hsbc holdings weighed heavily. they were downgraded to neutral but credit suisse, they were cut from outperform. they fell nearly 1% in trade. hsbc is now currently fairly valued. coal investors sold their stocks after beijing said it wanted more imports to keep those domestic prices in the mainland down. speaking of the mainland, let's bring up the shanghai composite, up about two-thirds of a percent to 26744. harbin pharmaceutical was hit after news claimed that it had done major environmental damage up in harbin, the northern part of china usaustralia closed a hr lower to 4566. mining shares at rio tint to were marginally down, but virgin australia and singapore's carrier are in a deal. staying in australia, i want to talk about the key interest rate in the news. the central bank came out with the decision earlier today. the benchmark rate is at 4.75% it will stay there. the reserve bank of australia says this figure is appropriate for current economic conditions. australia is expecting inflation 2% and 3% for t

for the huge banks like will bank of scotland, hsbc, they would like a bear investment activity to be insulated. in a crisis or collapse, these retail operations are less likely to be damaged. >> this will not stop another financial crisis. it will not stop having to bail out a banking system. the idea that you can walk away from an investment bank and let it collapse, look at lehman brothers and see what happened. this a virtually brought the world banking systems to their knees. >> economic kopit's could be rebuilt by shelling the rock. -- economic confidence could be rebuilt by selling the rock. >> you are watching "newsday," on the bbc. >> are mad headlines. writers have taken to the streets of athens as the greek prime minister struggles to win support for new austerity measures. >> president obama has defended the american involvement in libya and rejected demands from congress that he needs their approval. the opposition party is hoping to avoid a return to compensation with china. they will have a campaign in next january. the party has infuriated beijing with their calls a fo

we've got hsbc. >> yeah. yes. yes. and where did that start? you know? >> is what we're seeing the rise of inyeah and china going to shift once more? >> i don't think so, because you know, even in the 17th and 18th -- 1th and 19th century, you know, in there china was trading an enormous amount -- except as i said all the cream of that trade came here to london. what assisted most of all is the profits of that trade now remain in india and china and that's been the big difference. >> is there a sense though that although people are relishing what's happening in the east, there is a major threat to the heg moany of the west? >> i don't see that people in the west are relish this at all. i sense a lot of resentiment and fear. they feel deeply threatened because you know the hegemonny is eroding. i think in fact, they would do anything to maintain that hegemonny. why would they start forcing opium in china? it was done in a sort of carefully thought of way sen rnlly to undermine choy knees iness -- chinese institutions. i think they would go to great length

were talking about the past and we're standing, we're looking at the future as well, .e're looking at hsbc >> where did that start, you know? >> is the rise of india and china going to shift once more? >> i do think so. even though in the 17th -- 18th and 19th centuries, india and china were trading enormous amounts. all the cream of the trade came here to london. what has shifted out most of all is the profits of that trade now remain in india and china. that has been the big difference. >> is there a sense that although people are relishing what is happening in these, there is a major threat to the hegemony of the west. >> i would say i do not see that people in the west are i see a lot of resentment and fear. and yes, of course they are deeply threatened because the hegemony is eroding. i think it would do anything to maintain that hegemony. really, why did they force opium upon china? it was done in a very sort of carefully thought out way. essentially to undermine chinese institutions and they succeeded. what will they do this time around? i do not know. i think they would go to great

this is the hsbc pmi index and it showed that activity did grow and at the slowest rate of some three quarters. inflation, higher interest rates largely to blame for that so the economy is indeed slowing down. that news did flatten the shanghai composite. that's how the shanghai actually ended up just as i said flat but it was up 1.4% yesterday. the economists are saying that this number was a little bit expected on the manufacturing side, perhaps it's going to be a soft landing for the chinese economy. nikkei up and australia barely moved. big news also coming out of australia today. australia battled a record deluge in the summer and now looking forward to a winter relative economic content. what i mean by that? the country reported the largest gdp contraction in 20 years after floods overwhelmed the coal and agriculture sectors earlier this year. the economy contracting 1.2% in the first quarter of this year compared with the final quarter of last year. the good news is that the slump is likely to be a one off. one economist indeed described this decline as a temporary pothole. for

hong kong led the charge for most the day with hsbc and the bank of communications performing especially well in that market and even though the nikkei ended the day in flat territory, citigroup stock finished about 3% higher on the tokyo exchange. is this how the markets finally settled. let's take a look at them. the nikkei putting on 0.2% for the day and the hang seng up by 1.5%. the s&p asx 200 in australia up by 1.75% on the day. over to the action on wall street on wednesday, financial also leading the charge there. that came after bank of america agreed to an $8.5 billion settlement with investors. on the face of it, a huge settlement like that doesn't seem like good news, does it? but the bank of america, it means that it has escaped criminal charges and investors are hopeful that they will finally draw a line internet bank's involvement in the entire u.s. mortgage mess. >>> the approval of austerity measures in greece added a note of optimism on the other side of the bomb. this is the picture at the close of trade. pretty solid gains with the s&p 500 up by 0.8%. looking ahead to

right now we have a banker in new zealand who is a banker with hsbc bank, earning over $100,000 a years going to be deported back to new zealand, along with his brazilian ex and his british current, who have become great friends. ♪ [ lane ] here's the trouble with most anti-wrinkle creams. the cream disappears but your wrinkles don't. ♪ introducing neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair. it has the fastest retinol formula available. in fact, it's clinically proven to smooth wrinkles in just one week. so all you have to do is sit back and watch your wrinkles go away. new rapid wrinkle repair. from neutrogena®. >>> now at the bottom of the hour on this cnn saturday morning. welcome back, everybody. the wildfires still burning across oklahoma now have compelled the governor to declare an emergency in 33 counties. nearly a dozen fires are burning, fed by hot, dry winds and some extreme heat. at least 3,000 acres on fire and emergency planners fear that this could get worse before it gets better. >>> also, parts of -- a good part of minot -- excuse me. let me tell you about this train derailment

. >> so right now we have a banker in new zealand who is a banker with hsbc bank earning over $100,000r. he'll be deported back to new zealand along with his brazilian ex, and his british current who have become great friends. >> you can't make this stuff up. thank you as always. we're about 20 minutes from the top of the hour. the cmn freedom project looking at the horrors out there of modern day slavery with a new documentary. it's near rated by demi moore. it premieres tomorrow night 8:00 eastern on cnn. >> reporter: a lot of what i've learned about human trafficking has been through direct conversations with victims. i've interviewed many victims in several different countries in several agency range. most of the victims are women and most of been in sexual exploitation. some of it is so shocking it almost ruin us for a few weeks. you can't escape the horrendousness that people are telling you and the pain they lived through. this is going to change because it is morally intolerable. >>> now young women and girls in nepal bought and sold for sex. they are all victims. tomorrow nigh

the problem hsbc originated in the non-bank, known as household finance, subprime lender. the problem tended to propagate from there. the way i look at things it essentially started the darkest and most rick -- least regulated and went up like a disease or a flood that essentially attacked the ramparts of the strongest building. so, we worked our way through the non-banks, household finance, and worked on commercial paper and then monoline insurers, finally brought down their stearns and lehman brothers in the repo market. only then that the center did not fold -- the citigroups, washington mutuals, bank of america saw their lives threatened. the panel we will talk about now -- will ask the question, with all the focus on the but banking system, what happened to the shadow banking system where all the problems began? you can think of it in two ways, at least i think of this. two opposing forces. the first immediate force is flight to safety. basically in the aftermath of the crisis, the weakest have collapsed. the ones associated with the excess is that brought on the cris