hong kong and shanghai led the pack downward. strength of the yen as well as a bigger than expected drop in exports pulled the nikkei down closing 1.25%. when the end gets stronger, exporter share prices take a hit. toshiba and hitachi, down 4 to 4.5%. the hang seng was down 1.3%. it had been trading flat for most of the day but it fell in the last few hours of trading. the top gainer is the hong kong exchanges and clearing. it closed up more than .5%. this is the holding company for the hong kong stock exchange itself. it's in joint venture talks with the shanghai and the shengjen exchanges. the shanghai composite also down 1.6%, the biggest loser of all asian markets today. new annual housing data showed housing prices rose 4.3%. the composite itself has fallen more than 9% as anti-inflation measures have hurt growth in stocks that list on this board. the asx 200 was down 1.22%. i mentioned the $10 billion hostile bid for foster's. resource-related stocks fell on slows of growth. bhp billotin and rio tinto. >>> investors weighe

hong kong up 1.7.hanghai continuing to show concerns about the inflation picture after the move by authorities in beijing on friday to rein in bank lending. australian markets up, but not so much. charles, it does seem to be this u.s. consumer spending number is rippling through markets at least in asia. i guess that's not surprising given asia's, the u.s. is a clear export market. >> it's interesting, isn't it? i think the sensitivity of the markets to this kind of good news does suggest that we're perhaps not really in a bear phase but a reserve judgment on that. let's go back to wall street now. u.s. futures trading lower, not by much after monday's strong gains. we are seeing a little bit of a -- bit of profit taking there off by a third to a half a percent. quarter of a percent. despite the huge run-up on monday. cnn's allison kos ib haskosik h more. >>> insurance stocks helped to lead the broad-based gains as did a strong rebound in consumer spending. the dow's rise marks the fifth time this mont

but in term of hong kong, 1.25% higher. markets are clearly giving a welcome of sorts to the bank's latest plans. >>> well, those investors might be pleased that buying the stock but not everyone would be so keen on what they're planning. the bank says it will slash 25,000 jobses worldwide over the next two years. that is despite those strong first half earnings. in addition to 5,000 positions that were already being trimmed, the hsbc says it plans to add more positions in asia and in latin america, especially there in hong kong and in brazil. the company says it's all part of a strategy to cut its expenses by $2.5 million, andrew. >> certainly a sign of the ti s times, isn't it. now hsbc's job cuts won't win any friending where it is. but the bank's joe gulliver says the obligation is to shareholders and not public opinion. >> our duty is they have a long-term sustainable business that benefits our shareholders. i would imagine many people in this room share that. and therefore so will our customers and therefore the gener

live from cnn hong kong in london."world business today." >>> now, there's some work you really wouldn't mind taking home with you. richard patterson certainly falls into that category. he's a master blender for whiskey makers white and mckie. >> you say hello, then you go back and say how are you? then you go back and say quite well, thank you very much. whiskey is very important to me. because it was running in my family, my grandfather and my father were whiskey blenders. whiskey runs in my blood. i normally get up at four minutes past 6:00 in the morning. in the office for quarter past 7:00. i see what mail is on my desk and i go into my favorite place. we pour it into my glass. swirl it around. make sure it's clean. what do we do with it? throw it on the carpet. it cleans the lip of the glass. this is how ready for assessing the whiskey. hug it like this. you've got to have not just 100%, 120% passion for your job. you've got to love it. you've got to get into it. but you've got to make it really good that you can

down by 1% here in hong kong. that's about it from this edition of "world business today." i'm nina dos santos at cnn london. >> and i'm andrew steven in hong kong. you're watching cnn. i will be back with the next edition of "world business today." hopefully we'll have the pleasure of your company then.

here in hong kong the stock exchange has just closed. the hang seng recovered some of that but still has quite a way to go. it lost almost 12% of its value over the past three sessions of decline. nina? >> andrew, none of these markets are down in the double digits. let's see how they're doing just an hour into the trading session. we've got, for instance, the dax up in excess of 1.75%. and the ftse 100 and the zurich smi. we have central banks like, for instance, the federal reserve coming out with statements saying it's going to be keeping rates on hold for at least the next two years to come. we did see the dollar falling in response to that yesterday, but now what we're seeing at the moment is a little bit of strength in the euro at 1.4373 against the greenback, 1.6251 is where the british is and the yen is at 76.70 at the moment. >>> here in asia the markets have closed obviously, and the relief rally we first saw in the u.s. certainly spreading across this part of the world. take a look at australia. it's up 2.6%. shanghai up by al

we saw it across agia, south korea, hong kong, down 6%, 7%, 8%, switched around to 3%, hong kong started to fall again when london switched. is there any darter to say why they suddenly turned? >> no, let's answer both your questions in one kind of foul swoop in a way, that is what is going to turn these markets around? i think it's one potentially of three things. either it's good corporate news for individual stocks or good news on the economy, that's been a little bit absent recently and i think the third thing is some kind of decisive respectable action on the part of policymakers, which is why today's fed meeting is being watched so closely because here is the first chance for the world's leading policymaker in the financial arena to make some statement to say what he thinks at this point. it was otherwise dismissed as a routine meeting. i think there's not very much actually that would suggest that there is a lot of buying going on at the moment. the only thing that people really seem to be buying at the moment is gold. some people are bargain hunting but why bargain hunt now when

hong kong closing um by about .4, the aussie market up by 1.3%. that's it for this edition of "world business today." thanks so much for joining us. i'm andrew stevens in hong kong. >> i'm nina dos santos in paris. we'll be back in a couple hours' time for the next edition of "world business today." in the meantime you're watching cnn, the world's news leader. it's good-bye for now. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com

i'm andrew stevens in hong kong. thanks for watching. will be back, nina and i joined by maggie lake later in the day with the next edition of "world business today." we'll see you then. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com

live from cnn hong kong and london. watching world business today. >>> the cosmetics giant estee lauder, sales fell 7% on monday after it made a forecast for its 2012 fiscal year earnings. it's been a successful 2011 fiscal year, though. the company announced fourth quarter earnings of $41.1 million, up 72%. in a television exclusive estee lauder ceo told felicia taylor how new products and markets are giving sales a boost. >> here we are at estee lauder headquarters in new york on fifth avenue with the ceo. fa briz yoe freda after having reported record sales for the company. advanced night repair is a leading product. tell me why this is special and where the growth is. >> it's a great technology and it's a base product for the routine of every woman around the world, particularly in china. a lot of chinese woman are really liking this product. they call the brown bottle. >> and it is. but what about growth in china. clearly that's an important region going forward for you. what are your expectations down the road? >>

. >> and a very good afternoon from cnn hong kong. i'm andrew stevens and you're watching "world business today." the top stories on this monday, august 8, asia slumps but europe holds its ground. is it enough for investors? >>> they're defending igts apparent reason but critics are not con o vinced. >>> and from washington to main street, have all the downgrade impact affect real america? it may have been the weekend but it's doubtful the prime minister got much of a break. the turmoil on the global markets spurred them into action and as the new week began came twin announcements from the g-7 and euro banking. they say it stands ready to take coordinated actions. it says it will take all necessary measures to support financial stability and economic growth. so far it has not specified what those measures may be. by contrast, the european central bank says it will actively implement its program of european buying as. as this comes following a market route that started on friday and a hammer blow to confidence by the ratings agency st

hong kong also up. look at shanghai. this is a story.ing about beijing moving aggressively on new anti-inflationary measures on friday. sort of snuck in when most investors were focusing on ben bernanke and what was going on with hur aricane irene. the moves by byren bernanke hast made it into the market yesterday. >> and regardless of difficulties getting to work, trading on wall street will open. spamped t spared the worst of hurricane irene. the u.s. futures, what investors have to look forward to this week. up for the year. dow in the middle and that's for the s&p 500 and the nasdaq composite. i must say, the last guess, maybe the markets haven't fully price in the impact of hurricane irene. let's have a look at what investors have to look forward to this week. >> reporter: wall street this week gets a good look at the state of the u.s. labor market. i'm alison kosik at the new york stock exchange. traders will be hoping that july's positive momentum carries forward. employers added 117,000 jobs last month and unemployment improved t

paris we go to john paul nidia he's author of the book don't speak english parlayed globish and in hong kong we have david read all he is a distinguished visiting scholar at city university of hong kong and another member of our cross talk team yell on the hunger all right gentlemen this is cross talk we can jump in anytime you want to jump oh i'd like to go to you you have a new i suppose a language or policy language that you're introducing to the world and it's called globalists and how is it different from english and if you could for partly could you answer in globish forests oh there globish is english even mens to be very correct english but it is what we call english lite it is a simplified form of english with miss words he would six hundred fifty thousand words in your thought he should marry that's way too much so i make to be most fish and that was fifteen hundred words and to choose one of those words to de mint leaves of those words you can express all you need in the world for business purposes or as a door east so it is in english light but still a correct english i will

for now i'm andrew stevens in hong kong. >> i'm charles hodson in london. you're watching cnn, the world news leader. >>> good morning. et it is tuesday, august 2nd. this is your a.m. "wake-up call." i i'mally velshi joining you live from new york. let's start with a story. it's tropical storm emily. take a look that weather track. there's chance it could pick up strength and approach south florida by friday. we're going to talk to rob marciano about that in just a few minutes. for those of you in florida, you may want to change some of your plans. the senate votes on the bills today with just a few sand granules left in the hourglass, and all the dithering and delaying didn't come for free. this might make you spit out your coffee or trip on your treadmill, so get ready for this. the price tag, more than 1 $.7 billion. that is how much extra interest the government will have to pay investors because it had to sell treasury bills to finance its operations in the middle of this mess. if the mess had been worked out even two weeks ago, that money would have b

kong we have david ragdoll he is the distinguished visiting scholar at city university of hong kong and another member of our cross talk team yelena hunger all right gentlemen this is cross talk we can jump in anytime you want to jump oh i'd like to go to you you have a new i suppose a language or quasi language that you're introducing to the world and it's called globalists and how is it different from english and if you could for partly could you answer in globish for us oh there is a english is even meant to be very correct english but it is what we call english lite it is a simplified from of english with this words it would six eleven fifteen it's not worth and you're twenty three that's way too much so a negative will station that was fifteen hundred words and the children know those words again but use of those words you can express all you need in the world for business purposes or is it always so it is in english light would steal a car i can recall right will give us an example given is example what it sounds like and what words you like to use go ahead. i mean when you ea

kong we have david read all he is a distinguished visiting scholar at city university of hong kong and another member of our cross talk team yell on the hunger all right gentlemen this is cross talk we can jump in anytime you want and jump oh i'd like to go to you you have a new i suppose a language or posse language that you're introducing to the world and it's called globalists and how is it different from english and if you could for partly could you answer in globish for us oh yeah. english isn't even meant to be very correct english but it is what we call english lite it is a simplified form of a nice words you would see some of the fifteen is now worth in the it's not easy three that's way too much so you may get the most efficient it with fifteen hundred words and to choose one of those words if they made use of those words you could express all you need in the world for business purposes or as a tourist so it is in english light but still a great thing to write well give us an example given his example what it sounds like and what words you like to use go ahead. well. i made on

he at one point went from hong kong to japan to recuperate.the one that wanted to be an artist and wanted to paint. i thought about that because it must have been hard growing up in hong kong to be far away from everything and have a dream and get sick at this point. i thought u is there a story here? that's the way it begins for writers. people think things jump out and we have it in our head. it's the opposite we have nothing in our head. we turn on the machine and praying for something to come. with women of the silk i researched for 6 amongs and read and read and read. in one book i found 2 lines about the woman silk workers and knew immediately that's hai wanted to write about. it came to me like a dream that every writer prays for that you just knew you wanted to write about this. with the second book it was difficult i sat down and didn't know what i was going to write for about 6 months. which was fearful for me because of the fact i knew i didn't have the second book. steven's story, i asked myself questions. a lot of writers do that

live to hong kong in minutes. that's 22 minutes after the hour.here you need it most. precise. only from the makers of tylenol. >>> around the world in hong kong while even else is looking at the markets, anna is keeping her eye on other things after the big selloff here in the united states. got to be a lot of worry this morning worldwide, anna, good morning. >> a huge crisis has put markets in a tailspin. they're following wall street's lead. the ftse and dax are both down 2%. here the asian pacific. the hammering went down 4%, lowest level in two years. $60 billion was on the value of the trade stocks. commodity prices a real factor down under. the nikkei, not far behind closing down 3.72%. that's the big story, obviously, that we're following. ali. >> you see money going out of stocks, you see commodity-rich countries like australia benefitting from it. the unusual thing is money was coming out of everything. nobody was making money today. thank you so much for joining us. >>> after the dow's bad day, you might be wondering about your own port

to cross-talk the prospects for the global economy i'm joined by martin henniker in hong kong he's an associate director at the tight group in warsaw we have patrick young he's the executive director at divi advisors an editor of the gathering storm and in washington we cross to daniel mitchell he's a senior fellow at the council institute hard gentlemen this is cross talk that means you can jump in anytime you want to very much encourage it but first let's look at the fed's recent meeting at jackson hole. in the end ben bernanke is lacking going to announce that there would be further quantitative easing was so close and caviar there was something in it for almost everyone the fed can tell us specifically what it's going to do because it doesn't know specifically what's going to happen so the more specific the fed makes a promise a more liable the fed does have to go they have to go back later and to change it because it promised us something that it can't deliver on the questions behind any further action by the world's most important central bank remain and will dominate economic d

ok mind if i go to you first in hong kong what do you think he was so coy about that because he says he said he still has some tools in his tool box is he really because quantitative easing really hasn't helped the economy grow at all it hasn't created jobs certainly made a lot of people rich on the stock market. well maybe it's not it's not at all about recovering or stimulating the u.s. economy but it may be much more about preventing the national bankruptcy of the united states because a reality is the u.s. is sitting on a pair of two hundred and eleven trillion us dollar and fiscal there was really is a number you need to look at not the mickey mouse figure as they look for official national debt numbers because they conveniently include a lot of things of exclude a lot of things from though official book so if you look at all their unfunded liabilities including social security medicare and many other items they have already committed to why they don't actually have the funding that's the fiscal gap that's two hundred eleven trillion of missing funds is not too different from th

stay with us. >>> welcome back from cnn hong kong and london.ou're watching "world business today." >>> now, the on fire debt deal calls for $2.5 trillion of cutting in the next ten years but will it help the state of the faltering u.s. economy, which we know from the u.s. manufacturing reports shows some sign of strain. cnn's john defterios joins us here from london. give us a bit of detail. how bad was that? >> it's interesting. the survey has very closely watched. it's indicated what the futures's going to look like. number one, it was very dire, but we had a 5-point plunge, that's after a strong rise in june. we have a turning for the better in the second half of 2011 that's going to point to higher growth. what i think this points to is the impact the debt impasse is having on the psyche of the consumer and is spilling over to the business community, number one. number two, we know the fed stimulus is not as stromg as it was in the first half of 2011 nor as strong as it was in 2010. there could be life after the great stimulus from the fede

we want to go now to hong kong. the markets there are experiencing something they haven't done in a year. >> all the markets here are down in negative territory. the markets down the most are the hang seng in hong kong down 2.8%. singapore also down by 2.6%. if you want to look for a bright spot, one thing i can say is most of the indices are off the lows from this morning. for example, australia down in sydney, the markets down there opened down more than 2%. it's now down by about .7%. as i mentioned they are off the lows. part of the reason for this was dow futures. investors saw the dow futures down by more than 2%. right off the bat at the opening bell in our area, a lot of these indices plummeted down. now we are seeing gains. it's mostly banking stocks and energy that are pulling the indices down. oil is down. so, don, the other issue here is others are worried about a weak u.s. dollar. we have a lot of exporters here. with the weak u.s. dollar driving up asian currencies. >> thank you very much. we want to g

welcome back from hong kong in london.y." >>> now, both houses at the u.s. congress must still approve the debt limit deal that president obama and congressional leaders hammered out over the weekend, but despite the $2.5 trillion in spending cuts that it mandates, that's the headline, it may not have a lot of impact on u.s. debt. cn anchor john defterios joins me in london to explain why. $2.5 trillion might be headlined, in fact. >> reading between the headlines, what they have on the table is a trillion dollars over ten years. so e we're looking at cuts of $90 billion. the remainder, 1.4, 1.5, is going to be passed on a super committee to get it done by christmas time before the christmas holidays. it's not really 2.4, 2.5. >> that's kicking the ball into the long grass. >> if markets were to get cuts of $4 trillion to $5 trillion of this deal so the expectations are almost cut in half, and, in fact, they only have 900 of the 2.4, 2.5. let's look at the realities. this is why the market has trepidation. the debt to gdp

in asia, investors taking a hammering, particularly in hong kong. hong kong down 4.3%. all the markets getting hammered. shanghai getting away with most likely 2%. it wasn't just those big markets, if you look at seoul, taipei, mumbai as well, all taking big hits. look at taipei, 5.6%. closely tied to the u.s. economy in terms of an exporter is taiwan, that's why you see that big selloff in taiwan. >>> how did the day play out on wall street on thursday? it started bad and quickly got worse. take a look. >> yesterday's gains, they were just a mirage. we're watching stocks plunge. chipping away at investor confidence. the pace of selling for the dow pick up steam. >> this is a market you need to pay attention to when you have a steep delinement. >> 370 points. 407. massive plunge. continuing to take this massive plunge. close to two times as bad as the worst day we've had this year. >> people standing up there applauding. people at home not applauding at all. >> probably applauding because finally the end of the trading day came, and futures on the s&p 500 are pointing t

in hong kong, the hang seng is up about 0.1%. we're seeing this is the third week in a row this index will be down overall. there's one major performance to fengs. that's li & fung, it beat first-half net forecasts. they're one of walmart's main clothing suppliers. in shanghai, that was up about 0.5%. it's coming along with more speculation that the central bank won't raise interest rates to fight inflation. finally, down in australia, the asx 200, eked out about 0.7% gain here. losing before the investors cashed out for the weekend. the big four banks were up most of the day. but they were mixed. mining stocks gained. then, they lost ground. but they managed to close in the green. after all the ups and downs over the last five days, you might be scratching your head and wondering, where did the markets turn out overall? this year is the bigger picture. the nikkei closed down more than 2%. the hang seng was the big loser of the week. the shanghai composite, down 0.4%. and the asx 200, gained through the weekend. we're going to pi

we go to jump on the idea he's the author of the book don't speak english parlayed globish and in hong kong we have david read all he is a distinguished visiting scholar at city university of hong kong and another member of our cross talk team yelena hunger all right gentlemen this is cross talk you can jump in anytime you want and jump oh i'd like to go to you you have a new i suppose a language or quasi language that you're introducing to the world and it's called global bush and how is it different from english and if you could for partly could you answer in globish chorus oh there is english isn't even meant to be very correct english but it is the recording least like it is a simplified from obese we say this words you would see it's another fifteen thousand words and you know it's not easy surely that's way too much so we made good demonstration that was fifteen hundred words and then choose one of those words the david use of those words you could express all you need in the world for business purposes or as a tourist so it is english lite which still akari kingly all right well

. >> and good an from cnn hong kong. i'm andrew stevens. welcome to world business today. >> more qe or no more qe some that's the question at jackson hole. >>> and liquidity on wall street. one look at the potential impact of hurricane irene on downtown manhattan. >> but first, ben bernanke's impending speech at jackson hole is front and center in investors minds this friday. let's take a look at how that's affecting european markets. they've opened on the day of the big conference lower with particularly heavy losses coming from the dax down to the untune of 2%. we've also got the cac 40 being led lower by stocks after a company being down graded by one of the brokeragers. but it seems we're raising some of the optimism that we saw earlier this week. >> seems to be that any big moves by ben bernanke is starting on to be discounted now at that meeting. here in asia, it was pretty much the same sort of story. shares edging higher at the start of trade, but the word to describe what was going on here also very cautious. that's how the day en

and remy joins us with the latest from hong kong. so, not so bad by the close of trading there in tokyo. that's good news. a little glimmer of hope coming out of australia too. we grab what we can. >> that's right, rosemary. market across the region are down by as much as 4% now. let me take you first to the nikkei over in tokyo. it is down as you mentioned about 1.7% there. and this is its fourth straight days of falls. it did cross this 9,000 line barrier today, first time since mid-march after japan's earthquake here. banks and exporters, autos, electronicsmakers, those were taking the index down hard. in hong kong, the hang seng is down about 4% now. it is the biggest loser in the markets now. earlier it traded at a low not seen since last year in may. hsbc is down 7%. bank of china, down about 4%. over on the mainland, the shanghai composite, flirting back and forth. inflation fears are going to stay front and center in the national dialogue over here. and finally down to australia, the ask 200, it did a surprise turn around at

tokyo, nikkei inched up 132 points while in hong kong hang seng climbed 285. >>> another booming day on wall street was overshadowed by an icon of american business stepping down. legend steve jobs issued a stunning resignation as chief executive of apple, the company he co-founded in a garage. the 56-year-old survived cancer. he has been elected chairman and tim cook will serve as ceo. jobs said he could no longer, quote meet my duties and expectations as apple's ceo. >>> earlier a big jump in july durable goods orders, twice as much as expected eased double dip recession worries. many still holding out hope, chairman ben bernanke will announce it in a speech tomorrow. >>> gold, one of the steepest falls ever. after hitting a two and a half year low tuesday, bank of america shot up 11% calling speculation of a merger with rival j.p. morgan chase baseless. >>> home builder toll brothers rose 4%. else where, google will pay half a billion to settle a criminal probe into pharmacies that led to inlegal imports. >>> collective brands, the parent of payless shoe source an stride rite is c

. >>> in asia, anna is in hong kong. how volatile were the asian markets overnight? >> reporter: kfollowing wall street's lead, some of the major indices plummeted throughout the day. government there had to intervene. it closed to 3.6%. similar story for japan's nikkei. it was down 5%. took back some of the losses to

friday when this credit downgrading rating was released we're already seeing the markets tumbling in hong kong japan south korea and australia we have yet to see what's going to happen specifically in india but obviously this is what many financial analysts had predicted on friday we were already starting to see the markets tumbled on friday in reaction to the u.s. debt ceiling debate and these new credit rating downgrade so. asian markets are reacting very strongly they have a vested interest in what's going on in the united states they are holding three trillion dollars the united states debt so everyone's watching very closely here to see what's happening china is the number one holder in u.s. debt chip pan is number two they both have reacted very strongly to this crisis china calling all of this immoral and responsible and saying that the united states must to deal with this immediately. that is china and india my dismay. to the group. so a lot of investors are saying that if you move away from u.s. treasuries they're going to have to diversify diversify excuse me by investing in asi

analysis on the deal from professor of political science joseph chiang from the city university of hong kong professor try thanks very much for being on the program and imo the house passed the debt ceiling agreement but still it still has a few hurdles to jump before tuesday's close of play so is the u.s. out of the woods here do you think. well it is generally p.b.s. . given the person agreement between the two parties the slot terms before it's crisis basically has been resolved that people are worried about various issues a head including the you media the issue of perhaps the united states who loses triple a rating then of course in general people are very worried that the united states this in no position to solve is a long term problem and that we create further crisis here there's also a very that the. obama administration has certainly been weakened and it will have to face more pressure from the republican party and the tea party people in the fact that it has no control over the majority in the house of representatives the countries in asia in general i worried about perhaps

being pretty much replicated on a day to day basis in the major asian stock markets such as japan hong kong seoul australia and elsewhere i think it's not a long term ramifications for what they thought the high gold prices fell by the us dollar do you think is the world's reserve currency should investors belden looking for that methods. well i mean the reality for the world is that he really is no viable alternative currently to the turn of the currently to the us dollar. the bulk of traders trends that didn't u.s. dollars or commodities trader the newest dollars most central banks keep the bulk of the. foreigners is in the u.s. dollar estimates so really to look for an alternative to the u.s. dollar at the moment is really grasping at straws ok stephen wright avi's asia business that is says a word to us live from bangkok many. and a u.s. court has ruled. for a private security. eagle imprisonment and torture proven guilty which means a former defense secretary would be held accountable one in iraq i think it's you madam you know with all the. criminal activity by the u.s. and if yo