script and 30, november which means that glencore was then able to go ahead and issue script and it required a script issue to actually -- to actually i guess create what we call a merger of equals between itself and ex-strata. nothing was certainly going to happen in december given that all the fund managers and investors would be on holidays and nothing was going to happen in january for the same reason. 1st of february, rumors. >> do you think that we really will see briefly if you could just tell me this deal going through because obviously bh bill eton launched for rio tinto and it was not allowed to go through. >> between two companies, a merge of equals and think the boards of both companies will if the announcements are made will bless it and fall to the regulators as to whether or not two different paths of the operations of xstrata seem to be strategic assets or not and certainly think when it's announced will certainly probably proceed and be successful. really it's only the ratio that we're going to have to look at in terms of between ex-strata and glencore how many xstrata shareholders will get in glencore, the question we're wanting to see. >> david lennox joining us, we appreciate your time, andrew, he's putting it into context and saying this one is likely to go through unlike that time when bhp tried to take over rio three years ago and the board rejected that. >> absolutely, bhp has not had much luck in big takeovers. this looks like a merger of equals, nina, and particularly in this case who should run the company? the two companies' ceos were schoolmates in south africa before becoming business rivals and now future possible rivals. on thursday the number two spot, ivan glasenberg. it lists him as the son of a former race walking champion and luggage factory owner. now, glasenberg and his counterpart is mick davis. davis joined xstrata 18 years ago formerly the chief financial office at billeton and davis was involved in that merger as happened in 2001 and so is no stranger to the field of m & a. if you talk about the billiton, so a lot of south africans at the top of the big mining companies, nina. >> there are, indeed and xstrata is listed on the uk and stock has been going wild on the back of this. xstrata shares rise 10.5% in the uk session. staying with britain we have had bad news on the economic front and i'm afraid it just keeps coming, the latest this country may be headed into a recession pretty soon. the national institute of economic and social research or otherwise known as the niesr says that it is a leading research economic body we should point out think tank extremely -- says the uk economy is likely to contract and is more pessimistic when it comes to the outlook from the government's own forecasts predicting about 0.7% growth for this period. the economy, let's remind you strengthened 0.2% over the course of the last quarter. so another consecutive quarter of contraction would technically mean that the uk would be inside a technical recession because the definition of that is two consecutive quarters of shrinking output. as a look at how this is playing out on the market starting with the ftse 100, everything is basically rather flat at the moment. despite the fact that we've had all that news surrounding xat that time xstrata, passed 5780 yesterday. things pretty flat at the moment. andrew? >> okay, well, one stock we'll keep an eye on here on monday, nina, is panasonic. after the close in tokyo, panasonic announcing it was doubling its loss forecast for the fiscal year 2011 to ray record $10.2 billion. now, panasonic's third quarter sales were down 14% as it recorded a loss of $100 million and that came after a profit of 1.3 billion in the same quarter of the previous year. panasonic is blaming the global economic slowdown for the disappointing numbers as well as the european debt crisis and, of course, those supply chain disruptions following the tsunami last month in japan and also the flooding towards the end of last year in thailand. panasonic's announcement comes a day after sewn now more than doubled its own am loss forecast and sharp predicted its worst ever loss so take a look at that. three household names expecting a combined loss of $17 billion in the fiscal year which ends at the end of this march. staggering numbers, those, a quick look at the broader picture. that's you'll how the markets end ended, nikkei down 0.5%. yen strength has been a continuing theme through the losses. exporters today taking a hit. yamaha 7% down. sony backing the trend up more than 8%. they're optimistic about the new ceo he'll close some of the loss-making divisions and helped turn playstation around by cost cutting in the hoping that he will repeat that on a much bigger scale across sony. hong kong, or the hang seng up by 0.08%. longest winning streak since july. >> it was shut for much of the week because of the lunar holiday. wall street will be closely watching that all-important u.s. monthly jobs report due out on friday in just under about 4 1/2 hours from now. it will be seen as a critical indicator of the u.s. economic recovery as it stands today. now, economists say by cnn money say nonfarm payrolls probably rose by 130,000 for the month of january. other forecasts are more an increase between 120 and 50,000 jobs here. if any of those predictions are borne out, what it will mean, it will mark a sharp slowdown for the month of december. that's when we saw the u.s. economy adding around 200,000 jobs. in the meantime, cnn money analysts say they expect the u.s. unemployment rate to have edged up slightly during the month of january to about 8.6%. but the consensus among other economists it seems it is likely to have held steady. 3 1/2-year low of 8 1/2%. we know we need to be adding plenty more thousands of jobs here in the u.s. economy, really to bring that unemployment rate down. that is one of the keys. >> absolutely. what's he the statistic they use, u.s. person hasn't been elected when unemployment has been over 7.2% for the last 50 years so certainly the obama administration hoping that's going to come down. as the economy struggles to pick up steams, wall street wanna-bes are increasingly shifting their career focus. as poppy harlow reports the new hot ticket is risk management. >> reporter: a jam-packed house for a grad course at columbia in of all things financial engineering. >> if you know you're not going to take this class, can you please make up your mind shortly. there is a lot -- >> some of these kids hope to be the future titans of wall street. >> you could easily imagine some sort of unethical trader who knows his bonus is going to be huge if he can make a lot of money and -- >> reporter: what could be their ticket studying this in their engineering program. what is the demand like for this class. >> it's huge, the first two weeks of the semester, loads of students are sitting in the aisles, standing up. we can't take all the students. >> reporter: their textbooks might as well be news clippings and balance sheets from the financial crisis. >> somebody gave us the books of lehman brothers or bear stearns we could very well realized something was wrong. >> aig. they had a lot of credit default swaps, they were leveraging a lot too. >> reporter: to get that first job more than perhaps ever before, they need this class. >> it'll definitely make me more marketable. >> it's a growth area. something good to know. >> even through the crisis when head count has been decreasing risk management is increasing. their numbers are larger than ever before. it's shocked me. >> reporter: they aren't all out to prevent the next financial crisis. don't these kids just want to make money? >> isn't that why everyone is in new york? no, i think most of these kids are 22, 23, they're thinking about getting a job, paying back student loans. >> reporter: with starting salaries around 150 grand for some, that shouldn't be a problem. >> if those assets decrease by just 25% and remain on our books, that loss would be greater than the current market capitalization of this entire company. >> reporter: the movie "margin call" highlights the importance of it. the popularity of risk management represents an ironic shift for those engineers. this was a group of students that went on to make the complex financial instruments that arguably contributed to the crisis. do you think you would be on the other side if 2008 hadn't happened creating these financial instruments. >> without 2008, i thought i would have focused all my time and energy into those areas. >> reporter: if you could have any one in this room taking this class, who would it be? >> i would say the ceos of the top banks. >> reporter: in new york, poppy harlow, cnn money. >> coming up after the break another blow for greece. a hole has been found in the country's finances. we'll tell you how much money is missing just ahead. taking ae oil prices, brent crude is slipping 2 cents at $112.22. welcome back. you're watching "world business today." >> the german chancellor angela merkel is into her second day of the visit to china and the european deabt crisis is high o the agenda. today she met hu jintao seeking to boost confidence in the eurozone following hot on the heels of wen jiabao when he said they would consider boosting the european bailout fund. we have a report from the beijing bureau from eunice yoon. something in the region of $3 trillion worth of reserves, but it has been reluctant to commit funds certainly to any bailout fund in europe. is the view in beijing now changing? >> reporter: well, andrew, i mean, these comments were strongly worded. they came from a very high level official. the chinese prime minister and also the timing of the comments was interesting because they came right after a meeting of the prime minister with the german chancellor angela merkel. if you listened to those comments, the content was quite thin. this is what he had to say. >> translator: china's relevant department is researching and evaluating the specific approaches of china invest via the international monetary fund and in solving the debt crisis via the financial stability facility, the upcoming europe stability mechanism and other channels. >> reporter: so you heard him saying researching and evaluating these possibilities, so these are really very noncommittal words, not a lot of meat on the bones so even though we're seeing the direction that the chinese have, the intention of the chinese to get more deeply involved in the bailout fund there wasn't a lot of meat to work with, andrew. >> we heard them talking about the imf and the efss bailout. greece has fallen behind on its own plans to raise money by selling assets. what about direct investment by china into greece? >> reporter: well, you know, there's been a huge debate about that here, as well. a lot of people have been talking about how, you know, really debating whether or not the european problem is not so much a money problem as it is a growth problem and because the chinese have shown that they are very reluctant to shell out any financial aid to the eurozone there's been a lot of discussion here that perhaps what the chinese should be doing is encouraging a lot of their companies to invest directly into the eurozone. people in the government have been saying they've been interested in buying a small and medium-size company in germany possibly to use as a jumping off point for european expansion and global expansion so people say that could be more helpful to save jobs and boost growth. >> certainly they've got the financial firepower to do that. eunice yoon from beijing, thank you. nina. >> back here in europe things aren't getting better especially for greece. this is the size of the hole in greece's public finances discovered by international inspectors as they were going through the country's budget ahead of approving a second bailout for the country. take a look at that. stands at $20 billion. well, greece will have to find this kind of money even as it goes cap in hand to the eu and imf for more than $170 billion in bailout cash and we should remind you all of this comes as talks continue about writing down or applying haircuts to the already $130 billion that it owes to private creditors, as well. these figures are absolutely staggering, andrew. >> that is some black hole, isn't it? still ahead here, a pr stunt backfires spectacularly on bmw. more on that and plus the latest on the cold snap across europe just ahead. from the beaches med trainen to the french alps snow continues to blanket large parts of europe and we have a story ahead about it. >> later on into the weekend possibility of a few snowflakes where you are. cold temperatures prevalent across milan, minus 10. you take a look at some of these readings, 12 below, and that's been the pattern supported snowflakes and accumulations across the coastal regions work your way into spain, san sebastian, you have to be able to jog carefully. good news, storm systems coming in, snow showers still in the forecast but the good news is that northerly component with the cold air coming in out of siberia, that's going to weaken, a southerly component going to warm up and temperatures going from minus 14 to minus 8 in kiev, certainly a warming trend across portions of europe the next couple of days. pedram, th well for bmw. >> it comes down to here across europe since 1954 folks have named areas of high pressure and low pressure like you see with tropical cyclones across the ocean basins, you can name a storm system and high pressure in europe and in fact in the last couple of years you can sponsor it so purchase high pressure, have your child's name perhaps and see it on the weather maps and also see it on the newspapers and a few weeks ago the folks at bmw decided to responsible for advertising purposes cooper. now think mini cooper. they sponsored this not knowing what would transpire and high pressure ended up lining up with what put the cold air in place, later on that high pressure strengthened and became known at dieter and the instigator came in as cooper and again we do know you can do this. anyone at home watching can purchase areas of low pressure and high appreciate. for low pressure, female names, 199 euro, male names are about 299 euros and the reason the high pressure and male names are more expensive because they last longer on the weather maps and get more air time out of it but that's the adopt-a-vortex program and the next storm system in line for the next week or so they've named it minnie, bmw has sponsored but to their credit they did not know it was going to line up with the storm system but fascinating story nonetheless and nina and andrew will be back on "world business report" with more. from cnn watches "world business today." >> here in the uk we may be looking for something to drive the economy but some people out there are just looking for something to drive. and the economy, it seems is no object. 2011 was the best year yet for sales of rolls-royce cars and bentley continues to perform well, as well. on thursday this company unveiled its latest set of wheels and i got a chance to have a look with the head of the uk's biggest luxury car dealer. ♪ >> reporter: nothing epitomizes british luxury quite like some of the famous british automobiles, take for instance, this bentley, hr own is the largest retailer of these and to market 80th birthdate the company is responsible for launching this, the latest edition. joe doyle is the chief executive here. how much does this cost. >> it retails from $123,000, about $180,000. the whole feature behind the vehicle its running on a v-8 engine. >> reporter: it's more environme environmentally friendly. >> it is. one of the key features over the existing model it's 40% more economical so this vehicle here will drive 500 miles on one tank. >> impressive. now, when we talk about the eurozone which is obviously in the forefront of everybody's minds are you concerned we say see sales slip for vehicles like this outside of the uk? >> i think certainly in europe it's going to be very difficult this year. i can see north america continuing to grow and indeed asia. for the uk we're still confident we can grow but working harder to ensure that happens. >> reporter: what about emerging markets and people coming to the uk and buying these vehicles, is making up for the shortfall. >> i wouldn't say there is a shortfall in sales because sales are up for 2010 and 2011 blue it adds to the new customer base people domiciled here but may have originated from asia. >> reporter: it's not just bentley benefiting from increased demand for motors made for the megarich, rolls-royce has seen its sales go up too. ♪ >> reporter: well, a gain, stand to the introduction of new models like, for instance, this, the rolls royals ghost that came on to the market two years ago and it's been so successful that it's one of the reasons why this company has had to ramp up production 118% since. let's look inside. ♪ >> reporter: this particular vehicle is a special favorite for the so-called owner/driver market. to the average person that's probably somebody who has given the chauffeur the day off. jokes aside, the price tag of cars like this is no laughing matter. this one alone is worth some $400,000. and that's probably one of the reasons why this is the last time i'm going to get to sit in the driver's seat of a luxury british vehicle like this. but, hey, a girl can dream, can't she? ♪ >> now, andrew, perhaps you may be sitting there being a little bit jealous but actually they didn't give me the keys to that rolls and i didn't get to drive it around the block. seems as though there is quite a bit of business to be had. they invited me to the launch party yesterday evening of that particularly bentley continental gtv8 and said they're selling 200 bentleys new ones a year and things are still looking up. >> yeah, sort of get the impression, don't you, if you can afford a bentley recessions don't cramp your style. the rich i guess are different, nina. very disappointed you didn't get to take a bit of a spin around the block. i was watching you sitting in that car thinking i would love to have a go at that. here in hong kong as elsewhe elsewhere a roller is pretty much the status symbol. there are more per capita here than any other city in the world. as economic growth adds to the ranks of the wealthy in china, millionaires there are increasingly keen to flaunt their riches on the road. 1.2 million u.s. dollar rolls-royce year of the dragon special edition phantom sold out in china, get this, even before it made it to the showroom. amazing there. i'd have to say the peninsula hotel here has got to great reputation of buying rollers sort of -- job lots. bought 14 a few years ago, to get its people around. still a bit of demand for the car here. >> yeah, and then we should also point out something else that's quite interesting that's just hit the news today, andrew, in the luxury car space ferrari for instance has been hampered in its efforts to launch its new formula one car in italy largely because of the snow, so it seems as though people are still very much interested in the luxury cars but for the moment those launches a bit touch and go. now, let's go to a big story in the united states today. madonna's headlining the halftime show an adverts cost more than motion pictures and millions are gearing up to shout at tv screens this their sitting rooms and also sports bars this very sunday and that's right, you've guessed it it is because it is the u.s. super bowl. america's professional football championship and behind the superstars on the feel are their super agents so also super-sized sons of money. maggie lake takes a closer look at the financial side of the nfl. >> reporter: while these men prepare to battle for the super bowl title -- >> we were age to negotiate agreement -- >> reporter: these men are looking for ways to help them cash in. >> hello, this is eugene. >> reporter: u glean lee is one of the circle of agents that represent professional athletes made famous by the movie "jerry maguire." >> help me, help me, rod. help me help you. >> reporter: in "jerry maguire" both hit a big payday. in real life it's not that easy. >> "jerry maguire" romanticized what the industry is about, it's a competitive cutthroat industry and you see every year hundreds of aspiring agents enter the field and within a year or two you see the same hundred agents leave the field. there is tremendous competition for the top talent to sign the top players. >> i think right now it's -- but eugene and his lean and mean five-person team are trying to tackle the competition. they represent 11 offering the personal touch that clients don't get at a large agency two on opposing sides of the competition, brian witherspoon and sergio brown. brown will be on the feel for the opening kickoff this year's big game. >> if he does his thing on sunday, there will be many opportunities that will follow. as an agent not only are you responsible for negotiating the contract and his compensation on the field, but you're also responsible for taking opportunities and taking his success on the feel and using that as a platform to other opportunities off the field. >> reporter: that includes commercials, brown already has practice doing an ad for his alma mater notre dame where he shows off his signature backflip. >> thank you monogram club. >> reporter: and this commercial may just be the beginning. >> disney sent out a contract, you know, in case he becomes the mvp of the super bowl, sergio would agree to be filmed immediately after the game. so i sent him the contract. he's like, wow, can this work? i said, yeah, this is legitimate h is from disney. >> reporter: disney may be calling but real life rarely follows a hollywood script. >> here it is. >> show me the money. >> reporter: have any tried these lines on you? >> no. i mean nobody has ever said "show me the money." hopefully someday, you know, we'll be in a position to celebrate and joke around and say that phrase. >> reporter: that day may come soon. lee will be at the super bowl in person ready to root on his super clients. maggie lake, cnn, new york. >> and if you want to comment on that or any of the stories you've seen here on the show get in touch with the whole team on our facebook page, facebook.com/cnnwbt and let us know what you think. well, i'm andrew stevens in hong kong. thanks so much for joining us. >> i'm nina dos santos in london. "marketplace middle ea "marketplace middle east" is next. @ this week on "market middle east" mulling over syria as the u.n. security council mulls its options, we look at the economy. plus, the ripple effect. an interview with jordan's prime minister on the impact of events in syria on the jordanian economy. after days of debate at the u.n. security meeting on syria the council is still torn on the best approach towards the country. a rare criticism in foreclosure country, qatar calls for al assad to step down. >> translator: our efforts and initiatives, however, have been all useless because the syrian government failed to make any sincere effort to cooperate with us and unfortunately, the only solution available was to kill its own people. the fact of the matter is that bloodshed continued and the killing machine is still at work. >> russia and china, however, oppose the draft resolution, moscow opposes any words which could lead to a u.n.-led military intervention and say promoting dialogue inside the country is a much better solution. the syrian ambassador to the u.n. claimed western powers were a crisis in his country. >> translator: syria is going through decisive challenges in its history. we want this stage to be through the will of our people, not through the will of anyone else, to be that point of determination to respond to the legitimate aspirations of the syrian people. >> while worsening violence caused the arab league to suspend its monetary, the economy took a hit. we wondered if the sanctions imposed by the west and the arab league have had an impact on the daily activity of syrians themselves so arwa damon visited a local market and this is what she found out. >> reporter: at this particular market in damascus all shoppers are reluctant to talk on camera. the cloak of fear surrounds everything no matter what the topic of conversation, however, the impact the sanctions are having cannot be masked. as one shop owner put it, look around. you can see for yourself the market is not as busy as it used to be. things like eggplants, cucumbers, tomatoes, basic staples in the average diet, well, they're imported from jordan, the shop owner was telling us and their price has gone up 40% and then you have products like these coconuts brought in from sri lanka, people aren't buying things like this anymore. the sanctions imposed by the west and the arab league were intended to deliver a blow to the government that would force the assad regime's hand, instead the economic pinch is being felt by those who can least afford it. this man sees it daily in his clientele. it hasn't yet hid the middle and upper class families. "it's the lower class that has been forced to become more conservative in their spending," he says. powdered baby's milk, 35% increase in price. just about the same for anything here that has been imported. some other products, a little bit more. we just saw a customer come in asking how much nutela had gone up, 50%. he immediately turned around and walked trait out the door. it really is when it comes to foreign imported goods that one can see the impact that the situation, the sanctions are having on the local market. cracked wheat, though, that's a local product. it stayed relatively stable, rice has been subsidized by the government. but other local products have seen a price hike. and it's mostly due to the oil sanctions which are having the biggest trickle down effect says economist nabil sukkar. >> we are encouraging exports to iraq and iran and trying to find markets for our crude oil, trying to find sources for our import -- product imports. >> reporter: syria cannot refine enough oil products like diesel to meet local demand. sanctions are making imports a challenge causing prices to go up and virginia has even impacted the cost of some local products like chicken. "there needs to be a certain temperature maintained when the chicks are growing. it's a critical three-month period" explains this man. this needs heat and light. running the equipment requires diesel. as a result, the price of chicken, which used to be easily affordable for even the lower class, has gone up 20%. and it could get worse. >> what's also important is that the sanctions are pushing the government to go into protectionism and diversing its liberalization policies so this could be another victim of the sanctions going back to the old command economy tools. >> reporter: the sanctions are working though perhaps not quite yet the way those imposing them intended. arwa damon more "marketplace middle east" in damascus. >> up next, the ripple effect. one country affected by the conflict in syria is neighboring jordan. an interview with the kingdom's prime minister when we come back. 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[ male announcer ] engine light on? come to meineke now for a free code scan read and you'll say...my money. my choice. my meineke. one country is watching the situation more closely than others. jordan has a vested interest not just politically but economically as well. i probing to jordan's prime minister and simply asked what's next for syria. >> there's no clarity whatsoever to what is going to happen in syria and how to deal with syria. there are many theories. some say that this will become a long protracted struggle assuming more and more military aspect. others think that there might be a rupture, but so far it seems that the syrian army at least in the upper echelons is holding on rather well and that hasn't appeared so far. >> what is the impact, economically, on jordan? i know you've been trying to isolate this so it doesn't spill over the borders but it must be holding back what was potentially cross-border investment because syria actually was a foreign direct investment destination. we saw joint ventures taking place between the two countries. those are off the table now. >> enormous. not only with regard to joint ventures, but the jordanian economy and agricultural sector which at the moment and transport sector is heavily dependent on transit through syria. most of it is geared to transit to the worldcoms and with regard to certain measures may, in fact, affect the jordanian economy more than the syrian economy. >> in fact, you're seeing unemployment overall around 17%. a simple calculation would say youth unemployment is closer to 30%. this is going to increase political pressure on you because people want to see the reforms faster and you can't, you know, flip the switch and create jobs. that is pressure to start delivering under. >> the idea is that political reform will somehow deal with the political problems. i think because they link, to put it mildly is a bittenuous. if, on the other hand, the question is how well we deal with the economic aspects because we have a complex problem political and economic, that is more daunting job. >> no simple solution if i can be candid. >> wish to god that you can, you know, bring about economic prosperity by the enactment of laws and creation of political parties and the setting up of commissions and so on and so forth. nevertheless, that is important. it is very important for jordan to have the right laws in place, but i mean, you know, none of us were born yesterday and it will take much more than good laws to bring about a resurgence, you know, of prosperity in the country. >> will the gcc membership actually help in the near term because we don't have that defined in terms of the dates yet but open up the labor market so jordanians can go into the gulf cooperation states. >> jordan and other countries stand to gain from such relationship and i am not so sure that former membership is the only way. possibilities are endless and the important thing is to have investment to open the markets of the gcc. there are many, many things that can be done and which are starting to be done, which should have an immediate and beneficial impact on the jordanian economy. >> once again jordanian prime minister awn khasawneh speaking to me in davos. a quick check of other headlines. six members of the international atomic energy agency were in iran. the team did not ask to inspect iran's nuclear facilities and both sides agreed to continue discussions. the u.s. and its allies believe tehran is trying to make nuclear weapons. egypt the worst performer last year and tumbled 00% in 2011 after hosni mubarak was forced to step down. january, egypt saw its biggest monthly gain in seven years. send your comments by e-mail to mme@cnn.com. check it out in arab, as well, arab.cnn.com/mme. and that's it for this edition of cnn "marketplace middle east." i'm john defterios. thanks for watching. we'll see you next week.