government. signing a bailout is at the center of negotiations between the political parties. the international atomic energy agency says it has, quote, serious concerns about iran's nuclear program. the u.n.'s nuclear watchdog says it has credible information that tehran may be developing nuclear weapons. iran's president calls the report a fabrication. u.s. officials say they'll use the report to lobby for new sanctions. the vote is under a year away, but controversy is already swirling in the u.s. presidential campaign. four women accuse republican candidate herman cain of sexual harassment. cain flatly denied the accusations in a news conference tuesday saying the democrat machine was behind a ploy to derail his presidential bid. those are the top headlines from cnn. i'm monita rajpal. "world business today" starts now. good morning from cnn london, i'm nina dos santos. >> and a good afternoon from cnn hong kong. i'm andrew stevens. welcome to "world business today." the top stories this wednesday, november the 9th. >> investors are back in a buying mood after the italian prime minister, silvio berlusconi, says he will not run for re-election. slowing slowly, inflation continues to call on the world's second biggest economy. and shares in olympus plunge yet again as speculation mounts that the company may have a to-do list. speaking of stock markets, let's have a look at how the action is faring here in europe. about an hour into the trading session, we've had positive sentiment in response to berlusconi, the italian prime minister's pledge to resign and to not stand again for re-election. he's predicting that elections may come in february here. now, silvio berlusconi said that he plans to step aside once the government approves austerity mesh eschasures in parliament. of course, italy is the world's eighth larger economy, the fourth largest in terms of debt and markets, of course, hinging on the government's promise to try and contain and reduce that debt which stands at $2.6 trillion and counting. we'll be live in rome for the latest on that in a moment. let's also look at how the european stock markets are faring as a whole. a bit of a higher open. it's the dax that is powering ahead, up this excess of 1%. all of this follows gains of around 1% across the board on tuesday. the current numbers show us that we could be seeing a second day of gains. in particular, if we move along to italy's main index, the ftse closed higher yesterday. it's also opened up about 1% higher on the day at the moment. though we're not showing you that yet. we also want to show you the price of gold. this commodity has been rising yet again. rose above $1,800 to hit a seven-week high on tuesday. safe haven for investors amid all of this uncertainty. it's actually slipping in today's session, down to $5.83, price $1,783.10. andrew. nina, they've been calling it the berlusconi bounce in that anticipated exit by the italian p.m., certainly acting asian markets today. they, of course, now closed. two days of losses as global fears about europe's sovereign debt crisis. china's slowing inflation, this is a big number, and it was fueled in large part by declining food prices. now, china's national bureau of statistics says that consumer prices, that's the broad index of inflation, went up 5.5% in october. that compares with a 6.1% increase the previous month and july's three-year peak of 6.5%. that's boosting expectations that beijing will begin to loosen the screws on monetary policy to boost economic growth. basically switching its focus from containing inflation to worrying about growth. now, the high inflation rate in china certainly has depressed markets across asia for most of this year. and today showing that sharp drop in inflation, giving investors some cheer pretty much across the board here as you see. now, hong kong was the top performer today. the hang seng index up by 1.7%. it actually opened 3% higher. there's still lingering concerns about just how this european debt crisis will play out. brought down a little bit as europe towards the end of the day's trading. the nikkei up by 1.1%, shanghai, 0.8% and australia up 1.2%. the situation in europe really is a global problem. news of mr. berlusconi's possible resignation led to a rally on u.s. stock markets on tuesday. all of the major indices ended up finishing the day higher with banking stocks doing especially well. shares of citigroup, goldman sachs and jpmorgan chase all rising more than 2% in the session. these are the closing numbers for tuesday. we saw all indices putting on pretty substantial gains. and as i was saying, around the 1% mark, maybe even the 2% mark, boosted in particular by those banking stocks. andrew. >> yes, wall street on track for a lower opening when trading begins a few hours from now. that's what the futures look like so far. you see the dow down by about 0.5%. all eyes very much still on what's going on in europe. and whether the berlusconi resignation plan will bring an end to anything, nina. yeah, let's take a look at how it's affecting the bond markets because what i want to show you, andrew, is that right throughout the course of the last week or so when, of course, we had that brussels summit during which mr. berlusconi was basically backed into a corner by the leaders of france and germany and also pretty senior figures within the government of the european union as a whole and told, well, you really have to get your finances in order. take a look at how the italian yields have been doing. because this is the real problem here. it's becoming increasingly expensive for italy to keep borrowing to sustain its enormous debt pile out on the open market, debt stands at $2.6 trillion and is becoming even more expensive every day. what i'm showing you is a one-week chart of the ten-year italian government bonds. as you can see, they've been ticking up towards 6.8%. in fact, they hit a high of 6.7% yesterday. that is a high for this country. the yields have ticked down a tiny bit since we knew that silvio berlusconi said that he was offering to resign once he saw these badly needed austerity measures passing through parliament. a tiny bit down. but let's have a look at how things go when you pass that so-called cutoff point of 7% which, as you can see, italy is getting perilously close to. yields start spiking after that. this is how greece's ten-year bond is doing today. 27.77%. and also portugal and ireland, these are the two countries that received bailouts from the eu and imf. they also had to apply for bailouts when their yields surpassed about 10% and portugal still stands above 11.6%. ireland still well above 7% as you can see there. i also want to show you the spread because one thing that's really important to note is that the difference between italy and germany's borrowing costs, italy is perceived to be, aside from greece, portugal and ireland, the most risky of the euro zone bonds at the moment, while its yields are going up to the highest levels we've seen for the euro zone, germany is paying virtually record low borrowing costs. what i want to show you here is the spread or essentially just the difference between these two. it currently stands at about 495 basis points. this is actually equal to 4.95%. so we're really close to a 5% difference in borrowing costs between the riskiest economy in the euro zone and also the least risky one. and this is what i want to show you, andrew. for every 1% move in this spread, it costs italy 3 billion euros every single day. we're learning that silvio berlusconi will not run in italy's next set of elections. let's go to matthew chance who's standing by in rome. matthew, it seems as though berlusconi won't be running for re-election when they do come, but what happens between now and february when he's predicting those elections to happen? >> reporter: well, he's saying that his vision is that there will be elections in february, and he doesn't see that he will be standing as a candidate. what happens before then, of course, is there has to be a decision for there to be elections. and that's not a decision that rests with berlusconi but the italian prime minister, th napolitano. that's the condition essentially that berlusconi attached to his resignation. that could come very shortly, at the ends of the month, perhaps, perhaps earlier than that. the time line isn't absolutely exact. after that silvio berlusconi will step down. the italian president will then embark on consultations, decide what course of action he wants to take, whether it's to call for fresh elections or ask a member of the opposition, or whether it's to call some kind of technocratic government. again, that's something that will be decided later on by the italian president. nina. >> isn't there a bit of concern, matthew, though where you are in rome that even if they do get a technocratic government, there isn't the political will to put forward to implement these austerity measures? >> reporter: yeah, i think there is that concern. certainly if there is a technocratic government that's put in place, one that would depend on support from the current parliament, the divisions that have been so important in preventing the administration from passing the austerity measures that they wanted to get through would still be very much evident. it would mean the technocratic government might not be able to get anything done either, particularly for international markets who are looking for a sort of new mandate to get through the austerity measures they believe the economy needs. so i think there is a sense that that's not a very strong option for the italian president to go to. you mentioned berlusconi has always wanted elections, that that's what he's saying he wants again since his commitment to redesign. the opposition said they wouldn't be against fresh elections. the opposition is divided on that point. it certainly looks like that's the scenario that italy is heading towards. a scenario, of course, that would potentially see silvio berlusconi taking the position of caretaker prime minister at least after he steps down, possibly up until march after the election result has been confirmed. >> okay, matthew chance joining us from rome. many thanks for that. andrew. nina, government officials say that greece will announce the makeup of its interim coalition in the coming hours. the prime minister, george papandreou, is also expected to meet the country's president for another day of talks about the government. members of the opposition have failed to produce an agreement. we'll be live in athens in the next half hour with the latest there. coming up next on "world business today," we've got more questions than answers as more dubious deals come to light at olympus. the chief executive of the company that was sacked, he says that it's time for its accountants to start talking. we'll bring you an update next. 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those questions need to be answered by both kpmg and ernst & young. >> do you think it goes hand in gov with old-school japanese bosses which seems to be he and his old-school bosses who like this kind of subterfuge? you know, might, as a result of the questions you want to ask? >> i think after enron, there is a great sensitivity in relation to auditors. certainly in the uk. the partners did their duty. they qualified the accounts. and i think they have to answer. they have to stand up, both of those large firms, and explain their part in this. >> former ceo michael woodford. olympus has admitted that three of its top executives concealed losses from investors. their departure is unlikely to satisfy their shareholders and calls are growing for the scalps as well as the entire board. but is olympus in good enough shape to weather this crisis even under new leadership? we asked david, chief investment officer at the wealth management firm harris associates. >> i believe it is. and i say that because they have a world-leading business. they have roughly 70, 75% market share. they're a technological leader. this is a very good business that's very profitable. they have unique technologies. they have a really strong business in their endoscope business. they also have a camera business which most people associate olympus with. this business isn't quite as strong. it was stronger. it does need cost cuts because they don't possess a lot of the necessary technology necessary to be competitive with the likes of canon and nikon. so it's a much smaller business. it currently is not making much money, if any at all. you know, and it's a question mark. it needs to be restructured. however, that endoscope -- >> whatever happens to olympus, it is going to involve more than corporate housekeeping. we, of course, will bring you all the latest developments as the story continues to unfold. nina. andrew, a hedge fund owner has been ordered to pony up nearly $93 million in the case brought forward by the securities and exchange commission. well, that's three times the profit the rajaratnam made, and it also comes on top of some $63.8 million that he's already been ordered to pay in other fines following his conviction. rajaratnam says that the fine is unfair and that he's already suffered enough. now, as of this week, western europe is getting its gas straight from the fields of siberia. while some say the north stream pipeline improves energy security in europe, former transit nations aren't so sure. stay with us. i don't want healthy skin for a day. i want healthy skin for life. 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[ female announcer ] aveeno daily moisturizing lotion. and for healthy, beautiful hair, try nourish plus haircare. only from aveeno. luck? i don't trade on luck. i trade on fundamentals. analysis. information. i trade on tradearchitect. this is web-based trading, re-visualized. streaming, real-time quotes. earnings analysis. probability analysis: that's what opportunity looks like. it's all visual. intuitive. and it's available free, wherever the web is. this is how trade strategies are built. tradearchitect. only from td ameritrade. welcome to better trade commission free for 60 days when you open an account. let's check on oil prices now. they have been on the rise, but they've come off slightly at the moment following gains on tuesday. crude currently at $114.94 a barrel. that is brent crude, of course. here's what nymex is doing. it's also been moving around. it was up a bit earlier and is now down by just about half a dollar, $96.35 will buy you a barrel of nymex. welcome back. you're watching "world business today" live on cnn. >> well, it cost more than $12 billion to make, the nord stream gas pipeline at a time of increasing demand for gas imports. it also has pretty important political implications. cnn's fred pleitgen reports. >> reporter: german chancellor and medvedev say it's one of the most important energy projects, the nord stream pipeline. >> translator: this is a long anticipated event. we are launching the first stage of a nord stream gas pipeline that opens a new page in our country's cooperation with the eu. russian gas has been coming to e kurks countries directly, and the 1224-kilometer long underwater pipeline crosses five countries of the baltic region. >> reporter: six years in the making, at a cost of more than $12 billion, and the shareholders say ultimately capable of supplying around 26 million homes with gas. the nord stream pipeline runs from vyborg, in the baltic sea to lubmin germany, the longest in the world. for the first time gas is pumped straight from the fields in siberia to western europe without passing through transit countries. >> translator: what this project and also the presence of so many representatives of european countries, we are showing that we are counting on a secure, on a resilient partnership in the future with russia. and i believe this project is an excellent example of this. >> reporter: the pipeline is a joint venture by russia's gas prompt, germany's as well as french and dutch companies. proponents say it will increase western europe's energy security and ultimately make gas cheaper. but critics point to environmental concerns. and former transit countries like ukraine and poland fear russia could now escalate gas disputes with them. miranda is an energy expert at berlin's free university. >> they are concerned that russia might actually use this also to blackmail either the ukraine or poland. they could threaten gas cutoffs because there won't be the demand as strongly anymore from western europe s