we have tracey chang. trac tracey. >> thank you. let's start with google's main rival in china. printing outits overnight numbers. they were in line with market expectations but a squanld quarter projection was at the low end of street's forecast. it showed a 25% to 28% increase in net revenue for the second quarter. they're seeing this by a significant acceleration since baidu has never had quarterly growth beyond 35%. it was up nearly 23% for the year thanks to better financing margins. the lender is known as their arm for big infrastructure markets. they were one of the bigger projects since the other projects usually bring in lower rate income for the banks but they were still the most profitable lenders in china last year. to quickly sum up some other earnings we're expected to see, we saw a wider loss and a steep income maker from the steel company. we're still waiting to hear from some companies. we'll have more analyst on ch a china's analysis later. over to rhie. >> its first profit in three quarters. beating street forecasts. the earning surprise came on the back of a

tracey chang has been looking into this. >> that's right, chloe.ugh import growth he'sed from a 13 month peak, a pick up in orders compensated for a slow down in domestic demand. between january and mafrrch, th value of trade with the united states rose 9.3% on $107 billion while trades with the european union grew 2.6% to $127 billion. but import growth eased well below what analysts were expecting and that's raising questions about the strength of chinese domestic demand. and that's the long term growth plan since the strategy of exporting cheap manufacturing goods abroad is no longer sustainable. still, the surprise raid surplus reinforced expectations of a soft landing for many and some veteran market watchers remain bullish on china's process spenkts. >> the growth rate this year is going to be closer to 9% than it will be closer to 7% and i think while there may be some easing of policy from china to support the economy, it will fall well sho short of the massive stimulus actions required three years ago. >> the big question mark of course is

tracey chang has been looking in to this. >> thank you very much. well, the major inflation gauge climbed 3.6% last month above the median forecast of 3.3%, although it largely dashed investors hopes for monetary easing, analysts say it is probably not must have to deter the pboc from bringing mild measures and help china's weakening economy. analysts say the crucial first quarter gdp data on friday will be key to determining how much stimulus the economy really needs. many market watchers also think the march c about pi reading while rising faster than expect, while hopes for easing are still alive, economists also say if the central bank does act, it is more likely to cut the rrr than warn any interest rate cuts are unlikely to happen anytime soon. >> thank you so much for that. we'll check in with you in a little bit. let's bring in our panel for this hour. joining us live in our studios is richard geram from bank of singapore and the head of asia market strategy at seb bank singapore. you went on an expensi extensivn china. what are the key data

tra tracey chang has more details. >> people got the state run news portal nearly tripled the amount of money that was planning on raising initially. it may be partly due to people.cn and its unique status as the first government backed online portal to go public. beijing has been promoting the cultural industry including news media publishing as well as education related businesses as a growth and for the domestic economy. the people's daily says it wants to use the cash to expand into mobile content, beef up its editorial team. the deal is benefiting from the improved stock market conditions. the shanghai composite has risen more 9% so far this year. well, they may have a leading position in the industry but market watchers still warn that a shared debut performance will depend on broader market movements. >> beccy. >> to bring you a bit of breaking news, we've been following this situation in argentina very closely after the government announced plans to nationalize ypf. now we've been looking to see what other companies have exposure to these markets have to say about doing busin

tracey chang is watching out for these. >> we are expecting results anytime now from big lenders like ag bank, icbc and china construction bank. analysts are expecting earnings growth for the whole sector to decrease actually to 17% this year from 38% in first quarter of 2011. icbc chairman says a slowdown in profit growth for the bank industry is inevitable trend. the key factor behind the deceleration, earnings growth, is that net interest margins are getting squeezed due to higherly liquidity in the system on 2012 compared to the year before. approximately 08% of the operating income came from net interest income or the revenue generated from their loans. have i experts say all hoe the sector's red hot profit growth this if recent years are expect to slow sharply, lenders see it as a good opportunity given cheap valuations. back to you. >> central bank has set a central high mid point for the dollar yuan exchange rate. u.s. treasury secretary geithner says china has not gone far must have in its efforts to open its economy to allow its currency to strengthen. >> a strong are more m

tracey chang has more of the details. >> good morning. that's right.saw a slower pace of production than in the previous month. the new orders sub index bounced to 48.9 from the four month low seen in march. analysts say it signals the economy has reached or is near its low point for the year. and that this will help in the peck up in bank lending starting to show results. although the risk of hard landing risk has mostly diminished, would he seeing it in a dismal q1 earnings numbers from manufacturers. and while new orders appear to be stabilizing, backlogs work did not rise. also worth noting that the hsbc manufacturing index has not been consistently above the level of 50 since june of 2011. although it is far above the readings of low 40s during the financial crisis. >> anthony is still with us. anthony, your take on the china pmi. obviously fears of this hard landing are diminishing, but at the same time, we have to see the policy easing. >> i do think that the china central banking system is going to ease here to try to help them. but you're also

tracey chang. myanmar is central stage for a summit.t two days after pro democracy leader won her first seat in parliament. secretary general says the successful outcome should contribute to the reintegration of myanmar into the global economy. joining us to talk about this is managing partner and group at leopard capital. thomas, good to have you with us. the recent political developments over in myanmar as well as the freeing up of the exchange rate, does that provide you enough incentive as an investor to consider investing in myanmar? >> i think it's a very good result especially the reaction by the military, there was no reaction and it proves it's one little step into the right direction of the integration of myanmar in to the outside world. but for an investor, it's only a small step. so then a lot more work needs to be done. and you need to consider that over the last 50 years, last year foreign investments were 200 million u.s. dollars and in order to grow that much more has to be done in the future. >> what do you think myanma

tracey chang has more details for us. >> quoted an unnamed central bank official saying the people's bank of china will step up repo operations and cut the bank's reserve requirement raesh i don't to boost liquidity. he said it was all in the maim of steering the economy toward a soft landing. but these moves will only be made at the appropriate time. data shows that chinese bank lending surged $160 billion in march. the biggest credit extension since january of 2011. the stronger than expected credit data has led some analysts to wonder whether the pboc might actually slow the pace of easing. now let's take a look at how banking shares reacted to the news. they outperformed in in hong kong ending the trading day in the green, however, their mainland listed counterparts inched lower since the timing of the rrr cut remains vague and the news report also basically ruled out mere term interest rate cuts in the near put. back to you. >> thank you very much for that. >>> well, that's it for me. i'll be back tomorrow with news moving markets here in asia. >> hang thanks, christine. still t

tracey chang has the details for us. >> that's right, thank you very much for that. took quite a roller coaster ride today, composite briefly in the money this morning, lifted by major property plays after local media reported that beijing is likely to make preferential policies for first home buyers permanent. mainland indices turned sharply lower in the last hour of trade with small and medium sized companies reading the market fall. investors sold the shares on concerns about growing delisting risks faced by these companies. they are more vulnerable to china's economic downturn and also the smaller bourses amended its delisting rules tightening trading criteria. and the foreign exchange regular late tore said the government will strengthen supervision of hot money and they will fight against any unnormal fund flows. but in the end, the shanghai composite did manage to reverse earlier losses ending the day just right above the break even point. now over to ross in london. >> okay. still to come on the the program, james murdoch prepares to testify in london over al

. >>> tracey chang has been flipping through a number of newspapers. tracey. >> most of the chinese newspapers are filled with beijing's decision to actually suspend prominent politician from his stand. they issued a statement today about his removal, but that included an even bigger bombshell in the arrest of his wife on suspicion of murdering british citizen mr. haywood. he had close ties with bo's family. he had many businesses. haywood was found dead in chongqing last november. hit death was ruled as alcohol poisoning at the time but according accord ing to the new bus police began reinvestigating. just an aside of how sensitive the topic is ahead of this year's leadership transition, china's government now has censored internet stories. >> ross? >> a quick note from s.a.p. they say it's the least yisk which is always comforting to know. >> yeah, indeed, indeed. and also, ross, let's also pick up on some news coming out of japan as well. remember, sony, sharp, those shares tumbled big time today. investors pulling the plug on big japanese electroni

tracey chang has the details for us. >> this week is all about earnings. we have several very big chinese financials reporting q1 results including bank of china, hong kong, which we just broke out for you, net profit will of $5.8 billion which was sdwrus below forecasts. the nonperforming loan ratio there just under 1%. let's look at some others. 43% rise in first quarter profit over last year thanks to strong growth in goss. meanwhile industrial bank earnings also surnged merely 60% over qe 1 last year. and despite robust earnings growth, there seems to be growing public discontent over a lack of competition in china's banking sector. china's 16 listed banks total 2011 profits are higher than the announced annual gdp. and we will hear from several china banking heavy weights tomorrow. earnings numbers are due from several. >> and of course all those earnings coming at a time when china of course is slowing down. tracy, thank you very much for that. >> i spoke exclusively with the bank's chairman in beijing and asked him about icbc's profit outlook. take

change. >> it's a technique that louisville kentucky chief medical examiner, dr. traceyause of death in an investigation. and we're going to show you exactly how it's done. every autopsy follows a similar pattern. first, the body is photographed to help create a permanent record of the evidence. >> this is tracey dictating -- >> and dr. corey dictates her findings for the file. >> the name of the game in this job is document, document, document. we don't know where that case is going to be. we don't know what questions are going to be asked next week, next month, next year. >> the autopsy begins with four different external examinations of the body. >> and we go through and note things like jewelry, clothing, pocket contents. and at that point, we can collect trace evidence as needed, collecting hairs from the person's hand or fibers off of the clothing. things like that. the body is received with the hands in paper bags. the paper bags are removed from the hands. >> in a murder case, the body arrives with bagged hands to preserve any evidence that might be lodged under