tv and appears to be intact. one of the world's richest men says he plans to challenge premier vladimir putin. the owner of the new jersey nets basketball team has invested in russia's hybrid car. he was pushed out earlier this year after a disagreement with party veterans. canada is pulling out of the kyoto accord, this comes days african da and 193 other nations agreed to a new climate treaty that extends the accord by several years. canada's conservative government criticized the previous liberal government for endorsing kyoto. those are the top stories from cnn, the world's news leader. i'm zain verjee. "world business today" starts now. good afternoon from cnn hong kong. i'm andrew stevens. good morning from cnn london, i'm nina dos santos. this is "world business today." out of sight, not out of reach. eu minister ollie reign says britain is not beyond regulation. intel tumbles over the flooding in thailand. we'll tell you why brazil's world cup run-off is being dogged by delays. investors have been hanging on every word out of europe for months now even if they're not entirely convinced by what the politicians have been saying. today, well, it's no different. the latest from europe is that this man, the ec, european krigs president, herman van rompuy says an agreement between 26 members of the e ufrnlthsz will be finalized by march. let's see how markets have been reacting the that one. nina? >> over here it's a sea of red as you can see, a little bit of let's say caution here, again the kind of situation we've seen many a midweek flurry after some of these comments made by ollie rain. what we've got on the cards is an early gain for the banking stocks seem to have been reversed. we have the bon, losing heavy ground. one thing on investor eye also be german investor confidence. that data due out about 25 minutes from now, expected to fall to the lowest level since october 2008. one of the reasons this is particularly important is germany is the powerhouse of the kind of fiscal compact or integration we're talking about and also europe's largest economy. the dax is down to the do you know of about .2%. also in united kingdom, we've got inflation data due out in the bottom of the hour. inflation in united kingdom has run at double the central bank. the ftse is performing slightly better but more or less flat ahead of that inflation reading. andrew? >> nina, another down down here in asia. the markets in this part of the world really tracking the u.s. losses. take a look at hong kong. you'll see it coming right off the top, fairly sharp losses from the opening. not surprising because the u.s. in turn is reacting to the fears that the eu agreement is basically not enough. we had moody's saying it would revisit ratings of all the eu countries. and fitch expecting significant economic downturn. tech stocks got hit after intel cut its forecast. exporters were weak, of course, on the european concern. one stock to tell you about today, olympus up by nearly 5.5%. there's a report that the auditors will approve the quarterly earnings report. now, they have to submit this report by thursday, olympus does, to remain lifted. if they don't, they'll be taken off the nikkei. investors confident that that's not going to happen. i want to quickly show you what's been going on in shanghai. the market down nearly 2% for the day as a fourth day of losses. the actual index is now at its lowest level since march of 2009. still uncertainty over how beijing will boost the slowing domestic economy. as we've been saying, the economy in china has been slowing more quickly than a lot of people. people expected china to move more rapidly. certainly at the moment it's a fairly negative outlook on beijing. >> a lot of concerns then for the western economies as well because a lot of people were hoping that xhin nah would be the powerhouse of economic growth to, let's say, take some of the western economies out of their downward spiral. let's remind you what happened on wall street on monday's session. stocks took quite a tumble there. as you can see those alarm bells continue to ring in europe. that had a concerned effect on the markets in the united states as well. this is how the major indices closed. as you can see, they were down between 1.3 and 1.5%. >> as i was saying, nina, the tech sector weighing on trade. intel has cut its outlook for the current quarter. it says the flooding in thailand has hurt production and caused a worldwide hard drive shortage. that means it will fall well short of its original sales forecast. perhaps not surprising when you see just how closely thailand has been tied into global production, particularly for the chip that is g into these hard drives. that's what the reaction was on the street. the stock down by more than 4% on the nasdaq. that made the chip maker one of the biggest losers. intel now says that it expects that fourth quarter revenues will total about $13.7 billion, well short of its original estimate of $14.7 billion. the problems don't end there, though. intel expects the global hard disk drive shortage to continue in the first quarter of 2012. take a look at this. this is what happened to the asia techs here. the announcement from intel, big knock-off effect as it does from this part of the world. samsung down by more than 3%. tokyo electron down by 1.3. acor and add venn sent down 2.5%. when intel coughs, the rest of the tech sector at least in asia gets a cold, nina. >> indeed, andrew. we saw the nasdaq fell about 1.3% in yesterday's session when i was showing the closing numbers of wall street. let's have a look at how u.s. futures are pointing at the moment. broadly speaking what we're expecting is a mix to higher open later today. investors will be keeping an eye on the fastball meeting in washington. that will be happening later on tuesday. the fed is expected to refrain from new stimulus measures because of encouraging news out of europe over the last couple yee weeks. the nasdaq is up to about .5%, the other two, broadly speaking, flat. the british prime minister david cameron may have kicked up quite a fuss last week when he refused to sign britain up to a fiscal code which is agreed by every other member of the european union, all 26 other members. but if the comments from the eu economy boss olli rehn are anything to go by, mr. cameron may have alienated britain from the rest of europe from nothing. on monday, reign said his bid of dropping out of the fiscal accord was a red herring. in his words, if this was intended to prevent bankers and financial corporation frls the city from being regulated, that's not going to happen. this is key for david cameron. there does seem to be a bit of confusion over whether this regulation would include a sales tax on financial transactions. does it include that? >> so far the jury is out on that one. let's remind what the tobin tax could be. we're talking about a levi of about .1% and .100% on bonds, derivatives. the derivatives markets for the united kingdom is particularly sizable. the "financial times," andrew, said the uk could be contributing about 30% to 40% of the total turbine tax contributions if it were to be introduced here. it is a very contentious subject. i should also remind you the city of london, the financial district in london brings about 11% of the total tax revenues to the united kingdom, money badly needed at a time when the uk government is trying to cut its deficit as well. in any case, mr. cameron's high stakes decision has opened a rift not only with europe but also at home within his own governing coalition. nick clegg who leads the democrat minority within the coalition says he was bitterly disappointed in the move. clegg wasn't even by the prime minister's side when he explained his decision to parliament. >> -- national interest, and that is what i did. let me refer back to what i said to this house last wednesday. i made it clear that if the eurozone countries wanted a treaty involving all 27 members of the european union, we would insiflt on some safeguards for britain to protect our own national interests. some thought that the safeguards i was asking for were relatively modest. nevertheless, satisfactory safeguards were not forthcoming, so i did not agree to the treaty. mr. speaker, let me be clear about exactly what happened, mat it means for britain and what i see happening next. >> oh, dear. apologies for that. i'm not quite sure what happened. up next, record video game sales. political challenges in russia and a gold rush in china. still plenty more to come. we'll be right back. 3" has exploded into the entertainment industry record books. activision has made a billion dollars in six days, less than it took james cav ron's "avatar" to bring up that much at the box office. you're watching wbt. the russian billionaire mikhail prokhorov says he'll run against putin in next year's race. problem rove owns the new jersey nets is targeted the country's fast growing middle class for support. tens of thousands of russians have been protesting the recent elections after allegations of fraud. nina? in the meantime russian president dimitri medvedev has come under fire fors his response. on his facebook page he said he disagreed with protester slogans wow but would go ahead with an election investigation. within hours thousands people responded largely posting negative comments to it. canada has officially resigned from the kyoto protocol just a day after an international delegation agreed to extend the treaty's limits on carbon emissions. canada's environment minister says the treaty's goals are not achievable without having the world's two biggest carbon emitters on board. they are, of course, the united states and china. before the break, we were telling you about david cameron's decision to veto changes to the eu treaty. let's go back and take a listen to dan rivers elatest report. david cameron may be a hero to euro skeptics in his party, but he struggled to make himself heard over heckling asking where his deputy nick clegg was. >> order. the house must calm itself. >> reporter: tellingly clegg was nowhere to be seen on those famous green benches, a sign perhaps of new strains at the heart of britain's coalition government. >> prime minister, do you now regret -- >> reporter: the conservative coalitiontion started with a love-in last year, david cameron and his deputy nick clegg joking and smiling as they held their first news conference. but now europe is threatening to wipe the smile off their faces. david cameron vetoed proposed changes to a european treaty to protect this, the glittering jewel in the uk economy. he was worried the city of london would be hit harder than other european capitals by new taxes on financial transactions. but his coalition partner couldn't hide his fury during a brksbc interview. >> i'm bitterly disappointed by the outcome of last week's summit precisely because i think there's a real danger that over time the united kingdom will be isolated. >> reporter: at nick clegg's office on white hall there must be real soul searching going on. threatening to poison relations with the coalition partners, the lib dems. if the party is over are they heading for a messy breakup. anti europeans hope divorce with lib dems is on the cards. >> a very dysfunctional marriage. what we're seeing is the conservatives advocating one position and the liberal democrats openly criticizing that even though many decisions were made in cabinet collectively. it's open warfare in public. >> i wouldn't always presume that because out on the television screens one party is chanting that the other is in party. >> elder statesmen were lining up to insist relations between conservatives and lib dems aren't broken. >> relations are respectful. government is difficult. >> the coalition isn't going to coupleable? >> no. i think i can guarantee the coalition isn't going to crumble. you get tensions. >> reporter: like every couple, clegg and cameron don't agree on everything. just because they've had a big row doesn't mean this political marriage is over yet. dan rivers, cnn london. >> perhaps just the honeymoon is over. as we near the end of 2011, world equities are recording their final moves. on the whole they've been falling as news of europe gets worse and worse. gold is in value. ramy inocencio, our asia business analyst looks at gold's performance. obviously it's seen as a safe raven, ramy. it also seems to be quite volatile, too. >> definitely, andrew. gold has been on a steep tear hitting record high after record high. the current record was reached in about late august, august 22nd when it traded above $1910 per ounce. it's since fallen from there, trading at about $1,652. but this year-to-date rise we're seeing is still a whopping 16% gain. if we compare that to the performance of equities, you might wish you put your money in gold, too. the hang sang here in hong kong, it's toolly fallen nearly 20%. compare this to germany's xetra dax which is down nearly 16%, while the u.s. s&p 50 looks to close the year pretty much where it started. andrew. >> also news coming out, ramy, that monthly gold shipments between here and hong kong and china are at the highest level in the past six months. what's happening? >> exactly right. as investor confidence is shaken by the debt crisis in europe and high unemployment in the u.s., we can still see steady growth in china's gold holdings through the last six months. hong kong gold exports to the mainland have clearedly jumped this past year. these numbers are from congress hong's monthly export and trade statistics. october's gold exports came in at nearly 75 tons. the starkest difference is a year-on-year comparison. october 2010, china only imported one ton of gold from hong kong. looking ahead to 2012, one analyst told me this growth in chinese demand we've been seeing over this past six months will follow two channels. one is in the form of gifts, and one is in the form of investments. >> always sbeen a very traditional jewelry, in weddings, birth dates, whether child or for the grandmothers or grandfathers. it's always occupied a very important place in chinese culture. that's why it's such a high demand. people also see the investment value in gold, and that's obviously a very important reason, especially in the past five or eight years. >> now, one final thing to add, next year is this, the year of the dragon. it's considered to be the most auspicious of the 12 chinese zodiac signs. with that more weddings are expected, more babies are expected and more gifts of gold will be given. >> i remember the baby boom of year 2000 here in hong kong. it was incredible. ramy, thank you very much. ramy inocencio, our asia business editor. nina? >> stay with us here on "world business today," we'll be right back with your world weather update after this. welcome back to the show. in the united kingdom we're fashioning some of the wildest weather in years. strong winds, snow and heavy rain mean long delays for travelers especially across brit tn. jennifer delgado is at the cnn weather center to tell us more. it was a wild night, very windy in london. what's the forecast like? >> talking more strong winds for today. it looks like even by the end of the week we could see another storm system that's going to be even stronger. as i show you on the radar, we're dealing with rain out there as well as winter showers. i see some snow out there and also some stronger storms moving in ahead of a cold front, into parts of belgium. we're also talking into western parts of germany. all this active weather is due to a strong system -- look at me zooming in -- moving in towards the east as we go through the next 24-48 hours. as i show you on our graphic here -- i still remain to be a very giant weather person, looking at the breezy condition. this is going to be causing all types of travel delays for today as well as tomorrow. talking gail force winds sustained at 46 in dublin, 58 in plymouth. that works out to be about 97 -- i should say 97 miles per hour in some locations we saw those winds yesterday. they'll continue to be gusty and 22 in london. as i show you as we go through tomorrow, we're still going to see windy conditions out there. they're going to start to subside. notice we're talking 58. 58 in glasgow tomorrow. as we go through, it looks like about 24. we will see improvement. the problem is this is causing travel delays. you can expect the delays to affect you if you're going to be flying in the evening and overnight for glasgow. 60 to 90-minute delays and the same for roughly dublin, amsterdam, flying into frankfurt, berlin, as well as heathrow. make sure to check ahead. it's going to be essential. right now we'll take a short break and we'll have more "world business today" in a bit. from cnn hong kong. welcome back, i'm andrew stevens. >> i'm nina dos santos at cnn london. you're watching "world business today." let's get straight to the european stock markets, about 90 minutes into today's trading session. it's a bit of a mixed picture at the moment, cautious optimism that the plan that was put in place to rescue the eurozone about a week or so ago in brussels may be implemented. there's still concern that countries like finland and divisions among governments among places like that could discover the deals. ftse 100 up about .10%. we have the cac 40 down to the tune of .2% and the zurich smi virtually flat. another day of losses here in asia, nina. take a look at shanghai, at the lowest level since march of 2009 over the outlook for the economy. the world's now second biggest economy, and still uncertain about how beijing will boost the slowing domestic economy. watch this space, this shanghai composite down nearly 2% today across the rest of the board, rae response you're looking at there to what happened in new york overnight. new york was down, fears that the eu agreement is not big and bold enough, that there is no bazooka approach to the problem, certainly having an impact on markets. moody's also saying it will revisit ratings of all eu countries, up the an tee, as did fitch who came out and predicted, quote, significant economic downturn in europe over 2012. tech stocks just to round things out also being hit after intel cut its own forecast on weakness or problems associated with its thai suppliers, factories in thailand after the floods. that hit the exporters. all in all, a pretty ugly day today, nina. >> in the meantime on wall street it was an ugly day on monday with stocks taking quite a tumble for the aforementioned rubins. karina huber is there with a recap. >> stocks fell sharply on monday as investigators grew doubtful about whether changes in the your rhee zone will have any impact on the debt crisis. at the close, the dow ended at 12,021. the nasdaq fell 1.3%. shares of intel lost 4%. the company lowered its fourth quarter sales forecast saying a global hard drive shortage caused by last month's severe flooding in thailand hurt demand for its micro processors. intel says sales should recover by the middle of next year and demand for pcs remains strong. still, the lower forecast was felt across the tech sector. shares of micro devices fell 4%. shares of fedex lost about 2% despite predicting that monday will be the busiest shipping day in company history. the company expects to move more than 17 million shipments monday, more than double the normal daily volume. it's all anti online shopping which has been very strong for the first half of the christmas shopping season. coming up tuesday on wall street, investors will turn their attention to the federal reserve. that's a wrap of the day on wall street. i'm karina huber in new york. u.s. futures are pointing the a bit of a mixed picture at the open. last ti