gas prices pretty steadily dropping in the past couple of weeks. is there a good sense of how much farther they could go now? you know, the funny thing is, chris, gasoline prices always seem to rise a whole lot faster than they come down. we call that a little sticky at the top. but nonetheless, brent crude prices have been falling in london to around 1.05 right now after the liberalian rebels trekked into tripoli. if the east opec nations exports resume soon and i m hearing as soon as three weeks, the markets do anticipate it will bring back online about 1.6 million barrels a day of oil production, which you would hope would push brent and crude prices down and help at the pump. what we re seeing, our crude prices in the states are still moving higher and i think part of that is because you ve got a weaker dollar with the market starting to price in what we know as qe-3, which certainly would push commodity prices higher. so it s a little bit of a conundrum there. the stock marke
in american history is almost treason in my opinion. because he never served. perry told a military gathering, quote, i want to make sure that every young man and woman who puts on the uniform of the united states respects highly the president of the united states. in fact, perry even seems to question obama s patriotism. listen to this. you need to ask him. [ inaudible question ] i m saying a good reporter. go ask hm. cnn s shannon travis is in iowa. governor perry had a gem for you, i understand, in your cameras? that s right. reporter: he did have a gem for me. it s important to question whether the newly republican presidential candidate if this is his texas swaggering bravado. he is just getting into this race and has more established contenders who have been in the race longer. as you yu just mentioned he did say a little bit of things and say he sealed it with a kiss. romney took a swipe at you today saying he has private sector experience and that makes hi
horn of africa. the united nations says it has received half of the $2.5 billion it needs to tackle the crisis. china says it is slowing down its bullet trains and stopping new construction because of an accident that killed last month that killed at least 40 people. the accident was blamed on design flaws on equipment. and syrian troop efforts are growing to end the crackdown. under scored the urgency of the situation there. those are the top stories from cnn, the world news leader. world business today starts right now. good morning cnn london. and a very good friday afternoon, from cnn hong kong. i m andrew stevens. you re watching world business today and the top stories for today, friday, august 12th, four countries go to protect their banks. a short-selling ban goes in effect today. growth slows to zero. and several reasons to celebrate. a reversal of fortune for this group, whose company just announced massive layoffs. let s get straight to the mark
bottom. when it comes to steering the economy, we ll tell you how beijing is being penned in by china s soaring pork prices. stock markets are up, but after the collapse of confidence that s hammered equities over the past few sessions, investors are wondering whether the panic is really over. tuesday s federal reserve meeting appears to have been the trigger for the rally in europe. the gains there partially reversing the spectacular falls of recent days. european indices are heading higher. a asia followed that swing. the dow posted its biggest gain this year. here in hong kong the stock exchange has just closed. the hang seng recovered some of that but still has quite a way to go. it lost almost 12% of its value over the past three sessions of decline. nina? andrew, none of these markets are down in the double digits. let s see how they re doing just an hour into the trading session. we ve got, for instance, the dax up in excess of 1.75%. and the ftse 100 and the zur
their last bastian of power. if they fail in this attempt, it s going to make democrats really nervous that labor is really a financially powerful ally for the future. as investors try to shake off monday s meltdown, they re looking to the fed to help stop the bleeding. beckie quick joins us. she brought andrew ross sorkin. he s author of too big to fail as well as the columnist of the new york times. becky, let me start with you, what do the markets want to hear today from ben bernanke? from ben bernanke, i m sure the short term, the markets would like to hear he s going to step in and take care of everything and qe 3 is coming. that would be bad news for the long term. for the long term, they want to hear a whole lot of nothing that the fed is standing by. if things get worse, they will be there to pick things up, but i don t think the markets necessarily in the long term