the day. the dow opens at 12,471 after adding 21 points yesterday. the s&p 500 was up three. the nasdaq gained 13. taking a look at overseas trading, in tokyo, the nikkei jumped 114 points while in hong kong, the hang seng rose 109. falling oil and strong european baund auctions drove a late come back on wall street thursday causing stocks to close higher. materials and industrials drove the recovery with caterpillar and alcoa leading the dow. oil fell below 1$100 a barrel this year. and also pushing stocks, strong bond auctions in italy and spain which eased european debt worries. energy shares took a hit after chevron warned on fourth quarter profit. corn futures plunged. wheat futures also tumbled. stocks tripped up early on data. december s retail sales rose at
possible. myanmar and former prime minister, they report 651 prisoners are scheduled to be released starting today. also, the government has signed a cease fire with the current ethnic group to try to end a 63-year armed conflict. u.s. secretary of state hillary clinton is calling for an end to the arab league s work. they ve criticized the mission as ineffective and understaffed. there s been no letup in the fuel price protests paralyzing my gear yeah talks between the labor unions and the government ended without an agreement to restore fuel subsidies. they re threatening to stop production if the nigerian government does not reverse its position. negotiations are scheduled to resume saturday. those are the top stories. world business today starts right now. happy friday to you. welcome to world business today. i m nina dos santos in london. and i m andrew stevens in hong kong. welcome. top stories this day, apple fans in china turn angry and skuffle with police
how wall street will kick off the day. the dow opens at 12,359 after losing 55 points friday. the s&p was down 3 points and the nasdaq headed 4. taking a look at overseas trading this morning, in tokyo, the nikkei dipped 98 points. in haong kong, the hang seng climbed 272. in the wake of friday s data showing the lowest jobless rate in three years, alcoa kicks off earnings season today with fourth quarter corporate figures expected to show strong results. germany s angela merkel and france s nicolas sarkozy meet today in berlin on euro debt issues. this week, italy and spain hold their first bond auctions of the year. wall street will closely watch interest rates on those bonds. traders will also eye greece where more crucial austerity
private. here s your first look at how wall street will kick off the day. the dow opens at 12,359 after losing 55 points friday. the s&p was down 3 points and the nasdaq headed 4. taking a look at overseas trading this morning, in tokyo, the nikkei dipped 98 points. in haong kong, the hang seng climbed 272. in the wake of friday s data showing the lowest jobless rate in three years, alcoa kicks off earnings season today with fourth quarter corporate figures expected to show strong results. germany s angela merkel and france s nicolas sarkozy meet today in berlin on euro debt issues. this week, italy and spain hold their first bond auctions of the year. wall street will closely watch interest rates on those bonds. traders will also eye greece
become much more pronounced. i mean, if that system blows, you know, consumers are beginning to be the least of our problems. michael gerson s got a question. i do. the european crisis that we re seeing is not just a sovereign debt crisis, but a financial crisis. their financial industry. i m just curious about what exposure the u.s. has to what s going on there and whether the europeans in the new year are going to be able to just bump along with minimal solutions, time after time, without some kind of reckoning? well, the reckoning will come once the refinancings start next year. there are massive amounts of refinancings, rollovers of their existing debt that some of the weaker countries over there have to do. italy is still borrowing at just under 7%. that is not sustainable. the european central bank has been, on occasion, including this week, had to come in and support bond auctions of italy in order to make sure they run