now tops $4 a gallon. that is the highest americans have paid since 2008. and european markets have dropped sharply as oil prices surge as you can see there. the xetra dax down. not a great start to monday as you can see. nasdaq down 2%, expected to open down 2%. similar picture with s&p. apple stocks keeping an eye on those, expected to open down more, roughly 2%, i should say. well, more companies are severing ties with russia over its invasion in ukraine. streaming giant netflix is joining entertainment companies pausing operations in russia. it will stop selling as well as providing its video service there. american express is the latest credit card company to end operations. its globally used cards will no longer work in russia. and social media giant tiktok
they are refusing to leave the jail until they get permission to hold their fast. i m zain verjee and world business today starts now. good morning from cnn paris, i m nina dos santos. welcome to world business today. the top stories this wednesday, august 17th. leaders of the eurozone s two top economies meet and investors are not impressed by the outcome. the world s largest economy hasn t been inspiring much confidence either. in an exclusive interview u.s. president barack obama tells us how he wants to turn that around. new evidence emerged in the news of the world hacking scandal challenging james murdoch s testimony. first, let s get straight to the markets. if investors were holding their breath in the hope of a break through in europe s sovereign death crisis, they ll still be waiting to exhale. tuesday s much-hyped meeting between the french president nicolas sarkozy and german chancellor angela merkel was a damp squid in the eyes of the market as
losses. meanwhile the losses we were seeing on the euro-zone i m sorry on paris contact and xetra dax down. here s news investors will be listening for. hsbc holdings has announced its first quarter profits. $4.2 billion up, 58%. earnings per share, 23 cents. that is up by 53% compared to the first quarter of last year. and in a statement they re saying that all of their regions and customer groups continue to be profitable in the first quart over this year. they do point out that profits in europe were hit by or there was a hit of $440 million for they re calling payment protection insurance in the uk and that was falling in favor of the financial services administration regulator, the watch dog here in april.
european markets are fairing now. here s where they stand 90 minutes into the trading day. the london ftse down .67%. paris contact down .19%. zurich smi up .08% and xetra dax down .37%. what s it like in asia? it s hitting markets in japan. the hong kong hang seng is japan, just to make that clear. that hurt the markets. it pulled the market down. also pulling the market down in japan the ministry of finance came out with new figures which shows japan had a $5.7 billion trade deficit in january. that s the first time there s been a deficit in 22 months, and it was fueled by higher import costs and weaker than expected exports. now markets around the rest of the region were as you saw.
been flirting with a $1,400 mark this wednesday, trading just a fraction .15 cents up by almost over 1 dollar. earlier in the day libya s leader gadhafi helped to spur more safe haven buying after he said he was, quote, ready to diaz a martyr and and crush a revolt. welcome back. this is world business today. let s take another quick look at the markets here in europe. the markets are generally down this morning. the ftse down .78%. the dax down .41%, the paris contact down .19% and the zurich smi up .17%. shanghai composite up by about 1.25s. it has been a very poor