. >>> but he has competition in the form of sylvia berlusconi. he tells cnbc he feels a responsibility to run. >> feel the need to return to the political arena to prevent the country from being delivered into the hands of a leftist party. >> and the crowds are out, the stores are ringing up those sales, but u.s. shoppers may be running low on holiday spirit. and analysts say that they're spending less, as well. hi, everybody. welcome. merry christmas out there. thank you for joining us here on the show. what we're looking at today, we've got slightly quiet markets ahead of the u.s. open. what we're seeing, though, that all the markets are being called lower across the board stateside. the dow is being called a bit lower, nasdaq is being called a bit lower and the s&p 500 being called down by a bybit, as well. we saw markets coming off on friday stateside. pretty significant drops, as well, given that we now seem to be a clashing of heads between the republicans and the democrats in regards to moving forward on the fiscal cliff issue. it does see

sylvia berlusconi says he'll seek a fifth term as italian premier. carolin is following this situation from rome. how likely is it that we see berlusconi return to politics next year? >> kelly, you know what? it's pretty unlikely. if you look at the latest polls, his pdl party, which is deeply fragmented, is trailing the biggest party, the pd party, but around 16%. it's going to be very, very tough. not even impossible for him to close that gap over the next two months. but i want to continue the discussion about what monti's surprise res ig nation means for the future of surprise italian politics with our next guess, ignazio marino. thank you so much for coming out to us and taking the time. we're seeing a knee jerk sell-off reaction in terms of italian assets. do you think that's warranted at this point or is it some short-term volatility? >> i think at the present time, the reaction of the stock market is an emotional reaction. you know, the right wing led by mr. berlusconi is fragmented at this time. they had about 37, 38% of the votes a couple o

. >>> and prime minister mario monti and sylvia berlusconi escalate. >>> hsbc agrees to pay a record $1.9 billion fine over money laundering charges. >>> and one lawmaker offers an olive branch to the white house regarding the fiscal cliff. >>> gains for most european stocks yesterday outside of italy. and we sort of continued that trend today. the xetra dax just about on its 52-week high. the cac 40 hit a 52-week high yesterday. the xetra dax up around .the %. yesterday, we saw a real back up in yields at the ten-year level sustained for italy. really across the curve. today, we're seeing a bit of a rebound in place. yield falling 5.55%. italy, down to 4.8%, just about. bund yield is moving a little higher. pretty much a mirror image of what we were looking at yesterday, ross. >> tourism in the region has declined, but how badly has the travel sector been hit? the value of tourism as an industry still represents 5% of gdp. but european market share continues to fall off in the last decade, for more, we have the ceo of the european travel commission joining us. why have we seen europ

meanwhile, sylvia berlusconi promised yesterday if he's voted back in, he'll reverse some of monti's policies. >>> in tokyo, the newly elected prime minister is meeting with the head of the central bank. also, we'll head out to frankfurt where do you have ya mark may have dodged another bullet. >>> then it's over to hong kong. aig sells its remaining stake in aia and formally ends a partnership dating back 100 years. all of that straight ahead. i always wait until the last minute. can i still ship a gift in time for christmas? yeah, sure you can. great. where's your gift? uh... whew. [ male announcer ] break from the holiday stress. ship fedex express ecember 22nd for christmas delivery. >>> the latest numbers out of china, in the first 11 months, foreign investments led. investment from the u.s. did pick up. . on the equity front, the shanghai composite has been powering ahead up over 9% just this month. with external factors impeding economic growth, the long-term pir r picture may not be rosy. china is the only market of the year likely to end the year in the red. how is that goin

sylvia berlusconi appears to be endorsing mario monti. speaking at a press conference in rome, he said he would give up his ambitions to run if monti ran as the central coalition. he then went on to say he still plan toes run for office. he also said bond spreads were a, quote, hoke, that the euro was not a true currency since there was no central bank willing to print money like they do in japan. >>> meanwhile, moody's says that the political turmoil in italy will have little impact on the country aes sovereign debt rating. our next guest disagrees and says he sees repricing of debt in italy. he's sylvia peruso. why are you concerned about moody's taking action here in italy? >> good morning. i think italy has a number of big challenges next year. as you can see, the market remains extremely sensitive to the fluid political landscape at the moment. but most people see it as a significant growth challenge with which the market will have to reconsider a bit of trajectory as to the fiscal consolidation path and the extent to which the world

sylvia berlusconi has come out today warning about the germano center of politics. in other words, too much of a focus on what is happening from germany and the austerity inspired by angela merkel. in particular, he is drawing attention to this. which is the spread of the extra that investors demand to hold italian bonds over german bonds. i've shown this to you a couple times. over the last year it's been a mainstay of a lot of the italian business broadcasts internally. they say our bonds are currently trading so many basis points above the germans on their hourly bulletins. that was one of the reasons why at the height of it berlusconi was kicked out of power. he's saying now this is a total calm. italians essentially should ignore it. he said the spread is a con. back to you, carl. >> he is back. silvio is back. >>> as we head into the final fomc meeting of 2012 fed policymakers have traders on edge. want to get to rick santelli on that in chicago. >> i'm on edge, all right. let's do a summary before i bring my guest and friend art nolan in. december 5th you hav

sylvia berlusconi wants to make his return on the political scene. today, we saw a bounce back. if you can see see bind me, the bank stocks in italy rerebound, but it's only in the range of .5% to 1% of these names which were down in some cases nearly 10% yesterday. if you take a quick look at european bourses, if that's possible, down near the ftse mib, this is the one selling off somewhere in the range of 3.5% yesterday. today it's adding about .8%. in spain, showing a nice rebound. same attitude listing peripheral debt. we can take a look there. italy and spain seeing prices rise, yields falling to 4.75% and 5.75% respectively. is investor attention returning to spain? here is the thing. italy is the third biggest government debt market in the world. it's the third biggest economy in the eurozone. whatever happens with its political situation could put neighboring pressure on spain. the main thing to keep an eye on here is whether spain comes back into the markets cross hairs. we saw today an auction go up reasonably well. we're looking for the country still needing to raise

the decision comes after the party of sylvia berlusconi withdrew support for monti's government last week. berlusconi has indicated he will run for leadership again. cnbc's carolin roth will join us from italy with the latest in a few minutes. when i was over there, i had to have the -- all the political signs translated because there's a picture of monti sitting under a beach chair drinking a drink and all the text was send monti to the beach. they already didn't like him. >> he had very high disapproval ratings. i remember last summer i had seen that somewhere. >> they want to send him to the beach. the major european averages at this hour, there they, they're all down. not great in france, but germany down about .7% and the ftse down fractionally. other news out of europe, debt tieback for from an day to receive additional buyback offers. those would be at deeply discounted prices and that would help lower the country's debt lead. >>> in asia, stocks touched a 16-month high and closed mostly higher on the session with good gains, as you can see, with the kospi up the most, 1.5 poi

sylvia bers cone any is going to run again. ben weedman the thought of the return to berlusconi is rattling some folks' nerves. >> reporter: he's back. he says he's run for the premiership for the sixty time in 20 years. a year after he resigned as prime minister he's coming back more emphatically as ever telling an appreciative audience in rome he'll denounce the policies of his successor, mario monti, and his management of the current economic crisis. after decades in italian politics, this 76-year-old businessman appears rested and ready for a fight. tan and fit not and a gray hair on his head. he's not without troubles of his own. he's appeals a kwixz for tax evasion and on trial for allegedly having sex with a minor, a now of age moroccan dancer known as ruby, the heartbreaker. belusconi is in and monti will soon be out. he's step down as soon as parliament passes its 2013 budget. stepping down doesn't mean he's stepping out. many here speculate he's simply preparing to take off his mental and don that of a politician and