Zurich insurance says it is looking into whether undue pressure was put on its late cfo before his death. Also confirming the presence of a suicide note that mentions joseph ackermann. Hello, welcome to the last Worldwide Exchange of the week. Plenty to get through, though, on todays program. Loreal jumped. Is the worlds biggest cosmeticmaker putting on the final touches to buy a stake of nestle. Hamburg is one of the worlds busiest ports. Well be in hamburg to discuss at 10 35 cet. David cameron says he wont override the British Parliament of syria, well speak to a former u. S. Ambassador of saudi arabia to get his take on the latest developments. Robert jordan at 10 30 cet. While politician disease bait military strikes on syria, won atack Push Oil Prices to record highs as prices are steady after midweek surge. More on than in an hour and a half. August comes to a close, well look at what kind of summer u. S. Markets had. Well be live at 11 45 cet. Thoughts or comments, email us, worldwide cnbc. Com. First, u. S. Defense secretary hagel played down speculation that the u. S. Is preparing to go it alone in syria after the British Parliament struck down a vote on military action. Following the surprise defeat, the british Prime MinisterDavid Cameron ruled out any involvement. I strongly believe in the need for a tough response to the use of chemical weapons, but i also believe in respecting the will of this house of commons. It is very clear tonight that the while the house has not passed a motion, it is clear to me that the British Parliament, reflecting the views of the british people, does not want to see British Military action. I get that. Hagel said the u. S. Would continue to contusult with britn and other ill lallies. Officials told members of congress they had intercepted communications proving assads regime carried out the chemical weapons attack. U. S. Is expected to wait for a final report from the u. N. Inspectors, due to leave syria on saturday, before deciding on the next course of action. Hadly gamble joins us on set. It is interesting, where does the British Parliament vote really leave the u. S. , do you think, and president obama . Really it leaves the u. S. In a tight spot. President obama has to make this a clear decision about Foreign Policy. This is no longer just about chemical weapons being used in syria. This is now about basically iran and the broader region. We have iran influencing everything happening in syria at this point, the fallout there being in lebanon, in turkey. We also have the threat of a Nuclear Weapons program in iran. If president obama were to look weak on iran, what that means is inevitably there would be questions about his Foreign Policy. In politics, you can make and break promises every day but on Foreign Policy you want to stay strong. Some are pushing back on the president , asking for more evidence month, time. Congress is out of session now. Who knows how long that kind of delay would setback any kind of missile action, missile strike. Unlike the British Parliament which makes fairly binding on the government, the president of the United States is commander in chief, can do what he likes and said were going to take action. He cant hide behind he cant change his mind behind the fact, i dont have a choice. Exactly th. This is iran. Hes been couching this in terms of National Security and National Security interests of the United States and what does that mean . It means the broader security of the region. Were basically in a bind because we have to protect israel, we have to make sure jordan and egypt are both secure, but also in terms of the iran nuclear debate. So what it is interesting, how do they Gather International support if theyre only going to be the only ones taking action . It is interesting. We have to wait and see about these u. N. Inspectors if they come back with definitive evidence that mr. Assad used chemical weapons and then expect to see more movement in the Security Council and france is having an emergency debate on wednesday. Well have to wait and see. Okay. Hadly, thank you very much for that. Of course, the fact that of that british vote effectively mean means that oil prices are a little bit weaker again today. Lets show you where we stand at the moment on the global map. Dow jones stoxx 600 is down the at session, down 8 to 2. This follows a gain yesterday of 52 points for the ftse up. 8 . Uk market down half a percent at the moment. Xetra dax down a third. Cac quarante down half. And the ftse mib down twothirds of 1 as well. Lets look at where we stand with the bond markets. Tenyear treasury yields, 2. 77 . Not a huge reaction to that. Strong reaction out of gdp yesterday. Was 1. 77 first time around. Even the most bullish forecast for 2. 2. Gilt yields, 2. 76 . On the currency markets, dollar steady near fourweek highs. That data helping the u. S. Dollar. Dollar yen, 90. 07. Sterling dollar, 125. 20. Aussie dollar,. 8938. Euro dollar, 132. 40 mark. In japan, a pickup on inflation is fueling optimism that abenomics is working. Core cpi rising and beating forecasts and with help from the weak yen and Higher Energy prices. Factory output rose by 3. 2 but missed expectations for 3. 7 rise. A report showed that the jobless rate fell to its lowest in nearly five years. Household spending edged up. So how is japan data playing out . Lets get a wrap on the final trading day of the week in asia. Sixuan in singapore. Hi, sixuan. Thank you, ross. The abenomics is working, but the nikkei 225 lost half a percent today despite japan reporting a second straight monthly gain in core inflation. The index lifted 2 for the week and also declined for the fourth straight month. The shanghai composite ended the day basically on the flat note, but still gained about 2 on the week. And over 5 for the month. This helped by decent Economic Data and corporate earnings. Let me show you some top gainers and losers in japan. Oil shares pulled back after yesterdays strong gains as those syria concerns eased. Some exporters led support. Panasonic shares jumped 2. 4 today after saying the company will resume paying dividends for first time in about two years. Meanwhile, earnings news very much in focus in china. Banking majors icbc and bank of china both reported stronger than expected earnings. Net interest margins helped steady while fees rose sharply. Shares gained less than a percent on the shanghai composite. Ping an insurance posted a 28 jump in earnings, this thanks to the double digit Profit Growth from the groups banking unit and also higher investment returns. Shares rallied over 3 today. Back to you, ross. All right, sixuan, thanks for that. Catch you later now. Freefalling rupee and political paralysis, indias economy is hurting. Gdp in the is expected to rise 4. 7 , half the rate from two years ago, maybe insufficient for an ever blooming population like indias. Ahead of the figures, the Prime Minister told parliament he expects a pickup in the second half of the fiscal year. That doesnt jive with analysts. Bnp paribas slashed to 3. 7 . With more, ekta batra has more. It is going to be a disappointing gdp figure if you look at the previous past figures. But the consensus is picking up around 4. 7 . The range for gdp is anywhere between 4. 3 to 4. 8 . To break it up, industry is the soft point this time around. It is expected to grow around 1 and any sort of disappointment on the downside will definitely be very, very disappointing for the markets. Remember, industries will also be affected by the rupee depreciation. We have seen the rupee depreciate 22nd onward and the entire depreciation for the month of june as well as partially in may will possibly be reflected in the q 1 but more so in q2 when the july tightening measures started by the rbi and hence we could see more of an impact coming there. Otherwise, service is expected to slow, but agri is expected to be stable at 2. 5 to 3 . Back to you. Ekta, thank you for that. Joining us with more at Deutsche Bank, thomas. If it slips below 4 next year, what are the implications . Depends on how todays gdp pans out and to what extent the tightening measures of the rbi put in place last month stay. If this is a temporary tightness, i think the economy can still grow at between 4. 5 to 5 for the financial year. But if were going to have double digit colony overnight grades for several months and the bank convulse around it, then we have Serious Problems as far as growth is concerned for this year and next. Mind you, Monetary Policy acts with a lag. If youre going to have several months of tightening now, it will be attractive growth for several quarters to come. Yeah, look, they have got a problem with should they can they try to not defend the rupee . Should they just let it go. Defending the rupee and tightening the overnight call rate are two different things. I disagree with the rbi there was a lot of speculation going on, the Exchange Rate and with the yield curve, they managed to arrest speculation and volatility. I think quite a contrary, the difference of the rupee was a straightforward reaction to the fed tapering that led to capital outflow. So indias job is to secure financing, whether it is through official means or private means by pressing for investors. Short of that, we look to have problems with the Exchange Rate regardless of where the Monetary Policy means. So, look, take Monetary Policy out of it. If there is this plan to buy banks, to direct commercial banks to buy gold from ordinary citizens and try to divert it to refiners, is that a plan that stacks up . Well, i think there has been a slew of measures. If you add up all the measures, youre going it go into literally 30 to 40 measures. This is yet another one. The attempt is to reuse imports, to discourage gold imports. That money goes to something more productive. Preferably not toward other imports. And to that extent, i think the authorities are trying to do the right thing, bring back some of the normalcy to the current account deficit situation. Mind you, that also means there will be lower demand and lower growth. It is not a situation that is favorable in any stretch of the imagination. A question of trying to take the better part of the area. How do you see this playing out . Always this view with india that i lot of the problems have been to some degree have been selfinflicted. Indeed. And the risk Going Forward is substantial. I dont think just because the rupee has corrected by 20 that, you know, we are going to see some positive dividend out of it anytime soon. The risk is, markets remain disorderly, Exchange Rates overshoot and that creates huge amount of real economic pain, whether it is in terms of repayment of debt difficulties for those dollars or inflation problems because of the Exchange Rate. It is nontrivial, it is serious and it has grave implications. Does the rupee we take a little bit of pressure off it in the last couple of sessions, but is it going to remain under severe pressure, will it get weaker . Unfortunately if we see continued volatility around taper, i think the Exchange Rate volatility will remain not just in india but other economies characterized by current account deficit. On the other hand, if it is just a question of domestic drivers of sentiment, i think some of the measures that have been taken will help. The fact they are trying to take Oil Companies off the spot market and doing dollar spots with them, that ought to help on the margin in reverting the supply imbalance to a more millionable pla manageable plane. If they go out and talk about bringing some money back into the economy, that would help as well. It is also a fuchks of schedule market vulnerable tiz and volatility, something that india cannot do much about. All right, tom, thank you very much for that. We have comments out from the indian Prime Ministers. Were having that discussion, no reason to believe Indian Economy is in a similar position to 1991. Believes Economic Growth will be around 5. 5 this full year and as respect also says those who think indian growth fears of indian growth are falling to 3 are completely unfounded. Indian tourists, the rupee slide hits the vacation budget. Tourism declined could fall further if the currency keeps depreciating. Head to cnbc. Com to find out more. Back from india to concerns of the middle east. Lets get more on syria. Ayman mohyeldin is on the ground. We have been following movements in london and British Parliament saying theyre not going to take action. What does that mean and how is it being perceived . Well, certainly the coalition at the u. S. Perhaps earlier in the week thought it had locked up is certainly showing some signs of fracture, not only among the closest western allies who would probably be involved in some type of military operation if it were to be carried out, but also diplomatically across the region. There is growing concerns that the situation in which a strike would occur would be disastrous on a humanitarian level, but could also exacerbate the regions already tense security situation. Some of the countries closest to the United States including egypt, including jordan, have come out with their own reservations. Jordan says it will not allow any countries to use its territory and air space to carry out strikes on syria. Egypt, one of the closest countries to the United States, came out and said it rejects the use of Foreign Military intervention to solve the crisis. Some of the u. S. foes in the region have vowed to defend the Syrian Government in the event of a possible strike, one way or the other, saying it would lead to regional war that would not end favorably to the United States. And against that backdrop as we were saying, the humanitarian situation continues to worsen. Jordan already buckling from more than 150,000 refugees that have set up their thousands of pouring into iraq and turkey and lebanon unofficially. It is making for a few tense days while the International Community decides what is to happen. The u. N. Weapons inspectors visiting the site of the alleged chemical weapons attack are still inside. Theyre expected to leave on saturday to possibly submit their findings for a possible another round of voting at the u. N. Security council. Thank you very much. Still to come, loreal impressing investors with a rise in first half profit despite weaker demand from developed markets. Stay tuned. The ceo tells cnbc why hes remaining tight lipped over plans to buy nestles stake in the cosmetics giant. [ male announcer ] ive seen incredible things. Otherworldly things. But there are some things ive never seen before. This ge jet engine can understand 5,000 data samples per second. Which is good for business. Because planes use less fuel, spend less time on the ground and more time in the air. Suddenly, faraway places dont seem so. Far away. Time to have new experiences with a familiar keyboard. To update our status without opening an app. To have all our messages in one place. To browse. And share. Faster than ever. Its time to do everything better than before. The new blackberry q10. Its time. Shares of kpn have taken a dive. Doubts have arisen over the takeover of the company. This after the kpn foundation took up an option to buy nearly 50 of the firm. The foundation says it intervened to protect the interests of shareholders and employees and customers and dutch society. America movil released a statement saying it remains committed to the deal but will abandon the bid unless the foundation changes its stance. Zurich Insurance Group says its board will investigate whether undue pressure was put on its ceo who was found dead on monday. An apparent suicide note had been found, and that its content related to the relationship between waltier and joe ackerman who stood down earlier this week. A near record 14 rise in earnings. Operating profit of 584 Million Euros thanks to continued demand for the iconic leather and silk products in europe and the u. S. The group cautioned its bank sales were being limited by production capacity. Hermes shares up 2. 7 in paris. On the up, french cosmetics giant loreal after they posted a 7. 7 rise in first half earnings. They have been speaking exclusively to cnbc after the results and speaking to stephane pedrazzi. Ross, first of all, the numbers for the first half of the year, if you remember in july, when the Company Announced its sales for the first half of the year, they were disappointing because they were weaker signs of signs of weaker demand than some markets like in the United States. But loreal was able to report nearly 8 increase in first half operating profit. And the group most importantly was a vote to improve its gross margin to a record level 70 basis points higher, driven by the new and more expensive products such as antiaging creams at lancome, one of the brands in the portfolio. Loreal also announced that its getting ready to buy, if necessary, the 29. 9 stake that nestle has in loreal from the nex