betty: i am betty liu in new york, where it is just past 7:00 p.m. on this labor day holiday. we will be looking at china s role in the crisis. how sanctions may target its oil lifeline to kim jong-un s regime. writing into bitcoin. the cryptocurrency tumbled at the pboc declares coin offerings illegal. anchor: let us get straight to some breaking economic news coming across the bloomberg involving south korea for the month of july. the balance of payments for south korea, taking up ticking up a bit to $7.26 billion. the good balance coming in a bit .igher at $1.07 billion yvonne, these numbers traditionally may not be that significant, but certainly, a lot more attention is being paid to south korea on the fiscal side and also on the trade side as it looks as if south korea is going to be ramping up defense spending as well as looking towards further trade tensions with the united states, and in particular, given these rising tensions. the good balance coming in at $1.07 b
on this story. according to sec documents in my possession, documents right here, pierson sold 288,000 shares on june 30th for proceeds of $5.7 million. that was filed and is publicly known. then on july 1st, and this appears to be new. the motherload. 4.1 million shares, with proceeds of $82.8 million. there was another sale known by now some 411 million shares, total proceeds from all this, $96.8 million. my panel with me, and kate on the case. boy, interesting. i don t think the market knew or knows about this sale of the 4 million shares. might explain, scott, why we re not seeing a down tick in the stock price right now. very interesting. i think on the one hand, pierson might be expected to want to liquidate holdings, no longer has skin in the game except as a matter of principle. a company he helped build, of course a darling of many hedge fund investors. their benefit and litter detriment for some time. sequoia as well. popular stock for a period of time. replaced b
the buyback of greek debt will in fact work. we re seeing just fractions of a percent in terms of changes there. our road map this morning starts with the latest in the fiscal cliff negotiations. the white house promptly rebuffs the gop counterproposal which calls for $800 billion in new tax revenue but without tax rate increases for the wealthy. could this tax issue deadlock the talks? bank of america ceo warns the cliff must get stalled or the economy could be stifled well into 2014. even more dividends pushed into 2012. coach, american eagle moving up and oracle will play out three-quarters of dividends this year. more strength in housing this morning. toll brothers earnings top expectations. we ll begin with the fiscal cliff. governors are set to meet today with the president and congressional leaders. governors are concerned about the impact of deficit reduction measures on their state budgebu. the latest gop offer would overhaul the tax code, raise $800 billion in
ecb s unlimited bond-buying program. and the olympic flame arrived in sochi ahead of tonight s ceremony. many leaders will not be turning up at the 2014 olympics. announcer: you re watching worldwide exchange, bringing you business news from around the globe. the olympics get it s amazing to think the olympics are under way. it seems to far in the future. yeah. and yanick node is with us. come in, come in. what did you say? i m going there next week. are you? yes. fantastic. are you competing? no, no, i m not competing. we ll talk to you about that. more from him in a few moments time. plenty of other things coming up on this show. a tough week for social networking stocks, right? disappointing outlook from linkedin sent shares lower after hour after twitter lost a quarter of its value on thursday s session. what to expect from india s latest gdp reading where growth is expected to accelerate. purchase, telecoms. purchase? we ll find out. the la
higher, up about 70% above $94.9 0. you can keep an eye on it about squawk on the street. join us tomorrow. right howard here s squawk on the street let s do it good thursday morning. i m carl kquintanilla. jobless claims did come in stronger than expected. got blowout housing starts. meantime, europe is trying to find some direction after a decent spanish bond offering and good numbers from retailer. the first grounding of a major commercial jet in this country since 1979. is boeing s dreamliner safety to fly. how much work will it take to make it right? bank of america and citi s earns are messy, does it justify the runup? and is citi s michael core bath finished with the kitchen sink. we will preview those and talk about why ebay s numbers fell a bit short. we ll begin with boeing. the faa and other aviation regulators have grounded the company s dreamliners as they look to determine what caused the aircraft s battery to catch fire. there s a look at 73 on th