taxpayers have been unfairly labeled as lazy. >> and the criminaled cruise line is pushed -- finally pulled into port. we're live in the seychelles for that. first up, let's get straight to the european stock market action. these markets have been open for the best part of just over an hour. this is how the indices are performing. a little die cot many between the two eurozone markets. the cac is trading down about .25%. ftse 100 up. what has got their attention. ben bernanke's comments are weighing heavily on sentiment not just across europe but also across the world markets as well. this is because he's offered a down beat assessment of the recovery. it is one of the things that has these markets pausing for the moment. european leaders and finance ministers are also in brussels today. over the next two days to come. what they'll be doing is hosting a series of summits designed to strengthen the region's finances and also to prevent another greece-like situation from happening again in the region. speaking of europe, yesterday we saw the ecb providing about $712 billion worth of cheap loans to the banks across the region. that has been moving the markets for the best part of two days. that operation was slightly more than the last time they engaged in this kind of operation. the last time it was $652 billion in total. 0 banks took up these kind of loans, manisha. >> let's go back to what you were talking about, ben bernanke. we had the testimony from ben bernanke affecting these asian markets, the hang seng down 1.3%, the asx in sydney down 1%. a more muted look at the markets in asia. but we're feeling the impact about what wasn't said about the u.s. economy. on the plus side, we did have some news which was positive, but not enough to over come this general negative sentiment. the purchasing manager's index there, the pmi rose to 51 in february from 50.5 the previous month, a reminder that any score above 50 is indicating expansion in that sector, manufacturing being key for china. also key for india and manufacturing there continued to grow in february, although at a slightly slower pace than in january. the country's pmi eased to 56.6 from 57.5 in january, slowing, but still in healthy territory. so that at least is something to hold on to, nina. >> staying with asia, china says it welcomes plans by north korea suspend its nuclear tests and uranium enrichment program. they agreed to a moratorium on wednesday. the total aid pack they'll receive includes about 240,000 metric tons of nutritional assistance. this includes beans, vegetable oils and also ready-to-eat foods. the u.s. says it's the first mod test test. pyongyang agreed to a similar nuclear ban in six-party talks that took place back in 205. but the end of 2009 that deal crumbled after they continued to conduct nuclear tests. paula joins us live from seoul. yesterday afternoon everybody thought this was extremely important. when you put it into context with what happened in 2005 and 2009, perhaps not. >> reporter: nina, i don't think anyone is celebrating too much at this point just because of the history of these peace talks and the history of the talks with north korea. they have collapsed a number of times and north korea has gone back on its word a number of times. in that respect, even though there's optimism, it's a very cautious optimism at this point. for united states, it's certainly a good sign. it's certainly the first step. what they want to see is the six-party talks starting once again. this is the talks between north and south korea and the u.s., china, japan and russia. the wideer discussions on the denuclearization of north korea. these collapsed back in 2009 when north korea walked away from these talks. this is what the u.s. would like. certainly in an election year the united states is going to be hand pi they have a guarantee from north korea that they will be putting their nuclear plans on hold for this point. of course, from a north korean point of view, they have this food aid they so desperately need, 20,000 tons per month for the next 12 months according to the u.s. they will be very specific, though. it will be targeted for babies, for children under the age of 5 and also pregnant women. there was, of course, a fooer that if it would be corn and rice that that could be taken for the military or the leadership itself. nina? >> paula, how significant is the timing of all this? it comes just a couple months after the death of kim jong-il and since his third son kim junk unon took over. >> reporter: this plan is believed to be organized back in december with kim jong-il at the help. of course is son is at the helm now. there is some continuity between the two leaders and things are picking up where they left off with kim jong-il. south korean civilians on the street are a little more wary as to whether or not this will work. >> translator: regarding the dialogue between the united states and north korea, i like the denuclearization over the pen anyone la. many are surviving. it's good that they will provide food. >> translator: north korea provided denuclearization in the past but changed their mind. they destroyed a reactor but it turned out to be a show. we better not trust this agreement as we think about their behavior in the past. >> reporter: nina, this is considered just the first step. >> paula hancocks in seoul. thanks for that. just ahead on "world business today," what's global slowdown. advertising giant wpp posts strong fourth quarter results. the costa allegra makes it to port. deadly storms battling parts of the united states. we'll tell you if there's more trouble ahead. stay with us. rrexion® deep wrinkle night cream. it's clinically proven to give 10 years back to the look of skin. now for maximum results, the power of roc® retinol is intensified with a serum to create retinol correxion® max. it's clinically shown to be 4x better at smoothing lines and deep wrinkles than professional treatments. new roc® retinol correxion® max. nothing's better than gold. can you get me out of it? 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[ male announcer ] tempur-pedic brand owners are more satisfied than owners of any traditional mattress brand. ♪ it's the perfect time to save up to $300 on select mattress sets. tempur-pedic. the most highly recommended bed in america. welcome back. you're watching "world business today" live on cnn. let's turn our attention towards wall street now. the major indices were slightly lower by the time the closing bell rang. the dow jones industrial average fell by .4% when it comes to technology, that dropped by 2/3 of 1%. the markets look set to continue that kind of downward momentum when trading gets underway on thursday with futures on all three main indices currently in negative territory for the moment. on wednesday, investors were weighing stronger than expected gdp data against testimony from fastball chairman ben bernanke. he offered a sober assessment of the strength of the u.s. recovery appearing before the house financial services committee. he described the united states as far from normal and said the pace of growth has been uneven. >> the fundamentals that support spending continue to be weak. real household income and wealth were flat in 2011. access to credit remains restricted for many potential borrowers. consumer sentiment which dropped sharply last summer has since rebounded by remains relatively low. >> for traders it was more about what he didn't say rather than what he did say. bernanke's address dashed any hopes of additional stimulus being provided to the world's biggest economy. in return, gold prices fell by a hefty 5% in total. that was the biggest one-day decline in about three years. as you ski on the spot prices we're showing you gold is currently back up, recovering quite a bit of that loss, currently trading at $1,720 a troy ounce. manisha, that means it's up nearly $18 on the ounce since what bernanke was saying. >> he's had an incredible impact on the market. still just to come on "world business today," we have other matters. if greece is the word, it's not a word with very positive connotations. as long as the relationship between iran and the west remains volatile, so, too, will the price of oil. we'll take a look at the possible scenarios that could affect what we pay at the pump in the months ahead. it nurtures hair back to strong, healthy life. our exclusive active naturals wheat protein formula works with your hair, targeting damage, restoring strength and resilience for up to 90% less breakage in just three washes. find peace with your hair. [ female announcer ] and discover strong, healthy hair with life. new nourish+ strengthen, from the nourish+ hair care collection. only from aveeno. a matter of days ago there seemed to be a very real threat that greece might be heading for a messy default forcing it out of the eurozone and back to the drachma. this thursday is the last day the central bank of greece will actually accept drachmas in exchange for euros. you're looking at pictures from the parliament in athens where politicians have been fielding questions about the latest pension and health care cuts they've been forced to approve to secure a second bailout. and that bailout will be front and center of talks involving eu leaders in brussels this thursday. now, to say that greece has something of a pl problem might be a bit of an understatement, right, and a spot of crisis management could come in very handy. a new campaign group led by greece business figures has been launched to give the country's reputation an extreme makeover. its message as you can see from the official website is clear. give greece a chance. nina, i wonder if they will. some pretty harmful charges are being directed at that time greek population. most of those accusations. most of those relate to the strength of the work ethic, all sorts of things toward the attitude toward paying tax, the extent to which they deserve their debt and also being bang rolled by brussels at least twice. understanding the greece's changing lobby is challenging those kind of negative attitudes. the campaign statement asserts that greeks are, quote, hard working, tax paying citizens unfairly labeled with stereotypes so easily handed out to greeks today. they say europeans who aspire -- the europeans who aspire towards a constructive role within europe, they will deliver on their commitment. they say they've already made sacrifices and they are ready to do more. one of the business leaders behind greece's changing lobby is alexander mccredis president of an industrial trading company joining us from athens. first of all, tell us why you're trying to counter this souring dialogue between brussels and athens? how concerned are you about the souring relations even though greece has gotten its second bailout? >> we or very concerned. we believe that greece has an opportunity to really change the business and economic model that has been in effect for 30 years. we or working very hard to promote another greece and to implement change, and that's why we're trying to pass an image of another greece, a greece that believes in europe, a greece that believes in reform, a greece that wants to be democratic, that believes in private initiative. that's the sort of greece we're dreaming about. that's the greece we're fighting for. also we're trying to promote all the sacrifice that is have already been made. a lot of emphasis has been put on what greece has not met in terms of objectives. we believe that not enough has been -- not enough attention has been paid on what greece has achieved. this is the most ambitious -- what we've done up to now in the last two years is the most auspicious program in the last two decades. 4.2% per year is astronomic with a lot of pain, unemployment of 21%. the facts are actually quite different and we'd like people to focus on the facts. >> let me ask you this. we've had a huge amount of job cuts here. has your company had to cut jobs as well? >> that's a very good question. we have had to cut jobs as well. we all have to adapt. part of retooling this economy is unfortunately for some companies at least requires reducing the workforce. but we are optimistic that, if we make these changes, we're building a better future. that's what we're trying to do. >> just bear with me a second. i want to show our viewers this kind of newspaper advertisement which i picked out of the weekend financial times over the course of the weekend. it's one of 17 advertisements you've put inside different newspapers all across europe. we're talking really influenced newspapers, the "wall street journal," "the "financial times."" that must have cost a lot of money. it's private money. they're a group of friends and like-minded business associates, we got together and decided that we needed to do something for our country to dispel the notions you mentioned before in the opening of this chat, to really resteer the conversation much more based on facts and to highlight the pain that has been taking place so far and the commitment that there is generally throughout greece for this reform. i mean let's not forget, the majority of greeks want to stay within europe, they want to keep the european currency and they're committed to do much more to stay in that family. >> let me ask you this. yesterday evening i was speaking the a hedge fund manager who rather flippantly said greece will be out of the euro in 18 months. what do you say to people like that and what is your reaction to speculators who are betting on greece not staying in the current bloc. >> the speculators are doing their business. it is up to us as greeks in the public sector and also the private sector to reform this country to provide a better future for our children. i'm very optimistic. i think we can make it with the proper support if europe gives us a chance, and this is the whole point of the campaign, give greece a chance, allow us to deliver. give us time to deliver. >> ever so briefly -- >> i think people will be surprised what we can do. >> just very briefly, if i may. you say we're hard working, tax paying citizens. greece has the highest rate of tax avoidance anywhere in the eurozone. >> yes. >> what are you going to do about it? >> well, that's part of the structural reform. it's a very good question. i think we need -- everybody in greece has to become a stakeholder. one of the issues we have to face is how do we change our tax aches system, how do we change the public sector? we got where we are because we spend too much, because our public sector unfortunately is not as efficient at performing it has to become. >> alexander mccredis, thank you for joining us from athens. he's one of the number of companies, healthy companies i might add, that says just give greece a chance basically. >> well, that's the campaign, isn't it? now global advertising giant wpp is doing very well, reported full year earnings that beast estimates. the company says its pre tax croft rose 18% in 2011 the previous year to $1.6 billion. its revenue tops $16 billion, up more than 7% from 2010. wpp says a surge in sales helped build its profits. so the company says its strong performance should continue into the coming months. for more on that let's talk to wpp cee sir march till sorrell. sir martin, always lovely to see you. >> good to see you. >> the last time i saw you you were in hong kong. >> i'm sitting with a backdrop of the empire state building. it's a fake backdrop, i should say. >> you've given it all away. when we were sitting here we talked so much about these markets here. one of the reasons we were here was china, you had done one of your trips around asia. would you say that's really at the core of how well you did last year or are you lucky you've got these big events coming up in 2012? >> it's one of the cause. certainly asia as a whole, including china and india. latin america, principally brazil, mexico, columbia, argentina, africa, across the continent, eenl north africa, sub sahara and south africa. middle east was a little tougher because the arab spring certainly brought uncertainty along with it, and we've had increased uncertainty as well. in addition to that geographic strength, we've certainly seen stlengt in digital which you know about as well and also in our media planning in buying what we call media investment management operations. all in all it was an excellent year last year, not just top line growth of 7%, but a bottom line growth of 20%. but eps up 20% as well and dividends up almost 40%. margins up 110 basis points against expectations. all in all, an excellent year, not great economic conditions generally, particularly in the second half of the year. this year looks not dissimilar, maybe a little bit more multed, looking for 4% top line growth against roughly 6% last year, 5.9% last year. so a little bit less. but void by the olympics, the central and eastern european football championships and last but not least the presidential elections in united states which will boost political spending, too. we're set fehr i think for 2012. if one is looking for clouds, i think the one cloud is what happens in america after the election. what happens with the deficit and deficit reduction if there's a deadlock between the president and congress or between the republicans and the democrats. so we have to see how that shake outs. i think 2012 will be a similar year to 2011. >> okay. just speaking of the year ahead, also, you've made this great profit figure. what are you going to do with that kind of cash. is it time to pay down debt? is it time to look around? i know you have a strong organic growth figure. what would you do with that money? >> our debt levels, our target is somewhere between 1.5 to two times debt to -- we're at 1.7. we're in that right zone. our free cash flow is about a billion pounds. dividends cost us around 300 million pounds, acquisitions probably about 30 to 40 million pounds. there's surplus funds to look at share buybacks and we've looked to increasing our dividend payout ratio from 32% to 40% over the medium term. this year we're up to about 36%, 33% if you exclude -- include the extraordinary tax credit, but 36% if you don't. we've raised the dividend power ratio. the debt level is about right. we've been quite aggressive on small and medium-sized acquisitions. that will continue to be the case, particularly around our strategic objectives of new markets. that's the bric and next 11 new media. and than consumer insight, understanding data and data analytics and application of technology into the markets. we're in good shape. we had a record year by any dimension we care to look at, and we look forward to a similar year, if not better in 2012. >> i have to say i'm wishing you a happy yea