both the hsbc and the official data have been steadily improving. now, remember, the hsbc survey tracks the smaller private chinese firms or the official one track tess giant soes. the official is represented by the green line here. now, all eyes are on friday when we will get the final pmi readings, both official and hsbc. back to you guys. >>> top u.s. economists are nearly unanimous in thinking the looming across the board budget cuts and other fiscal worries will be a drag on growth in 2013. the latest survey from the national association of business economic sess 2.4%, which compares favorably with 1.5% last year. nearly 60% believe the sequester will take effect fully or partially as scheduled on friday. more than half think of uncertain surrounding the fiscal policy will cut half a point or less from gdp. the white house, meanwhile, is pressing republicans to renegotiation the budget cuts. the administration is detailing their impact in all states warning of delays in aprils and cuts in unemployment benefits. speaking to the national governor

>> i think the thing to focus on is hsbc. it's not devastating if it doesn't go through, but, really, it's taken a long time and it's taken the energy of people very high up in the company, including the ceo, to try to make this transition work. the interesting thing is, if it doesn't, does he want to spend the next year or so trying to get this transaction through? it's going to be very tough. >> yeah. i mean, exactly. as you say, it would be tough. if he doesn't get his transaction through, how can they replace the lost business? what would the likely strategy be sthp. >> well, he has a few options. and that is the first you line up another buyer. now, $8.5 billion in the stock, you know, continually going up, that's not exactly an easy thing. the other thing is, you can't sell down 85.billion in the market. you do it in chunks. that's an option, as well. in each case, it could take some time. >> yeah. how do we see the future development of financial services here in china? are you going to be -- you know, are companies ev

hsbc was a serial offender on the money laundering score. they had been twice given formal cease and desist orders by the government. one dating back as far as 2003, another one in 2010 for inadequately policing the accounts in their system. they laundered over $800 million for cartels in colombia. >> drug cartels? >> drug cartels in colombia and mexico. they laundered money for terrorist connected banks in the middle east. russian gangsters. literally, you know, i talked to one prosecutor who's, like, "they broke basically every law in the book, and they did business with every kind of criminal you can possibly imagine. and they got a complete and total walk." i mean, they had to pay a fine. >> $1.9 billion, a lot of money. >> it's a lot of money. but it's five weeks of revenue for the bank, to put that in perspective. and no individual had to suffer any consequences at all. there were no criminal charges no individual fines, which was incredible. incredible. >> lenny breuer also forced the swiss bank ubs, as you know, to pay a big fine in

. >>> and hsbc takes a turn in the hot seat appearing before the u.k. parliamentary commission on banking standards. hsbc's ceo, stuart gulliver and chairman douglas flint, giving comments as we speak. a couple of comments on the wire from them. flint i believe was saying that he supports the electrified fence that we heard george osborne unveil earlier that would effectively separate retail and investment banking for those banks that don't comply with the law. as we get other comments through from this as we have in previous days, we will bring you comments from that hearing. now earlier we asked you, yes, what monopoly token would you kick out. monopoly in the middle of updating its playing pieces. joann from michigan tweeted that she'd retire the beat-up old shoe and replace it with a louse vuitt vuitton. and another tweet, he'd give the shoe the boot. john, though, would rather get rid of the iron. he reiterates it's a great game. >> the iron? no, no, no. no, no, no, no. it stays. >> i think it's a case that there are fewer pieces here than in the u

hsbc saw a bigger jump. in the battle between china and india here, who seems to have more momentum in its service sector economy? >> well, actually, india's manufacturing pmi for the month of january was the lowest among all the brics. that didn't work out too well. but there was a pull and push in terms of the services of the manufacturing pmi. services was at the best level we've seen in seven months with regard to do pmi data indicating that maybe there's some amount of difference with regards to service and the pmi data. the composite data came in at 51.6 in january, which is flat, but that has pulled up because of the data. analysts assuming that maybe the data would be sluggish going forward simply because, one, the january data for the pmi has not come out too strong and the core sector, basically 0% of the iip came back and grew at a marginal rate of around 2.6% indicating that maybe december was sluggish. since the january pmi was sluggish, as well, the trend for industrial production would be as a

james emmett, global head of trade at hsbc. >>> i'll show where we are. we've got italian debt auction it to take place in three minutes. the ftse mib has dipped down interest negative territory. just down a quarter point after losses that we saw yesterday, as well. >>> still to come, $85 billion of u.s. budget cuts are due to come into effect on friday. how are u.s. fiscal battles going to go from the private equity industry point of view? >>> the u.s. sequester set to take effect in less than two days. a new poll shows mrs. plenty -- shows there's plenty of negative sentiment and lawmakers are letting them happen. >>> burning a home in apple's pocket, question about the iphone maker's cash pile set to dominate the agenda at the annual shareholder meeting. >>> what is the price of political risk? italy's hoping to raise around 6.5 billion euros in its first long-term debt sale following the election. this as the coalition government looks unlikely for the moment. >>> u.s. stocks closed up. the dow up 1.8%, the s&p up.opinion 6, nasdaq up .4. we're closed

reading of hsbc numbers came out strong but the official figure fell short of market expectations. also the yen's further decline helped to bolster tokyo stocks. on to currencies the dollar has recovered. dollar/yen 92.09-13. dollar buying remains pretty strong that's because market players believe the u.s. economy will be able to maintain its momentum. the euro also gaining ground as germany's factor activity gained. i want hit the 126 yen level for the first time in two years and nine months. seeing a bit of a pull back, 125.68. that is going to do it for biz tonight. >>> journalists got access this week to a damaged and dangerous facility they often report on but rarely visit. the operators of fukushima daiichi allowed the media to tour nuclear plant. a team from nhk went inside. tokyo electric power officials have restricted access to fukushima daiichi since the facility was crippled from the tsunami. three reactors suffered meltdowns. the plant is far from stable and radiation levels are still high. nhk world's chief correspondent was one of the journalists who entered the sit

a study commissioned by hsbc bank found more of that -- finds more than half of the working population not properly preparing for retirement. nearly one out of five workers are not saving at all. the people blamed the daily cost of living as the biggest reason for not saving money. when it comes to managing money, the washington redskins are doing their part to help veterans. >> they are at walter reed medical center. as john gonzalez reports, they have a new way of teaching people the finer points of finance. >> the nfl season is over but the redskins are still playing the game here in bethesda. this is a high-energy game of what is being called financial football. >> i did not learn about living about a budget until a few years ago. >> these are helping not only to be prepared but also guiding adults to better tackle their financial futures. the video game incorporates lessons taught about practical money goes for life, a money- management program. >> it is good to be financially responsible. >> a big benefit for this navy veteran and single father of two. >> you do not want to spend

in 2003 there was an attack against the british consulate in istanbul and against hsbc bank. foreign embassies know that they need extremely high security. >> this comes at a time when a lot of western institutions -- there has been a gas plant incident in algeria, warnings about libya. it's a very tense time in the region. you have been reporting a great deal from the turkey-syria border. there's speculation at the moment that any number of people could be behind us. >> i pity you have suggested right, that any number of groups could have carried this out. in turkey, the immediate suspicion will fall against al qaeda-inspired groups. those groups carried out attacks at the end of 2003 against jewish synagogues, against the u.k. consulate in istanbul, and against a bank. that is speculation at the moment. turkey is watching very closely what happens on its border into a war with syria. it's trying to stay not involved. but now there's a major security problem in its own capital. >> the turkish government, prime minister has been a very vocal critic of the regime in damascus.

investors are afraid that hsbc might have sold its -- given how much market has value since the deal was first announced on december 5th. elsewhere, technologymakers brought the south korea kosty poundy by about 0.25%. meanwhile, australian shares ended lower ahead of the rba meeting down by housing data and job advertisement. india's sensex now trading lower by about 0.1%. back to you, kelly. >> sixuan, thank you so much for that. we'll see more for you in just a bit. bankia, they're leading the market up about 6% after we saw last week's bain allowing the short selling ban go away. not necessarily putting appreciate pressure on those shares today. we've been on extended runs for a lot of these indexes. cac 40 giving up some ground this morning. ibex 35 down about 0.3%. the ftse lower down, as well. the bottom space is where we've been focusing lately and even today, the ten-year in spain, 5.3%. we'll see what happens with the latest round of political instability. italy, though, 4.4% just about. so it is holding below the 4.5% levels. for ex, this is the one to focus on. look at th

joining us now for more, pablo goldberg at hsbc. pablo, welcome. so if you wouldn't mind, there's been a debate back and forth about china, but certainly seems as though the rebound camp is winning lately. just how well positioned is china for stronger growth this year? and what is that going to mean for your merging market index broadly? >> it's very well positioned. we're seeing pick up necessary investment. we're seeing a pick up in trade right now. what this implies for the rest of emerging market is crucial. china is at the center of a stage of this recovery in emerging markets and we have seen last august that it's taking not only the chinese numbers up, but also the rest of asia up with it. it is a slow process. but you're seeing in the momentum gained in the index and the future indicator of the index that is suggesting that business confidence is at its highest for the next 12 months, as well. >> does this imply monetary fiscal stimulus, pablo, or is this already in the cards? >> this is already in the cards. if anything, we have seen the

tracy: analysts at hsbc are lifting their forecast for the precious metal.d you possibly play a silver rally and get it in your portfolio? sandra smith will tell you in today's trade. >> hey tracy and ashley. i prepared a little chart to show how silver is real mover in 2013. gold just the opposite in the blue. silver made bigger moves and it is outperforming gold so far this year. hsbc is basically saying they think silver down today, by the way, at $30.75. they think it will be a big winner climbing to $33 and ending there by the end of the year. here are the reasons why they're turning so bullish. they're calling for higher industrial demand. gold doesn't have industrial component like silver. more tied to global economic recovery. steady investor appetite. they're seeing lots of demand for coins and bar purchases. bottoming out of jewelry demand. remember a big component there as well. silver has all kinds of uses gold does not. they're calling for silver to continue to outperform gold for the rest of the year. if you want to play this in the stock marke

there's silver, a story i've been talking about today, hsbc saying silver's going to be the shining startoday, liz, but it has been outperforming gold so far this year. back to you. liz: buying opportunities. well, it's very much an industrial play. >> absolutely. liz: thank you very much, sandra, sandra smith, closing bell ringing in 17 minutes. real estate investment trusts are a way to get exposure without physically buying a building or shopping mall on your own, but what if we told you there's a rate out there where you pay the fee up front without knowing how much money you make and can't sell it for years unless you want to take a penalty. who takes on that risk? actually, a lot of savvy investors say sign me up. up next, one of the largest in the country that's not listed on an exchange. kbs capital advisers keith hall coming up next to school you in countdown college. stay tuned. ♪ twins. i didn't see them coming. i have obligations. cute obligations, but obligations. i need to rethink the core of my portfolio. what i really need is sleep. introducing the ishares core, building

silver got perhaps a little bit of a boost or one would think it would from hsbc lifting its price craftto o 2013. only out performer is platinum. back to you. >> thank you, sharon. courtney reagan is here. how would you sum up today's equity session? >> kind of a push and pull. it is almost like it get there, but can't keep going. i'm starting to wonder if we are really going to hit those new peaks. if it is going to happen. so the sector break down shows healthcare lagging. if we dig deeper into the movers, you know ge. but it is worth mentioning because we are hitting four-year highs there. also other multiindustrial names hitting good new highs here. if you look at texture on 52-week highs. eaton, all-time highs. other movers in the multiindustrial space. and managed care company naming the new ceo of a company facing a new key year. shares are lower because the market and analysts were surprised about the announcement of this gentleman to be the new ceo. he certainly has experience but they just weren't expecting he would be the one with name shares. aetna lower in the health manage

hsbc surveyed people in 15 countries.t they found. 48% of them never targeted saving specifically for retirement. globally more than half, or 56%, say they don't think their savings the last through retirement. in the u.s. that number jumps to two out of three, 67%. there's been a reversal of fortune when it comes to credit card debt. people ages 50 and up now carry more credit card debt than younger people do. you usually think, that the young people have the debt. no, not the case. it is a switch from the last study in 2008. those 50 and up are averaging almost $8300 in monthly balances on their plastic, higher than 6200 for those under 50. simon? >> wow. lance armstrong is already mounting his defense for the lawsuit from the department of justice. he says, not only did he not harm the postal service from his fraud but he made the united states postal service millions of dollars. brian schactman, you have to admire the man's goal. >> we will see how this ends. a fascinating story. hours ago, department of justice annou

the study was commissioned by hsbc and found more than half of the world's working population is not preparing adequately. nearly one in five workers aren't saving anything at all. the survey found that most blame the daily cost of living as the biggest reason why folks just cannot afford to save. among those who do save on average, they expect retirement to last 18 years, but they truly believe they're savings will run out after just ten years. so to figure out if you're on track, consider these guidelines. fidelity investments released back in september. the mutual fund company suggests you save at least ail times your final salary to meet basic income needs in retirement. by age 35, think about 35, you should aim to have the equivalent of your annual salary in savings. by age 40, you should set a goal to save twice your salary. by 50 you want to look at five times your annual salary. five times by age 55 and six times by age 60. so here's an example. let's say you make 60,000 a year. would you need to have 240,000 in savings at age 50 to hit your retirement goals. fidelity of cour

hsbc got a slap on the wrist effectively for laundering money to mex mexican drug cartels. >> one ofhe biggest problems we have is the too big to fail, too big to jail issue. because there is a real view -- i'm not sure it's a wrong view, but it's a view that if you were to decide that jp morgan should be indicted tomorrow, and i'm not saying they should or should be for whatever reason, you have a problem on your hands because not only are you going to have, you know, i don't know, 25,000, 50,000 people who will lose their jobs tomorrow, but in addition to that, the sort of domino effect of almost this sort of failure of a lehman-like bankruptcy. there are real issues. therefore, the question is how do you regulate institutions like that. can you go after individuals more forcefully than they have? this goes back to the issue of we have not gone after individuals? why is that? there are things that could be done that i think in fairness to warren, you know, she's raising a lot of important points in that respect. the question is whether that's more show or whether it's actually goin

the hsbc china pmi number decreased from january, but still showed signs of expansion. week-long chinese new year are behind that drop. and with the shanghai composite pulling back from recent highs, is now the time to invest in china? well, let's take a deeper dive. we have eric brock, china fund portfolio manager. his china fund returned more than 24% in 2012, which is really no mean feat, right, when you consider the chinese market -- >> great. >> has been kind of struggling for a little while, coming back now. is it time to invest? >> yes, we think it is. if you look at the cyclical indicators. we did havi don't want to pay t attention to the january, february data, because we have seasonal distortions with the chinese new year. if you look at the data in the last few months, you have cyclical indicators like power generation, where seeing growth 8%, 9%, industrial productions up 10%. exports have recovered. you have the cyclical story here. and now -- i would argue that china has actually entered a sweet spot in terms of economic growth. >> so, you put the hard lan

>> it's a tricky situation for hsbc asset brand. at the higher end, you have apple. you take the chinese market, there are smaller players and cloners which are bringing out devices catering to the emerging markets, the lower end of the smartphone markets. and price point is key here. those devices, they may not have the same functionalities. but they're offering the same quality or the same device functionality at cheaper rates. so that's why, you know, smaller players have been successful and that's one reason why the market shares go a bit from htp. >> thanks very much for joining us. >> and tune in tomorrow as we'll have an exclusive interview with htc's ceo. >>> now, nat rothschild chances of taking control have hit complications. the sale removes viting right restrictions on the takeover panel. this boosts the odds of the current board of bumi remaining in place preventing rothschild from maintaining control. he looses out on this one, ross. >> the pr'ing has been extraordinary. >>> on monday, they began a five-day stoppage in protests of the workforce. hundred

china's manufacturing recovery will be under secretny as hsbc's flash february pmi is due. we'll get january's cpi. as for earnings, machinery giant sani reports. >>> now, still to come on the program, which country is britain's favorite business partner? find out when we come back from a short break. to grow, we have to boost our social media visibility. more "likes." more tweets. so, beginning today, my son brock and his whole team will be our new senior social media strategists. any questions? since we make radiator valves wouldn't it be better if we just let fedex help us to expand to new markets? hmm gotta admit that's better than a few "likes." i don't have the door code. who's that? he won a contest online to be ceo for the day. how am i supposed to run a business here without an office?! [ male announcer ] fast, reliable deliveries worldwide. fedex. >>> a little bit of news out of germany with regard to cypress. a german lawmaker talking to dow jones says the size of the cypress bailout is negligible but nevertheless saying they should involve cypress bank sharehold

let's get more from darah from hsbc. darah, are countries involved in currency wars or is it just the result of central bank policy which they need for their own domestic economy? well, i think actually both, really. but our assessment is that there is evidence of this currency war. the number of players is rising, the number of tools they're using to deliver it is grog. and just the scale of players. you have the japanese yen in the currency in maneuvering position and it's far more significant. there are far bigger players in the fx market than what we've seen in the past. >> you've done this chart. the most active is switzerland and japan. now, swisserland because they have a peg which they're defending. in japan, one could easily argue that their currency was far too overvalued. >> yeah. >> and oversold of their own. >> they don't dispute that. i'm sure it's a starting point when japan began this promise of radical monetary easing. and talking down its currency because they talked about it being overvalued and needin

hsbc, one of the largest multinational banks in the world got fined $2 billion in the $38 billion of year because it knew it was funneling against our sanctions and others desires money from the iranian revolutionary guard. hundreds of millions of dollars. they finally got called with the multilateral sanctions and we fined them a little bit. there should have been criminal sanctions. it's the only way they will be successful. it's the point they were making. >> interesting there. look, you know chuck hagel. he endorsed you. you traveled with him to iraq in 2007. given his performance, he seemed unprepared at times or can you say that's the way he communicates or do you think he was unprepared? >> his presentation wasn't spot on. alex, you have interviewed me and mine isn't always spot on. >> i butchered your name on the intro. >> the point is, who is this man? have they taken correct stock on him? you know all of that. the most important points is he will defend israel without question. he will never take that military option off the table with regard to iran and he will transform o

we had the situation in singapore, hsbc, the united states decided not only not to investigate any individual but not to investigate the bank as a whole, related to money laundering, related to terrorist organizations and drug organizations, no small thing, drug organizations, mexico responsible for 40,000 deaths, terrorist organizations a threat to the united states, the too big to jail echoes the fact the we still have banks that are so large that we are concerned about creating any ripples. in this case it sends a message as well about future behavior. if current behavior, manipulation of the libor rate, not criminal prosecutions, i don't believe, too big to jail for money laundering, doesn't this kind of a undermine in a way our enter national regulatory structure for financial institutions? >> i agree that no individual institution should be exempt from paying for crimes that they commit. on this particular case we work closely with the department of justice and cooperate in every way to get some information. in the end the company pay a $2 billion fine. if it relates to the bigger issue

. >> hsbc, a new study millions are going to outlive their retirement.ut people will live 21 years. that math don't work, folks. time to give the retirement calculator a big workout. people in asia, they tend to focus on long-term planning like retirement, making sure they don't end up without any money in the end. in the united states we tend to focus on things like vacations. when we save it's for the short term, not the long term in asia, they save for the long term, not the short term, right? save more money! i don't mean to be depressing. it's to get you motivated. >> depressing but motivated. >> 24 minutes past the hour. joe biden shooting from the lip on the issue of guns, not how you might expect. >> walk out, put that double barrel shotgun and fire two blasts. >> what else the vice president had to say, coming up. neutrogenr has the fastest retinol formula. to visibly reduce fine lines and wrinkles in just one week. neutrogena®. the in their portfolio, isent of invesunexpected risk.to find bny mellon has the vision and experience to help. we loo

in 2003 there were dramatic attacks on synagogues at the british consulate in istanbul and hsbc bankheadrters there. separatists typically set off bombs in the southern part of the turkey. they're quite active. there is resistance to the deployment of u.s. patriot anti-missile batteries that have just been put in place to protect turkish population centers from possible attacks from syria. i just got a note from the deputy foreign minister of turkey saying that their hearts and minds are with the embassy staff right now in ankara and the foreign ministry will be issuing some sort of a statement as soon as possible. one dead who is the suicide bomber and a turkish guard at the check point. bill: were there reports of any threats against the embassy? this is a pretty secure part of the city? >> reporter: bill, that's the thing. it is unusual to see this sort of thing to happen in the beating heart of the turkish capital which is so very secured. there are a lot of police officers around. embassy is very close to the turkish parliament. it is not what you would expect here. we don't know th

. >> a federal judge has thrown out much of the case, and a separate case against hsbc.hey were unaware of madoff's fraud. but picard and sheehan are appealing and believe they'll prevail. they say the banks are where the real money is. not in some secret madoff family account. >> there was a lot of speculation at the outset about whether madoff had hidden some money somewhere. do you think he has money hidden away or did he, in fact, turn over what he had? >> my sense of it is that we found everything that there is to be had from mr. madoff and his family. >> one family member did not survive. bernie madoff's son mark committed suicide in december 2010. the two-year anniversary of his father's arrest. and just days after picard sued mark madoff's children. irving picard has never talked about that publicly before. he did to us. we'll have that later today. >> so just give us a hint. did he think the kids knew? >> he still thinks that the kids knew or should have known. that's -- >> should have known -- >> that's a big difference. >> that is a big difference. and the thr

if we look at just hsbc, the banking money laundering settlement, $1.9 billion last week.at is the he key issue for you? is it that you do not see that much wrong with the crime he committed and you think it may be honorable or is that it that he has not received a speedy trial as guaranteed by the constitution? >> he has not received a speedy trial and he was tore churd by the marines in the marine base. something that has been admitted to. and in fact, and then he is facing life in prison. so, yes, he may have broken military regulations. but, is the punishment of life in prison for trying do the right thing equal to these military regulations that were violated. if he is, you know, a reasonable person could say, well, we need to punish this kid. but, the reasonable person would also look at the,0 thousand day and the nine months of torture that he endured and say the military made their point. if he is facing decades in prison. we are talking about a young man who is going to be left behind after the wars are long done and yet, the benefit to society from knowing what h

you look at the repeated mistakes, hsbc, jpmorgan chase in the last year or so.st names on wall street have demonstrated that they can't manage themselves. citigroup repeatedly. and i would say going forward, absolutely citigroup's going to be the center of many of our problems. when you look at that and you think how little benefit we get from the size and the complexity of the institutions, increasingly people on the right like george will and people on the left like sherrod brown are saying let's walk this back. let's find reasonable ways -- put more equity in the system, let's have more capital behind all balance sheets, and let's limit the size and the risks that some of these mega banks can take. limit the downside damage they can do to the rest of us. >> simon, speaking of risk, how would you say -- where have we come from the financial crisis to now in terms of the level of risk of the largest banks are taking? have they reined it in, or are there still things to be alarmed about, like the huge loss jpmorgan took last year? have we made any progress? >> a

we had the situation with hong kong, singapore, bank corporation, hsbc, where the united states decided any individual but not to investigate the bank as a whole related to money laundering related to terrorist organizations and drug organizations. it's no small thing. no small thing, drug organizations, northern mexico responsible for 40,000 deaths, terrorist organizations obviously a threat to the united states. and the too big to jail echoes the fact that we still have banks that are so large that we're concerned about creating any ripples. and in this case it sends a message as well about future behavior. if current behavior be it manipulation of the libor rate which have had fines associated with it but not criminal prosecutions, i don't believe, of too big to jail for money laundering, doesn't this kind of undermine in a way our international regulatory structure for financial institutions? >> well, i agree that no individual, no institution should be exempt from paying for crimes that they commit. on this particular case, we worked very closely with the department of justice. we