vote slated today. that issue likely to dominate in the eu summit tomorrow. markets suffering, adding to yesterday s losses albeit not as much. pauline? i m afraid the asian markets did not give you a good lead-in today. here in asia, japan led the losses. profit taking sent tokyo s main index lower as investors reacted to new radiation warnings, this time in tokyo s tap water. we heard an update from my colleague a colleague about that. after the markets closed j pan s government said the cost of the economy of the earthquake and the tsunami could total $308 billion. meanwhile, around the rest of the region, shares of cole companies dragged down the market, the hang seng here in hong kong. and banking and energy stocks gave sydney a slight boost.
i think it could. investors have had a very easy ride in the u.s. stock markets pretty much uninterrupted for the last four or five, six months. this was the first time the alarm clock really went off and said, hey, there might be some risk out there. when you have profits, you want to lock them in. again, 1.7% drop, that is clearly not some catastrophic selloff. could be some profit taking. i believe that s what it was. rick: michael, the president of u.n. i. private wells strategy. good to talk to you. thanks so much. thank you, rick for having me. arthel: rick, it s snack time. if you re looking for something with a little crunch, you may want to avoid the potato chips. what in the world do you grab? consumer reports sorts it out. rick: multi grain coming up.
session. the nikkei in tokyo was the only exception. a strengthening yen dragged down japanese exporters there, ended down for the first time in three days and you see profit taking by investors there, as well. coal mining companies some of the best performers in shanghai. they got a lift from good economic news and despite a slower growth in the fourth quarter the country s gdp reached 6.1% for 2010. that s the fastest pace in about eight years. markets in australia and india were closed today for public holidays. meanwhile, there s trouble for toyota. shares of the japanese carmaker fell nearly 2% this trade. they announced a voluntary worldwide recall of almost 1.7 million cars over a potential fuel leak problem. u.s. stocks closed flat on tuesday. investors were disappointed with
their hands. there is a big frozen market out there and i think the quality of these offerings is, at least relative to what i ve tasted, substantially better. i m kind of amazed at how juicy the chicken was in this dish. reporter: marketing challenge, no doubt, richard will soon find out whether their gamble has paid off. next week on the boss, sarah curran is once again in the spotlight, this time facing her investors. and we catch up with michael wu in hong kong as he makes time for a worthy cause. let s take another look at the european markets as they open up here across the continent. they ve actually taken a turn downwards and banking stocks really leading the way there. perhaps some profit taking going on but there was some talk about a bit of a clampdown from europe last night. we ll seepirtranspires.
protecting them. failing to restore the depression era fire walls that once protected the nation from the short-term, high-risk profit taking that broke our economy. the administration got beat up from being too cooperative with or tough on bp for the explosion of its oil rig that killed 11 people, slimed the gulf of mexico and shut down entire industries for months. national disasters struck in haiti with an earthquake and at home in tennessee, which clamored for attention during flooding there. we lost some of our favorite people this year. young men whose careers never transcended their beginnings and legends who redefined typical hollywood careers. here in this news hour, some of our favorite things managed to mix a little bit of hollywood and a little bit of lampooning with our better and better, politics. the absurdly false claim that president obama is a secret