likely to once again dominate this week. the germ man trans ler angel la merkel and nicholas sarkozy are holding more talks today on rescuing the eurozone. across the atlantic it s the unofficial start of corporate earning season. nina, it will be europe outweighing the u.s. as far as investor interest is concerned this week. yeah, that s one of the consistent themes that we ve seen over the course of the last year. as you ring in a new year, andrew, it s difficult for the corporate earnings to move the economic agenda. let s talk about the things we ve got moving in the market. broadly speaking it s a question of two up, two down. we should point out it is a very big week here in europe with the ongoing concerns about debt once again in the forefront of investor s minds. they re weary ahead of a planned meeting between the leaders of france and germany. they re also concerned about things like, for instance, spain
sort above the crucial 7% mark. that level makes investors nervous because that has forced other countries in europe to seek bailouts. aside from those meetings we have loads of financial data this week too. from the u.s. and china in particular. on wall street alcoa unofficially kicks off earning season today. they re expected to report a loss of 2 cents a share. on friday jpmorgan chase is the first of big financials to report. they are the earnings are expected to be 17% lower than the same quarter last year. china, we have trade surplus numbers coming out on tuesday. the country s sin want news says it the surplus will be down. looking ahead to thursday. well, china releases its december inflation data. the cpi. you knew that is expected to come in at around 4%. if true, that would be its slowest rate of inflation in 15
anything could happen between now and then. let s go back to what s dominating the stock markets here in europe at the moment, the european debt crisis. let s get a bit of an analysis. michael, first of all, let s talk about this meeting between the leaders of france and germany, yet another meeting. what is going to be said that ll make any difference this time? good morning, nineteen a. happy new year to you. i think we re going to see more of the same starting 2012, starting it the same way we ended it in 2011. more meetings. this will be the first meeting of three or four before the eu summit. the hope here is amongst investors merkel and sarkozy will start to outline some measures to stimulate growth in europe. the at moment its the focus has been on fiscal austerity. while haes all well and good, the focus needs to be on growth.
part of the world, it s obviously healthy to see this gradual sort of increase in the level of interest to invest in these types of art. major galleries in the western world shifting their focus to hong kong and china. i certainly hope that the it s sort of collectively part of everyone s sort of long-term view that there is potential in this part of the world to develop the city into, you know, something more sophisticated, more savvy in terms of appreciating art. well, from one buoyant asset class to a rather mixed one, we re talking about equity markets particularly here in europe. this is the picture about 1.5, two hours into the trading session here in europe. we ve got a heavy focus on two
welcome to new week of world business today. i m nina dell santos. i m andrew. in hong kong the top stories this monday, january the 9th. zbroo europe takes center stage on the markets as we have another big week for the struggling currency. new zealand tries to contain its worst ever environmental disaster after a cargoship marooned for months splits in two. we ll speak to the country s transport minister. and an indefinite nationwide strike is underway in nigeria. after fuel prices double in africa s biggest oil producer. so we re seeing a little bit of cautious optimism creeping into the markets at the start of a new trading week. asian markets were broadly higher. european markets are broadly mixed and it s europe that is