china s economy cools slightly, but still hot enough to beat the forecast. uk lawmakers close ranks to try and block news corp s bid for bskyb. first up though here in the italian capital, the government is preparing to speak to parliament for a marathon debate over the next couple days, designed to gain the necessary approval for painful austerity measures. these are ones designed to prevent this country from becoming the fourth eurozone nature to go cap in hand to the imf, the eu and the ecb. pauline. european stock market investors are watching italy s debt crisis very closely. here is where they stand at the moment. let s take a look at the moment. the london ftse making some gains, so is the xetra dax t. zurich smi is pretty much flat at the moment on this wednesday morning. nina? pauline, of course, the effects of italy s debt crisis are being next right across the board. let s have a look at where the ftse is. the milanese has lost about 4,000 points in the last
to overweight, and that has helped the likes of the cac 40. that index up over 1%. and the ftse 100 is pushing towards the 1% mark as well. andrew? the financial stocks have been dragging australia down this week after a downgrade. the winners, though, in this part of the world, hong kong led the way. petrochina was among the companies giving the hang seng a boost. that after the oil producer s parent company boosted its stake in the business. the hang seng up by almost 1%. the nikkei down in early trading after sony dropped pomore than . on an ls of almost 3.2 billion. in the past few minutes, sony
process, i m totally sure people from the armed forces had been protecting him. after that, he changed the people who were protecting him and at the end of the day i mean that he was protected by very small group of the people from his family. but we ll check everything. we ll investigate everything. we ll announce what happened in the past 16 years. u.s. secretary of state hillary clinton has arrived in pakistan, aimed at talks repairing the nations between the two countries. large parts of the u.s. had severe thunderstorm warnings overnight. two people died in atlanta, georgia, when trees fell on two vehicles in high winds. those are the head lines. i m zain verjee at cnn london. world business today starts now. good morning from cnn london. i m nina del santos. good afternoon from hong kong. i m andrew stevens. japan s auto industry stalls. honda and toyota unveil the full extent of post-quake production cuts. dollars for democracy. g-8 nations pledge to help egy
in syria. these rikts are set to show demonstrations in dara last friday. although cnn cannot verify when the video was shot. an estimated 1,500 people are unaccounted for in joplin,h. nearly 100 volunteers are working to reunite family and determine who s really missing. the volcanic eruption in iceland that s disrupted air traffic in europe is finally ending. the ash cloud thrown up from the volcano is drifting east and dissipating and most of the airports closed are re-opening. those are the headlines. i m zain vergee, world business today starts now. good morning, from cnn london and welcome to world business today. i m nina dos santos. and good afternoon from cnn hong kong, rhyme andrew stephens. the top stories this thursday, may 2 th. sony s bad run continues. it s now forecasting a profitable year ahead. even that outlook fails to impress. dominique strauss-kahn is now under house arrest at this luxury new york townhouse. i m a leader by temper and att
the euro is down about one-fifth against the dollar, currently trading at 1.3935. the pound is flat at the the moment, the pound not being helped by news coming out of a leading trade body. we have a new npc member on the bank of england s rate setting committee. that is in focus. in britain, the japanese yen trading up three-tenths of 1% at 82.49 as you can see there, andrew. all the major indices ending the day in positive territory in asia. hong kong s hang seng up 1.71. petroleum and gas shares getting the benefit there. rumors from the kuwaiti oil minister, that opec may increase production to offset any shortfalls from libya.