and piers, while that wispy bufont may work on your side of the pond, over here, this is what is considered the hard kerrancy. tomorrow, rosie o'donnell takes over with angelica houston and joel mchale. in with anjelica huston and joel mchale. hello, i'm monita rajpal at cnn london. here are the headlines this hour. huge explosions in the syrian town have marked the first anniversary of the syrian uprising this thursday. activists say government forces have taken control of the rebel stronghold. saudi arabia and italy have suspended their embassy operations in damascus, and special u.n. and arab league envoy kofi annan is due to brief the u.n. security council on friday. the u.s. soldier accused of killing 16 afghan civilians in kandahar on sunday has been transferred to kuwait.

the pentagon says it's because there isn't a proper long-term detention facility in afghanistan. about 200 people are taking part in the peaceful protest against the killings in a neighboring province. u.s. defense secretary leon panetta is on his second day of his visit to afghanistan. around the time he was scheduled to arrive, an afghan national stole a vehicle and drove it on to the runway. the car crashed into a ditch. the driver later died. nato says panetta was never in danger. myanmar state television broadcast a campaign speech by pro democracy lead yee yeer ann sue chi. she called for reforms and media freedom, but they say some criticisms of the ruling punta were censored. the broadcast marks the first time myanmar's government has aired a speech by su chi.

"world business today" starts right now. good morning. from cnn london, i'm nina dos santos. >> and welcome to "world business today." the top stories this thursday, march 15th. and also great for britain. they become the latest ratings count agency to issue the country a warning. >> and expert steven roach joins us with his outlook. and goldman sachs' executive's high-profile exit knocks millions off of the bank's share price as he lambasts a toxic and destructive culture. first up, britain's treasury minister says it's a wake-up call to anyone who thinks the government should be offering any kind of letup on its planned austerity measures. the international ratings firm

fitch has been warning that there is a more than 50% chance now that it could decide to cut the uk's top-notch aaa status within the next two years to come. there may be no downgrade yet for this country, but fitch has cut its credit outlook for the uk from stable to negative watch. it warns that britain has a limited ability to absorb future shocks when it comes to financial shocks but also cites the uk's high debt levels and a structural budget deficit second only to the united states in terms of size. it's one of the major reasons for its concern here. fitch's move follows a similar one by moody's, the other credit ratings agency, just last month, and it also comes days before britain's chancellor or the uk finance minister, effectively, is set to present his annual budget. let's look at what it's doing to the uk stock market. starting with the ftse 100, no surprise to see that that is the market that is trading in the red. the ftse 100 would be the market

affected by this news from fitch. remember that britain is outside of the eurozone, but we still have quite a big dichotomy between the other euros and markets. the dax is currently up to the tune of 1.2%, weakness for the cac 40 and the zurich smi up by 0.65%. >> a mixed message is coming off here as well, looking at how the markets finished up two green, two red. the nikkei extending up by another .75%. it's really on a tear at the moment, the nikkei, boosted by the ever wakening yen, which lists the japanese exporters. i'll show you the yen in a moment. ad for the other numbers, hong kong up after closing in the red yesterday. property stocks continuing to get hit in hong kong, but that was offset by gains in the banks, particularly the hsbc. property stocks getting hit, lingering concerns over chinese premier wen jiabao's statement

that real estate prices remain too high and that restrictions will remain in place. take a look at that, the composite down after closing down 2% yesterday, another .75% today. there is a real concern about exactly how long the chinese authorities are going to maintain that choke hold on the property market. okay, i told you about the japanese exporters. it's been a long time since the japanese exporters have had actually something to smile about. natural disasters at home, plus the floods in thailand put a squeeze on supply last year, and the european debt crisis put a squeeze on demand. and the strength of the yen compounding both of those issues. but the country's big names are on the up this week, as you can see there. since the thursday close, some of the big names, honda, sony, nintendo, toyota, all recording some pretty strong gains, and that, as i said, is as the currency finally starts to yield against the u.s. dollar.

it has taken a while for that to happen, if you look at this shot of the yen. this is the journey of the yen over the past three years. this strengthening in the wake of the global financial crisis continuing as investors saw the yen as a relatively safe haven, despite the fact the economy was very weak it the yen continued to strengthen. but after the earthquake and tsunami of march 11, you'll see there, the yen started to trade down a bit. the g-7 group of leading economies intervened to stabilize the currency, and this had a limited impact, though, with the yen going down, so it means it's actually rising ever more against the dollar. so, as you can see, there has been something of a turn-around just here. it's now turning around 83.77. it was down as low as around 78 at one stage. this is now at an 11-month low against the u.s. dollar. so, some relief there for exporters in japan. they would still like to see this get towards 100 to the dollar, but no one's saying that's likely in the immediate future, at least.

>> yeah, and even if there is little bit of recess miss, andrew, it will take a while for that to filter through to the balance sheets of japanese exporters, because it's likely for the last quarter, they could still be suffering the effects of that stronger currency. now, let's get a quick recap of the action on wall street in yesterday's session. u.s. stocks finished in spectacular fashion in wednesday's session, declining after tuesday's late surge. but gains in the technology sector gave the market something of a bit of a boost. we saw the online currency trading firm fxcn soaring to the tune of 12% after that firm report and better-than-expected earnings. also, guidewire software led the lead there, particularly on the nasdaq, a 17% gain on the back of earnings that beat analyst expectations. if we take a look at the numbers when they settled, a bit of a

mixed picture. the dow jones industrial average ending the day up to the tune of about 0.1% and the s&p 500, the broader index, losing an equal amount in percentage terms. the nasdaq composite ended the day virtually flat. u.s. markets reopen in just under 5 1/2 hours from now, and here's how they're set to begin the trading day. as you can see, a bit of an optimistic note, despite the fact that actually here in europe, things started out on a bitt jittery footing with two up and two down. investors will be watching keenly u.s. jobless claims. those figures will be out in just over four hours from now, likely to move the markets. but for the moment, as you can see, andrew, we're up to the tune of anywhere between 0.3% and nearly 0.5%. >> and certainly, one stock they'll be watching again today very closely is goldman sachs. the bluest of the blue wall street investment bankers. this giant saw $2.15 billion wiped off its market value in a single day on wednesday.

that's when the share price fell, as i say, by 3.5%, following that very public and scathing tongue-lashing by a former insider in an opinion piece that appeared in wednesday's "the new york times." greg smith said that he was quitting goldman's after more than a decade at the bank. he accused the firm of betraying its clients and fostering "a toxic and destructive culture." very, very strong words. a lot of it aimed at lloyd blankfein as well, nina. >> very strong words and also very publicly voiced, andrew. goldman sachs, as you imagine, fired back with a memo of its own throughout the course of the day, but as mary snow reports now, greg smith's dramatic exit could heighten public disgust at wall street just at a time when the u.s. economy is still rather weak, and many ordinary people face bleak economic prospects. >> reporter: goldman sachs is known for being shrouded in secrecy, with rare public glimpses into the firm at congressional hearings like this one on the financial crisis.

and that's why it's so unusual for a goldman sachs insider to resign from the firm through a blistery "the new york times" op ed piece. greg smith, an executive director, quit after 12 years, writing "the environment now is as toxic and destructive as i've ever seen it." he writes the company puts itself first, ahead of its clients, saying, "it makes me ill how callously people talk about ripping their clients off. over the last 12 months, i have seen five different managing directors refer to their own clients as muppets." goldman sachs ceo lloyd blankfein fired back, sending a memo to his staff of 30,000. "we were disappointed to read the assertions made by this individual that do not reflect our values, our culture and how the vast majority of people at goldman sachs think about the firm." william cohan, who wrote "money and power" about goldman sachs, says for an insider to do this is unheard of, but he's not surprised by the content. >> much of what he's written

about was familiar to me and it's also familiar to their clients, who know that goldman does this. they don't like it but they know that goldman tends to put itself before its clients. >> reporter: some on wall street question smith's parting words. >> and i think that this whole epiphany concept is a little bit hypocritical because odds are things are not much different now than in 2001 when he began his career. >> reporter: the ceo of goldman sachs addressed the company's image in an interview with cnn's christine romans in 2010. >> we'll survive only by putting our clients first and the interests of the broader community first, but there certainly is a rise in the suspicion that something is broken here and that we just don't have those old standards. and the industry and goldman sachs have a lot of work ahead of itself to make the kinds of changes, not just to convince people, but to make the kinds of changes that are warranted from the lessons of the last several years. >> reporter: the question is,

what impact will this have? one client is the state of california. goldman sachs helps the state sell bonds. a spokesman for the state treasurer says there are no plans to alter the relationship, but says "the state of california is not a muppet when it comes to bond sales and our relationship with banks." the california treasurer's office adds that even though it's a goldman sachs client, it hires independent financial advisers to help make decisions. in the bigger picture, though, former federal reserve chairman paul volcker says there's been a dramatic transformation on wall street with firms focusing on profits and away from clients. mary snow, cnn, new york. >> i've been blogging on this subject myself over the course of the last day or so. check it out at cnn.com/business. basically, one of the issues here, andrew, is that goldman sachs may be a very well-known name for most of us, which is one of the reasons, presumably, by "the new york times" decided to publish this piece by greg

smith. but actually, how well do we know it? it doesn't engage in retail banking, it tries its best to obviously be discrete because it's got big deals on the table. we don't know much about this company, which is one of the reasons why greg smith's passing shot was so interesting. >> yeah, salutabsolutely, nina. and as we saw in that interview with christine romans, you know, back then, there really hasn't been, certainly in the public eye, at least, any apparent effort by goldman to try to show it's changing what it needs to change. it's just gone back to being, as you say, that sort of weak, we know the name but don't know what's behind the name really in so many ways, and they haven't made an effort to try to change that. no transparency, sort of public relations transparency in many ways. so, it will be interesting to see just how much support they're going to get. certainly, they may ride this one out, but you've got a lot of people saying this one is going to be very difficult to dodge. anyway, still ahead, japan

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let's look at how crude oil is trading in today's session. take a look at that why it comes to nymex crude for may delivery, that's up at a price of $105.9 on the barrel, up nearly 50 cents on the barrel, despite on the one hand, the united states may be mulling releasing some strategic reserves to avoid the higher gas price derailing the u.s. economy, but also the iaea, the international energy agency's been saying oil markets could be in for a bumpy ride this year, certainly rising for the moment, though. welcome back. you're watching "world business today" live on cnn. now, in japan, yet another of the country's electronics firms is set to post a multibillion dollar loss. the company this time is sharp, which is japan's biggest manufacturer of lcd panels.

and it's responding to that loss by replacing its president. remy has the details and the details on the bad news on sharp's bottom line. >> this handshake signals a big shuffle at the top of the biggest maker of lcd screens. otashi okuda is named effective president. and the outgoing chairman is blamed for a slow response to worsening market conditions for the company's products. under his watch, sharp says it will post this, a record net loss of $3.5 billion for all of 2011, and that's because weak demand for its lcd tvs has forced the company to lower its prices. it also doesn't help that sharp is going to miss first sales of the new ipad launch. yesterday, an analyst said sharp's lcd screens will be delayed because they did not meet u.s. quality standards. now, today, sharp's share price took a hit because of that.

it was down more than 5%. on wednesday, it had already hit a 28-year low in intraday trade. and last year, well, it turns out it was the worst performer on the nikkei. it lost nearly a quarter of its value, coming in at around minus 23% right there. and since february 1st, sharp has actually fallen nearly another 20%. on that day, on february 1, it had forecast that that $3.5 billion net loss for all of 2011. with all this in mind, mr. okuda has his work cut out for him. he has been with sharp for much of the past 30 years and critics fear it could be more of the same. a few analysts i spoke with here in hong kong and tokyo said they are not that inspired by him either. they say he needs to prove himself by making some pretty bold decisions, and that could include issuing more stock, taking that money and investing it into distribution. sharp has a big glut of inventory right now, but the channels to get that sold right now aren't very from. >> so, it sounds like a familiar story in japan, particularly

among some of these big tech players, remy. talk about the plunge in earnings at japanese electronics firms and change in leadership. let's talk about the winners here, because there doesn't seem to be many coming from japan. >> you're actually right, andrew. south korean electronics firms are the ones we want to talk about, they're the ones who have the most to gain, and we're talking here about samsung and lg. they didn't have a strong yen to worry about last year, and if you ask consumers, they can probably tell you that their tvs and other appliances that they sell are priced pretty competitively, and that's clear from their 2011 profits. for example, samsung, well, they pulled in $14.5 billion in net profit last year. lg, which is the world's largest flat-screen maker, they posted a net loss of $400 million, but this here is nothing compared to sony. it lost $2.9 billion in 2011. and panasonic was even worse, down almost -- down more than $10 billion. and along with sharp's $3.5

billion loss, we're talking about a combined loss for these three companies of about $17 billion. and south korea's electronics firms are definitely in a strong position to capitalize on those losses at their japanese counterparts. >> okay, remy, thanks very much for that. nina? still to come on "world business today," 2012 will be a year of change for china. china expert steven roach will be joining us with his outlook for the world's second largest economy. that's just ahead. sorry. sore knee. blast of cold feels nice. why don't you use bengay zero degrees? it's the one you store in the freezer. same medicated pain reliever used by physical therapists. that's chilly. [ male announcer ] new bengay zero degrees. freeze and move on.

you're watching "world business today" live on cnn. welcome back. you're looking at hong kong harbor there. the gray skies continue, nina. >> we head a little bit further south now, towards western australia, because the waters there are home to the lion's share of that country's own oil production. and just before the break, i was telling you about how the price of crude continues to soar past $105 a barrel. well, unfortunately, though, these waters are also home to most of the tropical cyclones that hit the region as well. let's go over to our meteorologist who's standing by to tell us about that, pedram javaheri. >> looking at western australia, interesting statistics. as you said, a large majority of tropical cyclones, about 80% of the country's tropical cyclones, form off the coast there, and also about 80% of its oil production right there.

so, obviously, you can't pick and choose where gee logically you're going to have the best areas and best basins as far as oil production is concerned, but certainly not the place to be at this hour, over portions of northwestern australia. this is tropical cyclone lub. take a look. winds gusting to nearly 140 kph, equivalent to possibly a category 2-like hurricane by the time saturday morning comes around, when this system's going to make landfall. take a look at this. i've kind of put this scale of the production on the basins impacted. and nearly, again, 53% coming out of the carnarvon basin, and 20% to the browse basin and even towards the northern territory. large-scale production of oil. when you take a look at some of the numbers, again, australia's certainly not a stranger to tropical cyclones, and we do know, in this region, some 400,000 barrels of oil per day are produced. and again, lub bnlua is cuttin

100,000 barrels a day because of their current location off the coast of australia. production should be impacted at least through possibly saturday. storm system comes in saturday morning. know winds will be on the strong side as it makes landfall, swells up to 4 meters. so, officials out there have certainly removed the folks that are near the shores, offshore there as well, because we know that the conditions are going to get hazardous and a gail watch is in effect from portions of port hedland out towards broome as this storm system moves, and a very slow-moving system as it nears this region. so, certainly going to see impacts with this through at least this weekend, nina. >> okay, thank you, live from the cnn international weather center, thanks for that. andrew? >> nina, still to come this hour, chinese premier wen jiabao says reform is required to avert major social upheaval as his leadership nears its end. we'll talk to the executive of morgan stanley asia about what's in the cards, what's at stake

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from cnn hong kong, i'm andrew stevens. >> and i'm nina dos santos at cnn london. a warm welcome back to "world business today." let's see what's going on in the european stock markets. these markets have been open for about 30 minutes at the moment, and here's where they stand. they saw these markets open just on a slightly cautiously optimistic note, but you can see things sort of soured quickly in the first half hour or so of trading. ftse 100 down to the tune of

about north of 0.13%, largely due to the fact that fitch has now become a second key ratings agency to say that they may now downgrade the uk's coveted aaa credit rating, and that's one of the reasons why that market is down. the rest of them not faring too badly, but cautiously around the flat line at the moment, andrew. >> yeah, it's been a mixed message coming out of asia today, nina, both japan and hong kong were higher. shanghai, though, sliding, down to its lowest level in nearly a month. what seems to be continuing to push shanghai down, at least, is comments coming from the premier, wen jiabao, yesterday, who said categorically that probably prices were still too high and regulations would remain in place on the mainland chinese property market. now, dropping foreign investment is also increasing concern of the rate of the slowdown in the world's second biggest economy. notice the nikkei there up by

0.75%. that was really continuing story about the weakening yen. but let's get back to china now, because certainly in china's year of transition, one man tipped to rise to the upper tier of politics is knocked off his letter. he was hailed by many for his work of cleaning up the main streets of chongquing, one of china's biggest cities, but the communist party dumped him as regional chief, according to the xinhua news agency. bo's dismissal follows where he and a partner in crime-fighting, the police boss, allegedly tried to defect to the u.s. that focused unwanted attention on bo, who is pretty much a shoo-in for a leading role in china's new administration. now, bo has now been replaced by zhang dejiang, a vice premier. >> an interesting story. and while much is left unsaid in

the case, there are still clues as to the fate in a news conference given by premier wen jiabao on wednesday. at the close of the national people's conference, he said that the chongqing authorities must "seriously reflect" here on what happened in that particular city. let's delve further into this quote from wen jiabao. he also added that as far as the result of the investigation and how this matter will be handled are concerned, well, he said "an answer must be given to the people and the result of the investigation." he also went on to say this -- "the investigation should be able to stand the test of law and history." so, that's what wen jiabao has had to said, but andrew, as you said, he'll be leaving the job pretty soon anyway. >> absolutely. it wasn't all he said, though, particularly about responsibility to the people. as he rounded out of the mpc, the leader said that he wants chinese citizens to have more political power and more spending power, and he sees

reform as the alternative to another upheaval like the cultural revolution. but the makeup of the new administration could dictate whether words actually translate into action. well, let's now discuss the direction china is taking both politically and economically in the year ahead. i'm joined by steven roach, who is executive chairman of morgan stanley asia. good to have you on the show. >> good to see you, andrew. >> let's talk first about bo xilai. his departure is categorized by many as a power struggle, the result in the communist party over the future leadership of china. what are your thoughts on that? is this what's happening? >> you know, i don't have any brilliant insights into the demise of mr. bo. i sort of take odds with what the earlier comment was that he was a shoo-in for the standing committee. he was always a very controversial candidate for

that. there was now a fairly well-known incident of one of his key aides, and you know, like political issues in the west, when something slips up on your watch, you know how the buck stops here, you take the hit, and he does. >> do you think, though, that with bo out of the way, and what one blogger from china described him as an ultra left stronghold. do you think that his demise or his departure will have an impact on the political direction that china will now take under the new leadership, and by extension, what direction the economy takes? >> i really don't, andrew. i think that, you know, the days are gone when there are ideological struggles within china for the future of the nation. i think what is driving china right now is economic necessity and the need to modify change,

reform the growth model to keep the pace of economic development growing at a satisfactory rate. and the 12th five-year plan that was enacted a year ago and agreed upon by the current standing committee, two of whom will be elevated to president and premier of the next standing committee, xi jinping and li kachung, that direction is pretty well set. and i think the political issues that are evident in china with bo xilai are not going to alter that course. >> premier wen said in his swan song speech yesterday that further political reforms were needed. it's not the first time he's said that. >> you're right. that's the point. he has been adamant in stressing political reform in one form or another for about the last three

years, and it hasn't always gone over that well and there has been pushback from some of the more traditional factions in china on that. but you know, political reform, like most of these very tough reforms in china, is a gradual process, and the premier is simply reminding the party that this ultimately is an issue that there must be further progress on, the hows, the whens, the specifics of it remain very uncertain. >> as you say, it's the economy. there is growing debate within the international commentary, i feel like, of the speed of china's economic slowdown. is it heading to a hard landing? is it already in the middle of a hard landing? or is it going to be managed to the right sustainable level of growth? what's your take on this? >> this is not a hard landing in china, you know. if the down side is 7.5%, as the premier indicated, most

economies in the world would die for a landing like that. >> you think they can get there and maintain it? >> i think it actually won't even weaken that much. the major force slowing the chinese economy right now is the second external demand shock in three years. this time it's europe. three years ago, it was the u.s. and a broad contraction in u.s.-led global trade. >> premier wen did seem to point to the eurozone as the only reason, virtually, for this slowdown in china. do you read it like that? because there is domestic consumption weakening as well. >> well, i don't think it's weakening that much, but what is weakening is the property sector, and the premier certainly warned that there's not going to be any letup on restraining the excesses of the property market. so, i think you've got the combination of the external demand shock, this time made in europe, china's largest trading partner, plus a property sector. and so, you do have a recipe for

slower growth. but unlike three years ago when you had a precipitous decline concentrated in a very short period of time, this is a more glacial movement. and the good news is that the chinese authorities have a lot of ammunition in terms of fiscal monetary policy to shore up the down side, if they need to. >> so, what, then, does concern you about the state of the chinese economy? what is the one key, in your opinion, that could derail china, that new leadership need to be focusing on? >> first of all, i'm not in the derail camp, i haven't been. i don't think china will be derailed. but the one thing that does worry me is complacency on reform. and i think that the premier is correct in warning about that. the reform i'm looking for the most, andrew, is the urgent need to shift the growth model away from reliance on external demand toward internal demand. there's a number of major

initiatives that need to take place in china to boost internal private consumption, like more job growth in services, more organization to raise per capita incomes, and perhaps most importantly, the need to expand the funding for the social safety net so chinese families don't save to excess out of fear but begin to deploy the new labor income to supporting discretionary consumption. that's china's agenda and it's got to be addressed now, not a year from now, not three years from now, but right now. >> so, they need to ramp up their efforts on that right now. >> they need to intensify these efforts dramatically. >> stephen, thanks so much for coming in. >> thank you. >> stephen roach with morgan stanley, not much longer, though. back to academia. >> i've joined the faculty at yale and actually have some students with me right now. thank you, andrew. >> stephen roach there. nina? speaking of academics and also china, andrew, one of the things that's been driving a wedge between relations with the european union and china has been plans to tax carbon emissions for airlines.

now, after coming under some serious and sustained attack from airlines and also foreign governments like china, europe's carbon tax for airlines finally has found some international support, particularly from the world of academia. as big as 26 u.s. economies, no fewer than 5 nobel prize winners are now urging the u.s. president barack obama to back this emissions trading scheme, which applies to all planes which take off or otherwise land within eu borders. christopher sims is just one of those nobel prize-winning signatories putting his name to this kind of letter. he says that the eu's unilateral move starts to get the ball rolling for more international participation in carbon emissions reduction. >> well, there have been attempts for years to make an international agreement on pricing carbon for aviation, which have not borne fruit. and the european union has said

that they would be happy to adjust their proposal if there could be an international agreement. and i think that this may be a good way to put some pressure on the international organization to begin thinking seriously about moving forward. >> christopher sims there. well, opposition to the ets scheme has been particularly strong, as i was saying before, amongst some of the world's biggest airlines. the ceo of singapore airlines says that what it does is gives an unfair advantage to the carrier's european rivals. at least that's what go chunpong told richard quest in a recent interview. >> if we look at the industry at the moment, particularly let's start with the question of the ets, the european trading, the emissions trading system from europe. you are absolutely being clobbered by it. >> absolutely. >> and you've got to pay it. >> and we have to pay it.

we're not happy at all with the ets and the way it is implemented. we don't think it's equitable, as you say. you know, it provides an unfair advantage for carriers with harbors near to europe. someone taking a flight from singapore to europe, much of the time, the flight is not over eu air space, so how can it be the eu is allowed to tax on those air space? >> would you be in favor of singapore's government adopting some of the basket of countermeasures that were proposed in the declaration from moscow? >> singapore government is a signatory to that resolution, so obviously, we do support that, you know. to actually challenge the ets implementation. but we also support to actually target a global solution for this ets issue, rather than a bilateral solution, so that there is clarity of how it is to be implemented across the world, there is some agreement to that.

>> so, it doesn't show any sign of dying down, the emissions plan from the eu. live on cnn, from hong kong and london, you're watching "world business today." just ahead, thousands of people in spain are forced out of their homes. and even when they've been thrown into the street, that's still not enough for the banks to put them there. that's still ahead. ged hair neew aveeno nourish+ strengthen. active naturals wheat formulas restore strength for up to 90% less breakage in three washes. for strong, healthy hair with life, new aveeno nourish+ strengthen.

but one is so clever that your skin looks better even after you take it off. neutrogena® healthy skin liquid makeup. 98% saw improved skin. does your makeup do that? neutrogena® cosmetics. welcome back. you're watching "world business today" live on cnn. just four years ago, spain was riding the wave of a property boom, but now, about 150,000 homeowners across the country have lost the roof over their heads. the country's economic crisis has taken a devastating toll on low-income families, and sal goodman now reports, eviction is just the beginning of the pain for those who just can't keep up with their mortgage payments. >> reporter: no time to waste for this family of ecuadorian immigrants. they face an eviction order, and

this could be their last night at home. they're behind on mortgage payments, like tens of thousands of others hit hard by spain's deep economic crisis. >> translator: i just hope we can stay at least until the kids finish the school year. i only want that, and they give me the time to take everything, even the windows, if i could. >> reporter: some of their things go upstairs to the apartment of a close relative. kelly arera has lost her job as a cashier, and her husband's income as a waiter isn't enough to pay for two kids and all the bills. >> translator: the banks knew the economic crisis was coming, but they sure did not mind giving mortgages to people. >> reporter: that sentiment is being heard in protests across the country. credit was cheap during the boom, and while spanish banks say 97% of homeowners are paying their mortgages on time, there have been 150,000 evictions of spaniards and immigrants since the crisis began four years ago.

"it would make me ashamed," they chant, to throw a family out of their home. nelson castillo joins this protest against evictions, but also against the spanish law that lets banks seize not only the property, but go after debtors' future income until everything's paid back. >> translator: tomorrow, i will be evicted with my family. i ask for your support. join me at 8:00 in the morning at my house. >> reporter: the next day, protesters heed the call and are the first to arrive. the police come next. later, the family's lawyer enters with officials from the ba bank. this is a now familiar drama seen in homes across spain with protesters trying to prevent evictions. word quickly comes that officials are willing to

negotiate. despite all the protests and the legal efforts, the banks have stopped or delayed the evictions in only a tiny fraction of all the cases so far. but this day, officials agreed to delay the eviction until the end of the month, just a few short weeks to try to save the home before the officials return. al goodman, cnn, madrid. still ahead here on "world business today," the shipping news isn't good. where the pacific maritime conference to find out why a lack of cargo is causing trouble at sea. so what do you think? basic.

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welcome back live from cnn hong kong and london. you're watching "world business today." more than 90% of the world's trade travels by sea, but that trade's slowing down, meaning competition is heating up in the shipping world. we've been to the asia-pacific maritime trade show in singapore to take the pulse of an industry that frequently signals wider economic trends. >> reporter: the opening of a trade show with ceremonial

chinese drums, traditionally a symbol of power and strength, something the shipping industry could use right now. it's a tough time for shipping, whether you're moving containers or iron ore or steel. what's squeezing margins? high bumper fuel prices and an enormous oversupply of ships. so, what's the consensus here? 2012 is going to be a very difficult year. >> prior to 2008, when the shipping markets were booming, ship owne erers placed a huge nr of orders for new tonnage, and these ships now arriving on the market, just at the time when the demand for shipping services is declining. >> we just built up a massive overcapacity of vessels, so this is a simple supply-and-demand creation, as it is in any business. so, you have too many ships and too little cargo, you have competition. >> reporter: the result has been a plummet in freight prices. you need a strong stomach for this industry. >> at the moment, many shipping

companies are now unable to actually meet their operating costs because of the depressed freight rates. we're also seeing extreme volatility in freight rates. >> reporter: smaller companies are forming alliances and pooling resources to stay afloat. >> we have headlines every day of companies struggling, massive companies struggling, and i think we will see bankruptcies, i think we will see consolidation in the market, i think we will see increased phasing out of all the ships, and i think we will see some people making extraordinary deals, people that have a strong balance sheet. >> reporter: so, is there hope on the horizon? the answer lies in the global economy. industry experts here are looking for further growth in asia and signs of a slowly recovering u.s. to help them ride out the turbulent year ahead. cnn, singapore. >> let's look at how the european stock markets are faring. we're just about 55 minutes into the trading session today, so just shy of an hour, and this is

how the picture stands. it has been a choppy morning on the markets, one of the reasons why the ftse 100 is the lagger there, down by almost 0.1%. it's because fitch ratings agency has become the second ratings agency to say that it has put this country on negative watch, which means it's ear-marked the uk for a potential downgrade when it comes to its credit rating. that's why that market is down. but for the moment, andrew, it seems that after a bit of a choppy start to the day, the markets are lifting a little bit and doing slightly better. >> in asia, nina, it was a case of two up, two down. the nikkei and hang seng up, shanghai down as well as the australian market. the shanghai still responding to the words from beijing yesterday that property prices remain too high and the restrictions on property speculation and buying property will remain. that's hurting, obviously, the property stocks and some of the lead banks as well in china. nikkei up on the back of a weakening yen, nina.

>> yeah, and that mixed note, it's time for the two of us to say good-bye, for the moment. that's it for this early edition of "world business today." i'm nina dos santos in london. >> i'm andrew stevens in hong kong. we will be back, joined by maggie for our next edition of "world business today." of course, we've got the opening bell, all the latest from your world of business over the past 24 hours, and looking ahead as well. well. we'll see you then. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com bill, an identity thief who stole mary's identity, took over her bank accounts and stole her hard-earned money. now meet jack. after 40 years, he finally saved enough to enjoy retirement. angie, the waitress at jack's favorite diner, is also enjoying his retirement. with just a little information, she's opened up a credit line, draining the equity in jack's home. unfortunately, millions of americans just like you learn all it may take is a little misplaced information to wreak havoc on your life. this is identity theft, and no

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