stock exchange and other public areas. the protest movement began two months ago on september 17th. frustrations over the financial crisis are also playing out in greece. thousands of people poured into the streets of athens to commemorate a student uprising in 1973 but it quickly turned into a demonstration against new government austerity measures. the ruling coalition plans to submit a new round of budget cuts to parliament later today. u.s. secretary of state hillary clinton will go to myanmar next month to check on pro-democracy reforms there. it will be the first visit there by a u.s. secretary of state in half a century. it comes eight months after the long ruling military junta allowed the establishment of a military government. those are the world headlines, i'm monita rajpal. "world business today" starts right now. it's 5:00 p.m. here in hong kong. hello, i'm andrew stephens. it's 9:00 in london. i'm nina dos santos. welcome to "world business today." let's send you straight to the european stock market action. investors have been trading for an hour and one minute at the moment, as you can see, reacting negatively to ongoing uncertainty over the handling of europe's ongoing debt crisis. a proposal was turned down once again. we have the cac 40 down by 0.75%. heavier losses for the likes of the dax. let's have a look at how aids effecting the bond markets. the spiraling cost of borrowing across these regions really is what has been affecting things of late. italy, this is the country that's surpassed that 7% crucial level beyond which economists say it just becomes too expensive to finance yourself out in the open markets. the italian bond yields are coming down today as you can see, in today's session. still, hovering close to that 7% mark is 6.83. let's look at another country that people are worried about across the euro zone. it's spain and its bond yield have been rising yet again today, perilously close to that 6.83 mark. that country has an election going on at the moment. political upheaval plays into that. france, this country is still paying about 2% more to bore owe on the open markets than germany which is paying quite a bit less. let's have a look at the netherlands. this is one of the more financially comfortable countries across the euro zone. even it has been facing higher borrowing costs of late. finally ab austria, its bond yields are coming down today, still 3.5%, that's the euro zone high for that country as well. andrew? >> high bond yields, nina, as you've been saying, usually equal low equity prices. we saw in the u.s. and here in asia. that's how the key asian markets finished this week. pretty big losses across the board. nikkei, down by 1.2%. 1.75%, nearly 2 in shanghai and nearly 2 in australia. a pretty miserable end for the asian markets, all being undermined by what's going on in europe, nina. >> andrew, if we take a look at the u.s. markets it was a sea of red in the stock market on thursday. investors remained on edge again about the european debt crisis. that led to pretty steep drops of more than 1% for all of the major indices. let's have a look at the closing figures when things finally settled. the dow jones industrial average finished 1.1% lower. we had the nasdaq dropping almost 2% in the middle as you can see there, and the s&p 500, the broader index wasn't that far off either. when it comes to how the u.s. markets may open five hours from now, they look set for a fairly flat open when trading begins later on today, particularly the nasdaq and the dow, their futures trading virtually flat. we must also point out that we do have some of the options expiring on some of these stocks, which means they'll be trading without the rights to their dividends and that sometimes can breed weakness into the markets, especially with the ongoing concerns here in europe where i am. andrew? >> we call it technical considerations when markets went down. things have changed a bit. back in 2008 it was the collapse of a housing bubble in the united states that brought the global economy just about to its knees. now as the economic picture darkens once again, the specter of another housing bust could be on the horizon, not in the u.s. but in china. new figures from the statistics bureau shows chinese property prices are falling. in a survey of nearly 07 cities, nearly half saw a decline in the price of housing in october. that's twice the number of cities where house prices fell in september. it has some people worried whether the authorities in china can deflate that bubble without parking a property crash. a big correction would certainly have serious implications for the country's economy and by implication it would have an impact on the rest of the world. eunice yoon has this report. >> reporter: this man is giving away bmws in the chinese city of wen jao. it's also a signal that china's property market could be in for a rough ride. >> everyone is watching the housing prices in china. people are worried that the market is a bubble. agents say the prices have fallen by 20% so far this year. chinese real estate is a key driver of global growth, accounting for about a fifth of china's economy, helping to lift prices of steel, cement and other materials at a time when countries in the west are losing steam. in recent years, home prices in manufacturing towns like wenzjou rising, demand for apartments are on the decline, prompting agents like lynn to show in a new luxury car, worth 10% of one of his flats. homes are harder to sell, he says. an unstable situation was created for the real estate market. housing has been increasingly out of reach for the vast majority of people here. a concern for authorities looking to prevent any social unrest. the government should definitely be doing more, this laborer says. we work so hard, yet it's nearly impossible to afford to live anywhere. to ward off those complaints, beijing pledges to continue its campaign to calm prices, a move investors hope won't take china's economic engine when the rest of the world is trying to stay afloat. eunice yoon, cnn, wenzjou. marches were held across the united states. in new york where the protests first began, police say they arrest 2d 45 people. this i-report video appears to show new york city officers dragging a woman along the street by her hair before other protesters came to her defense. and on the west coast, police say they arrested 48 people in several incidents in portland, oregon. 50 protesters were arrested in los angeles with bail set at around $5,000. >> now, spanish voters head to the polls this weekend. in just a moment we'll be speaking to some of the country's young voters who say unemployment is making theirs a lost generation. welcome back. you're watching "world business today" live from london and hong kong. >> in europe, tensions are running high as the british prime minister david cameron gets set to meet his german opposite number angela merkel, the chancellor in berlin later today. the two leaders have very different views on the euro zone crisis and indeed, the shape of the whole european union overall. that could make for a lively exchange later on today. joining us now from berlin with more on what we could expect is frederik pleitgen. the uk has long been using this euro zone crisis to further its own ambitions. what kind of meeting is this going to be like? it could be pretty fraught. >> it could indeed be pretty fraught, nina. german newspapers are calling this potentially a friendly conversation without tea. you're absolutely right. there are very different views, both on the euro zone as well as indeed the entire shape of the future of the european union. angela merkel, of course, believes that the austerity plans and the bailout measures that have already been put in place and are currently being worked on are going to be enough. she wants the bailout measures that have been decided on to be able to unfold at first. the british prime minister takes a far different view, he feels that the european central bank needs to be more involved in the bailout of countries like italy and spain as well and also that germany needs to be more financially involved as well. angela merkel was at a press conference yesterday, she held a speech there and she said that any country that believes that the european central bank is going to be able to solve the euro zone crisis, she believes, that that simply isn't going to be the case. she thinks that only political reforms will lead to the end of the euro zone crisis. then of course you have this whole big topic, which is a very interesting one. that's the one of europe moving at two different speeds, you have the euro zone countries starting to have their own summits and decisions. then you have countries who are in europe, inside the eu but outside of the euro zone. of course, the uk and britain is of course a country that is very much also beginning to have issues with the euro zone crisis. however, has absolutely no say in how the euro zone crisis being dealt with. that's certainly thing that david cameron is not very happy about, nina. >> frederic, a lot of this hinges on potential treaty change. we're talking about changing the legal framework that governs the eu. that's one of the things that david cameron really doesn't want to see. >> yes. he was talking about sort of utopian vigs a couple of days ago and said that politicians shouldn't get bogged down with that. that, of course, a straight shot at angela merkel. she touched on that during her speech. she felt that european integration had been a work in process. she feels that germany and other countries are going to try and move european integration forward. the big question on that is of course, fiscal and financial integration where angela merkel feels that the european union in the medium term run really. that's something that's unique for that kind of thinking. we know any sort of decisions and treaty changes usually take decades to implement. she feels in the medium run, the european union should have power to bust their budget and countries like germany that have quite a good budget could essentially file a suit against countries that consistently bust their budget. she feels those mechanisms should be in place. that's something that britain is not very fond of either. this is a meeting that could be quite chilly, if you will and will be a lot of differing views on a lot of subjects, nina. >> contentious stuff. thanks ever so much. fred pleitgen joining us from berlin. andrew? >> cameron and angela merkel and many others, too, will be looking at spain this weekend as the country goes to the polls there. spain's general election is taking place against a backdrop of bond yields we've been talking about. they've risen close to the unsustainable 7% level and unemployment among young people now running at around 45%. we spoke with young spaniards who explained their difficulties in finding work and who they blame for it. >> reporter: what's your experience been with trying to get a job in spain? >> it's really -- now it's quite impossible to find work. you can look for 20, 30 different places and they will say just the same. if you have some place we will call you if we are interested but we don't have any job for you now. >> it's difficult to find a permanent job, because normally the bosses of the companies normally offers of work temporarily like three months, six months, one year. >> who do you blame for spain's economic crisis? >> i think we are a little bit responsible because we lived -- we say we are living very good, we spend a lot of money, i buy my car, i buy my building but it was like a bubble that has explodes. more harder than other countries. >> 30 years ago we have a lot of factory, we had a lot of factory s, a producing sector. and now it changes. >> now the majority of the families in spain are making a lost money that they don't have in the past, buying the cars, the houses. >> we are really trying to find another kind of economy and another kind of answer to their life questions. >> but in spain, you know, youthful employment is at 46%. gdp is almost 0. you think none of that matters? >> i think unemployment is not a huge problem in spain because we have a big underground economical area. >> you really don't think the unemployment is a problem? >> no. i think not. >> i think yes. i think it's the bigger problem now. if the people will not have work, the economy will not work. it's like a circle. if the economy doesn't work, you don't have -- you will not get a job. >> reporter: would you ever consider going abroad to get work? >> yes, personally, i'm leaving in six months. i'm looking -- i'm trying to get experience outside of spain because it's very difficult to get a job. >> coming up next on "world business today," unraveling occupy wall street. it's a rapidly growing movement in the united states and also around the rest of the world. but how much do you really know about it? we'll break it down for you, next, when we come back. is frowned upon in this establishment! luckily though, ya know, i conceal this bad boy underneath my blanket just so i can get on e-trade and check my investment portfolio, research stocks, and set conditional orders. wait, why are you taking... oh, i see. hey max, would it kill you to throw a guy a warning bark? 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christine romans now explains. >> reporter: this has lasted much longer than any other protest i've seen on wall street and i've seen a lot of sit-ins and protests and marches. this is definitely one that has more legs than any i've ever seen. occupy wall street has been trying to raise awareness of this growing income gap, this growing opportunity and wealth between the richest people in america and the rest of us, the 99% they say. they're protesting inequality, lack of opportunity, a jobs market that's not working for everyone. too much student debt and kind of they feel like they've been sold a bill of goods that they've taken on this student debt for a place in an economy that's not giving them a job that's going to help them pay off that student debt. what they're protesting, they're protesting business as usual in washington and business as usual on wall street. both of those two big institutions, two big power structures in america, that they think have conspired to make the wealthy wealthier and not serve the middle class and poor people. when you talk to them, they say we're not going to draw up a specific list of demands. we're here to draw awareness to the numbers that don't lie, that the rich are getting richer, the mid rl barely holding on and the poor are getting poorer and there are fundamental unfairnesses that have to go with greed in banks and greed in washington that make this continue. the richest 1% of americans made $343,000 last year or more, according to the irs. that 1% has seen its income trip from 1979 to 2007. at the same time, the middle class has seen its almost up about 40% and the poofr, the very bottom of that income has barely seen it move. you've seen a widening income gap, the biggest, widest income gap we've seen in this country in 70 years. more than punishing the 1%, what they're saying is we are the 99%. what about us? we are a bigger group, we can be strong. we can stand here and occupy some place and show you and raise awareness that your policies are not benefiting everyone, they're only benefiting a few. so rather than indicting the top 1%, there are those who do that, they're trying to turn the focus on the 99% who they say have been left behind. >> christine romans breaking it down for us. you're watching "world business today." when we come back, a lion of a deal. boeing commits to its biggest ever order. but you probably wouldn't guess which airline is shelling out the cash. more on that? just a moment. i'd race down that hill without a helmet. i took some steep risks in my teens. i'd never ride without one now. and since my doctor prescribed lipitor, i won't go without it for my high cholesterol and my risk of heart attack. why kid myself? diet and exercise weren't lowering my cholesterol enough. now i'm eating healthier, exercising more, taking lipitor. numbers don't lie. my cholesterol's stayed down. lipitor is fda approved to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke in patients who have heart disease or risk factors for heart disease. it's backed by over 19 years of research. 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