hence you get the hong kong sell-off. australia responding to weaker kprodty prices and certain volatility in the commodity markets. in tokyo, traders had their first chance to react to tepco. shares of tepco had already nose dived more than 80% since the march 11 earthquake and tsunami. it dropped today as you see by another 9%. >>> that's it for this edition of "world business today." thanks for joining us. i'm andrew stevens in hong kong. >> i'm nina dos santos here at cnn london. "world one" is next.

it since paired those losses in hong kong gain hong kong gaining 2.28%. >> you know, an drew, that depends on which reports we want to believe. piece mitts are reporting plunge prices. optimists say the fall has split. there will be a rebound in demand for commodities. in the short term it seems commodities -- seems investors are being cautious. here's a look at glencore's history. it fell below its initial trading price at about 8.86 per share. now, i spoke with jeremy friesen about this. he along with many other analyst says the same thing. it's a reflection of current market concern over global growth. china's new global forecast as well as japan's return to a recession but he said it's temporary and glencore should see an increased interest, ie, a higher share price. it's the world's largest commodities trader and they can't ignore that basic fact and it's also expected to give others in asia a run for their money. its rivals are now mitsubishi corp. >> you bring up these established plays, how do they compare in terms of profitability? that's ultimately what investors look at, isn't i

that is why google moved to hong kong. sites that are banned in china have big operations in hong kong. they have parades and demonstrations on the street every day. as long as they do not violate the law, nobody can do anything about it. there are big pro-democracy demonstrations in hong kong every year. there are dissonance from mainland china living in hong kong. there is that protection. the problem is that the media in hong kong is owned primarily by businesses who have business concerns in mainland china. there is a certain amount of self-censorship. different people college different things, and people debate how bad it is -- different people call it a different things, and people debate how bad it is, but a lot of journalists complain that they are told to town it down on certain things. >> finally, what is global voices on line and a global network initiative? >> they are two very different things despite both being called global. global voice as online is an and medianal blockegger network. the idea is that there

it was then owned by hutchison wam po, the lee kai shing family in hong kong. [narrator] how television develops in asia will be critical to the future of the new global media empires that are being created. i think that audiences all over the world are going to take time to become attuned to the concept of international news. people are still principally interested in what's happening in their own patch, even if that patch is very big. so it is going to take us time to develop in, as far as television is concerned, the international idea, but i do think that idea is beginning to grow, and i think more and more people will want the news from a different perspective. cnn has been very successful from an american point of view over the last 14 or 15 years in building up an international perspective, albeit based from the american point of view, and i think now is the time for a british point of view to come forward in the same way. the other thing we have to be careful about is the fear, particularly among small and third world nations, that they are going to be

hong kong's hang seng the only loser. benchmarks in tokyo, shanghai and sydney all making gains today. they are, you can see the numbers there, australia up by 0.75%. the best performer here. but if you look at that, it was a reasonably flat day across the region. nina? >>> let's turn our attention towards america now. trading over there and a choppy session on wall street on monday after weak manufacturing data and also below estimate earnings from the home improvement retailers such as lowe's. the end of the session, losses were across the board, mirroring the passing we've seen here in europe for at least one or two days so far. it was an especially bad day for the nasdaq. take a look at that. it lost 1.6%. that was thanks to heavy losses on yahoo! stock. that's continuing, obviously that situation with the ongoing dispute with the largest esst e-commerce website. now, is bp's proposed deal off altogether? the deadline for the talks have seemed to pass. we'll tell you what we know so far. >>> and the truth behind the t

nearly double the median income in hong kong. but he cannot find affordable property. >> it seems the price just keeps rising, up trend every y. and that's why it's out of my budget. >> reporter: lee is visiting nd wh al estate agents but most property goes far beyond his budget of $250,000. >> reporter: this one, built 31 yes ago, was affordable to him just a few years ago. but now it costs $420,000. while the housing prices continue to soar, he says he has hoeut to stay at his parent's home. >> i don't think i can get anything until ten yrs later, i may have my first flat on my own in my early 30s maybe. >> reporter: experts say the situation will continue indefite. >>ralar:oung people who live with their parents are well off but not knowing when they'll be able to buy their own flat createsug psychological sense of discontent among them. >> reporter: housing is a basic neor although the government has implemented various measures to stabilize the surge in property prices, they'reunlikely to be controlled significantly anytime

. >> and good afternoon from cnn hong kong. i'm andrew stevens. you're watching "world business today." >>> the top stories on tuesday, may 24th, under the weather, travel trouble looms as volcanic ash blows towards europe. meanwhile, investors on the continent have caught debt contagent fever. >>> the scramble in the cockpit to save the airliner. >> they don't have ability to go anywhere. they don't have ability to escape. >>> and forced into a life of slavery as part of the cnn freedom project we'll look at one of the most disturbing aspects of human trafficking, sex tourism. >>> now, the skies have been darkening over northern europe in recent days thanks to iceland's latest volcanic eruption. perhaps that's fitting given the mood in the markets. policymakers tried to conquer the debt crisis. it continues to rattle investors. wall street closed sharply on monday after markets in europe dropped 2% for a range of reasons. europe has been moving to new lows and meanwhile, greek debt yields obviously a key measure of confidence in the greek economy

in hong kong. you can, you've got all kinds of blogs, you've got, you know, the fallen gun religious sect which is banned in china, has a big operation in hong kong. every year they do big parade, they're on the street every day, you know, as long as they don't violate the law, nobody can do anything about it. they're a big pro-democracy demonstrations in hong kong every year, there are dissidents from mainland china living in hong kong. so there is that protection. the problem is that the media in hong kong is owned primarily by business concerns who have business interests in mainland china. so a lot of, you know, there's a certain amount of kind of self-censorship or, you you kno, different people call it different things, and people debate how bad it is, but there are a lot of journalists in hong kong who complain that their editor told them not to pursue a particular story because the publisher, you know, has a concern, you know, has some other business in beijing and might not get a license,

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 on 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 globus and how is it different from english and if you could for partly could you answer in globish for us oh there is english isn't even meant to be very correct english but it is the record english light it is a simplified from a piece with miss words you would see it's another fifteen thousand words and you know it's not easy surely that's way too much so you may get the most efficient it with fifteen hundred words and the children know those words and they make use of those words you can express all you need in the world for business purposes or is it boys so it is in english lite it's still a great thing that i will give us an example given his example what it sounds like and what words you like to use go ahead. may

for now, travelers have to go through hong kong. national carrier south african airways launches its johannesburg/beijing route in september. chinese credit card holders spend over 3 million u.s. dollars in this country. >> however this announcement is a positive thing, i don't think they have been caught napping because it's a developing market. >> reporter: what about the language barrier? >> that's still our biggest challenge in terms of making sure that in south africa we have enough guides that speak mandarin and those are the things that as a country we need to prepare ourselves for in ensuring that we give the chinese traveler a fabulous experience. so we still have a long ways to go in terms of making sure that service providers in south vick are actually equipped to service the market better. but so far so good. >> reporter: cnn, johannesburg. >>> coming up next, a trend that's boosting uk retailers and creating a fashion frenzy. we'll tell you more about the middleton effect. that and plenty more to come on the show. when

. >> good afternoon, from cnn hong kong. you're watching "world business today." >>> these are the stop stories on monday, may 16th. dominique strauss-khan in cuffs. >>> it's crunch time for u.s. lawmakers, as the country's ballooning debt reaches its legal limits. >>> and bankrolling bin laden. we'll investigate the terrorist networks money trail. >>> pulled off a plane and arrested. that's how the chief of the monetary fund may be remembered if he's guilty of sexual assault charges. he is expected to appear in a courtroom in new york on monday to face charges of attempted rape, sexual assault and false imprisonment. as further details of the arrest of dominick strauss-khan come to light. we go to john in brussels. the first, most obvious question is, what does this mean for the imf, given the fact it's so instrumental in helping countries like greece and portugal in their bailouts? >> it's a fair point. uh you have added a level of intrigue and complication. i came out of a background meeting. and one of the spokespersons

the hong kong market managed to finish higher. elsewhere the new zealand dollar has hit a 26-year high against the u.s. dollar. up almost 9% since late february as demand for new zealand produce grows throughout asia. closing numbers now for the markets, the shanghai market finishing down not much. remember, it is eight days in a row now it's lost ground. hong kong up, not by much. australian market down by about a third of 1%. a couple of stocks that investors are paying close attention to this monday, one is honda which was down 1.3% in tokyo. two reasons behind that fall. the first was a nikkei news report. the car marker won't go ahead with the proposed buyback. that came after a weaker than expected forecast on profits. the other reason stemming from canada. hackers there accessing honda customers' personal data. another company no stranger to hacking is, of course, sony. that stock was down more than 2% in tokyo today despite the entertainment giant managing to get its playstation network back up and running throughout much

hong kong by a half. shanghai, almost 1%. there's so much, well, dubious economic news that this rally not having any legs at least at this stage. >> there is at the moment. there's a lot of concern over what's going to happen for the direction of the interest rates across the u.s. and the uk. meantime it was dominated by falling housing stocks and was a pretty grim outlook from hewlett-packard. at the end of the session the dow was off by half a per senn and the nasdaq was pretty much unchanged. ending the day just below the waterline. so a lack luster performance. the index was flat. we'll see whether the rally we're seeing in europe today continues when the u.s. markets open, andrew. >> okay. looking at dell, nina, we look to hp earlier. the two heavyweights of the pc world and mixed results for dell. we had pretty bad results coming out. dell says that its pc sales dipped in the first quarter although it still managed to build record earnings, profits up some 16% on the year to some $945 million. that forecast beat expect

. >>> good afternoon from cnn hong kong and welcome to "world business today." i'm andrew stevens. >> and good morning from cnn london, i'm nina dos santos. these are the top stories on thursday, may 19th. >>> a defiant dominique strauss-kahn resigns as imf chief. vowing to fight sexual assault charges with all his energy and strength. >>> natural disasters, economic aftershocks, japan enters recession for a third time in a decade. as industrial output freefalls and consumers hold on to their cash. >>> and the crumbling foundations of a failed property market. we'll look at the wreckage left behind by ireland's housing crisis. >>> facing multiple charges of sexual assault in the united states, the managing director of the international monetary fund has resigned. dominique strauss-kahn tendered his resignation just a few hours ago in a letter to the imf. in it he writes i want to protect this institution which i served with honor and devotion and especially, especially, i want to devote all my strength, all my time and energy to provingmy innocence. in his state

hong kong is up by 0.67% higher. shanghai continues to be weaker, down about a quarter of 1%, nina. >> it seems as though with all the concerns surrounding euro zone's sovereign debt, et cetera and the change at the helm of the imf investors don't know where to be putting their money at the moment. let's take a look at the u.s. markets. they look set for a higher market when they begin trading later on today. this is where the futures markets pointing us at the moment. the dow jones industrial average future currently up by about t 0.5%. for the moment, bradley speaking it looks as though the futures markets indicate we could see a rise at the open. of course, anything could happen between now and the time when those markets open, andrew. >>> okay, nina, let's take a look at a story that's being focused on by the hundreds of millions, if not billions of football fans across the world. it's a brewi ing scandal at the top of the sport. the challenger is fifa's presidential election for the presidential election is faci

hong kong having a strong day. up by 2% and australia rounding out good day in asia up nearly 1%. >>> that's it for this edition of "world business today" thanks for joining us. andrew stevens in hong kong. >> and i'm charles hobson in london. "world one" is next. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com

hong kong down a fraction. hang seng dow hang seng coming up half a percent. >> it seems as though we're firmly placed in a third straight day of gains after five previous days worth of losses. take a look at that. the fotse up by 1.0%. of course, the ma condo oil well. that is some relief to bp investors who have had all the deals to deal with for the last couple of days after that fated swap of shares between the two companies didn't materialize. >> yeah, absolutely. and bp is hope all they'll be able to salvage something. >>> in the u.s. markets finishing high for a second day in a row. it's shoeking mixed economic number. more on that in a moment. but all the major indices closed by between a fifth and a third of one percent. after the close, gap, the apparent maker, said igts first quarter markets one down. it's america's largest clothing retail retailer. in fact, it says sales are sliding. the rising cost of cotton has increased gap's overhead. they're being forced to pass on some of those extra costs to

hong kong is up 0.4%. shanghai is up over half a percent and shenzhen is up a quarter of a percent it this wednesday morning. >>> the nuclear accident in fukushima is causing many countries to reconsider their current energy policies. among them is turkey. this nation is set on plans to build nuclear power plants to keep up with its growing economy, but controversy is heating up in this quake-prone country whether or not to go on as planned. nhk world correspondent sends this report from turkey. >> reporter: turkey is an emerging economy that is enjoying rapid growth like china and india. 12 years ago the country was hit by a major earthquake that killed more than 17,000 people. >> translator: some buildings collapsed entirely. 150 to 200 people were killed. words cannot express how i feel about the tragedy in japan. >> reporter: demand for power is on the rise as the economy continues to boom following the quake. plans are under way to build two nuclear power plants to meet this growing demand. a russian

hong kong's chief executive donald sang was among the attendees. sang ate sushi in front of the media while other guests tried food such as fish and fruit. >> very good. >> a number of japanese restaurants in hong kong were forced to close as people grew concerned about the safety of japanese imports after the accident at the fukushima daiichi nuclear power plant. >> the organizers are offering a half-price discount at nearly 300 japanese restaurants once a week until the middle of june to win back customers. >>> a number of countries and international organizations have been offering aid to japan since the march 11th earthquake and sooun. the united nations high commission of refugees is one of them. unhcr assists refugees and people displaced by conflicts or discrimination but doesn't usual support disaster victims especially in developed countries such as japan. nhk world spoke with the unhcr's representative in japan, yohan, about what the organization is doing to help survivors of the march 11th catastrophe. >> thank you very much for joining

he at one point went from hong kong to japan to recuperate. he was 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

taking a look at overseas trading this morning, in tokyo, the nikkei was up 45 points but in hong kong, the hang seng dropped 44. after last week's giant commodities sell-off, china eased wall street's fears about global growth tuesday while paving the way for more american business. china not only posted an april trade surplus nearly four times better than expected, it agreed to open up its government contracts for more u.s. companies and let u.s. banks sell mutual funds there. >>> microsoft's mega deal to buy skype for $8.5 million fueled trade, but not microsoft. on the other hand, shares of ebay, which owns a large stake in skype, rose 2.5%. >>> a surprise departure by the ceo of boston pacific sent shares tumbling almost 9%. dean foods jumped on higher than expected quarterly profit. weight-loss program operator me difast rose 17% after reporting earnings that beat expectations. keep an eye today on disney. after the bell, shares fell on revenue that missed expectation. elsewhere, oil rose to $103 a barrel. all gas prices fell for the fifth straight day. >>> gm will invest about $

don't do it on hong kong airlines. the carrier is >>> if you would like a little taste of summer early on, you are going to get it today. beautiful warm temperatures throughout san francisco. chopper 5 is out in the east bay getting us this beautiful shot of the city's skyline. you can see mostly clear conditions. it's going to be beautiful today. and warm temperatures but as we start this morning, we'll be cool in some spots, 40s at the coast, 50s at the bay, inland at 67 in some places because of the warm breezes. into the afternoon, plenty of sunshine in store. widespread 80s and low 90s inland. sunny and warm at the bay and coast. look at these reading at the coastline, in the 70s. so great day to get to the beach if you can. satellite is showing us why we're seeing that warm weather. this area of high pressure is holding strong and we are also seeing offshore breezes which is bringing us warm air, building in. we'll see a little bit of cooling as this low drops in late tomorrow and into friday. that will cause a d

hong kong leading the way with a 0.6% loss this tuesday morning. more countries have been voicing concerns over possible radiation contamination of japanese farming and industrial products since the accident at the fukushima daiichi nuclear power plant. some firms in japan are at a loss on how to cope with their clients abroad. >> reporter: this village is 80 kilometers away from the power plant. one firm here has been reprocessing used plastic into raw material for 35 years. >> translator: these have all been sent back to us by our middleman. >> reporter: that happened in mid april. the recycled plastic was the firm's first export to be delayed because of the accident. the 12 tons of plastic that it planned to export to china is worth about $5,000. the shipment was cancelled because radiation levels exceeded those set by the client. the company was then forced to halt all of its planned exports, resulting in a drop in sales of 30%. to resume exports, the film asked an organization under the prefectureal government to measure radiation levels of it

tokyo's nikkei went up a fraction while hong kong's hoong se hong kong's hang seng went down. oil continues to fall. it's now near $97 a barrel. washington gets it latest on housing starts and industrial production. on monday, tech stocks dragged the market down. the dow lost 47 points while the nasdaq gave back 46. drivers are seeing a little relief at the gas pump. the average price for a gallon of regular fell three cents to $3.95 a gallon. prices are starting to drop as crude oil continues to fall. some analysts think gas will fall another 50 cents before we hit the peak of the summer driving season. >>> your new blackberry tablet might have a fatal flaw. research in motion is recalling about 1,000 of its defective computers. some models may have defective operating software that can prevent users from even setting up the device. only 16 gig models are being affected. ones that do have problems will, of course, be replaced free of charge. >>> some surprising results of a survey in a cell service. sprint nextel once last in the ratings, tied for the top spot in the customer

hong kong pulled touch from the. video. girls. and illnesses feed now in the palm of your. home. during out of some other stories making headlines across the globe protesters in syria are preparing for what they call a day of defiance against the regime this comes as tanks have been withdrawn from a clampdown on the city of daraa and deployed elsewhere the town is effectively been under siege for ten days with electricity and poultry this is and snipers shooting at people from the truck by a crane more than five hundred fifty five she's the owner i started several weeks ago. counting on their way after polls close in a series of national and local elections in the u.k. early results suggest the third largest party the liberal democrats set to lose control in several areas election also includes a referendum on the country's voting system which could see a switch from first past the post to what's known as the turn to vote results won't be made known until late friday. twenty people killed dozens injured after a suicide bomber drove a car packed with explosives into a police headq

companies saying that they're considering the hong kong markets in reality the number of companies that actually this is there is still is still rather limited and the performance hasn't perhaps been quite what people would have hoped for so i'm not sure that that's necessarily a trend that has it's proven yet although globally that's certainly the case that there's sort of the center of power in the financial market it's certainly moving eastward but by the way that also includes moscow ok well. communication thanks very much for joining the program and that's all we have time for i'll be back with more about forty five minutes from now stay with us for headline news up next.

. >> jimmy: so you went to hong kong? >> yeah, well i went to tokyo. >> jimmy: okay. >> and then taiwan and then hong kong. yeah. >> jimmy: and then, how did you get into acting? >> i fell into it. you know, i did -- sort of some commercials and i don't know. for some reason, people wanted to see me. i don't though what that was about. i don't know why -- >> jimmy: what do you mean? you're gorgeous and you're a good actor. >> no, but i mean i -- no, no, no. >> jimmy: yes. >> there are a lot of gorgeous people in the world. >> jimmy: you are. oh, yeah. >> i'm on the lower end of that but i don't know -- >> jimmy: but you just became this giant star out there. >> there was just something that people wanted at that time. i got very lucky. the timing was right. and so i met a woman who took me in. she let me sleep on her floor for a year. you know. just -- she was everything to me. my mother, father, sister, brother, everything at the time and i really didn't have anyone in those years. and so -- and she's still with me for a

but when i was coming back from hong kong and realizing one thing i had to do immediately is finding a chief was one of those top priorities and today we get that job done. it had been suggested that perhaps i leave temporary alone and allow maybe the elected mayor to do this. but all of you have known that, while i'm an interim mayor, i do not make interim decisions. this is a decision for san francisco. [applaus [applause] >> a public safety issue is always my priority. again, i want to express my deep thanks to acting chief for his wonderful service in carrying out all the things he has done to stabilize the place while he knew i was looking for the best chief. i want to again acknowledge the thorough job, the thorough vetting by the police commission, its work because it allowed me to look at all of the best candidates and choose from there and today i have chosen the best candidate. [applaus [applause] >> 30 years working for this ci city. all kinds of assignments, defend assignments. more than i had in my 22 years. varied in every respect but difficult tasks. whether it was cap

i just want to preface it by saying, when you get a call in your in hong kong, and that call comes from former mayor willie brown, it is hard to say no. i have taken up this challenge. i want to thank you, members of the bay area council, for your tireless work periods it is significant -- for your tireless work. it is significant this group has come together this morning around the critical issues of the bay area. education. infrastructure. sports. there is no issue more important today than the bay area's ability to compete and win business in the global economy. in san francisco, creating and retaining jobs has been a top priority, because that is what helps keep families in san francisco and helps them thrive. we are leading the way in education, health care, and the environment. for the past three months, we have made significant progress in making sure our business climate is alive and welcoming. let's begin with our central market payroll tax exclusion. yes. we have got a very important final vote today that allows us really to refresh our efforts, to rebuild midmarket street. an

in hong kong the hang seng tumbled 488. wall street could get to a rocky start this week after worries about deepening debt. asian stocks dropped in early trade today. meanwhile standard and pours said italy's credit was at risk. looking ahead this week investors will dig through fresh durable goods for clues on the economy here at home. reports will roll in from costco, polo, rafflph lauren an tiffany's. reports are also due on sales of new homes and home prices. neither of which are expected to deliver any good news. prices at the pump are down nine cents over the past two weeks to $3.91 a gallon. high end shoe maker is being sold forest mafor estimated $80 million. new york skinny's real estate is back on the market. the now fully restored famed home is listed for a whopping 4.3 million big ones. only in new york. vancouver ices the sharks. the yankees derail the mets and a golfer gets grass stains plus miami's chris bosh sticks his morns into the bulls. sports headlines straight ahead. >> possibility of storms your fore

she received her college education from hong kong polytechnic university. prior to immigrating to the u.s., she was contacting enter city of caen -- hongkong. she established -- ironworks in a field dominated by men wear few women had ventured. she has been working in the construction industry since the early 90's. she guided the ironworks as the chief executive officer and this has grown into a company that employs over 100 employees. they have employed many projects throughout the san francisco bay area. during the economic downturn, about 30% of the employees have had to be laid off. we know that florence is dedicated to to make sure -- can get back to work. she is the mother of four. she knows firsthand the devastating effect on families. she is a hard worker. what was really great about your participation in that effort is that you understood the connection between all of our different communities. you are a part of the coalition that we had that included the asian community, the african- american community, and the latino community, also working with

. >>> take a look at the overseas trading, the nikkei dropped 64 points, in hong kong, the hang seng was up 176. >>> investors will be looking for fresh clues on the economy after a much-needed dose of optimism gained ground on friday. after the drop in commodities, markets made a comeback thankses to a surprisingly strong employment report. commodities will be in focus when the government weighs in with the inflation index telling us how much prices have gone up on everything from food to fuel. >>> we get the take on april's retail sales along with earnings from kohl's, macy's, and nordstrom. friday's positive sentiment had woes of on going debt problems. >>> in a battle for global brand domination, apple has unseated google from the four-year reign at the top according to the report out today. the driver of traffic to on-line news sites safe. according to a study, the search engine provides 35% of the top new web visitors. the median value of salaries, bonuses, and long-term incentive award for the ceos of the major companies surged 11% to $9.3 billion. >>> speaking of big paydays,

we joined them at the hong kong expo, which is the big food expo in asia. we served them in a reception at the california vintage bar in hong kong. >> very nice. hoping to improve relations there as well and get money coming in. the city itself had budgetary problems. you had to close libraries. >> not yet. >> are you going to? >> i'm hoping under the worst case scenario, if we don't get contributions from employees, i'm hoping we will, the unions are negotiating including police and fire whose contracts are up. they did not contribute to their pension last time were all at the table. if this city council puts a partial tax on the ballot, we could come through this with relatively lesser and less harmful cuts. >> you are trying to work with the unions. are we going to face a lot of unpaid days off for city workers? >> that would be up to the unions. what we need back from everyone is 10%. it's more difficult to do with some employees than others. we would like to do it in a way they be treated like vacation days so we don't have to close down the city and t

i was born in sydney, australia and have lived in japan and hong kong, and went to school for 12 years -- but i have lived in san francisco longer than any other place in my life. this is a gateway to the pacific. i love the natural beauty and also the diversity, for someone like myself who has a by cultural background. my father was a career diplomat in taiwan, and my husband, james, was near port commissioner in the city. as you have seen in my biography i have been active in the community for many years. i bring extensive and relevant experience with citibank and wells fargo. i am excited about the ports commission. i think that this is the right timing for me in terms of my life. i have my experience from the private sector, and i think that this is the right use of my business and finance skills. this is one of the prime assets, and this is unique with seven and a half miles of border front. this is unique in its visibility. it is unique in its uses, with the commercial real-estate and open space. and unique in its different characteristics that reside along the northern waterfron

well, probably the freest market is hong kong. well, of the countries that are functioning, you know? i mean -- [laughter] no, no, really, i mean, if you have too much free market, if people begin to buy and sell government -- [inaudible] and so on, you don't have a functioning society. so i'm excluding some of the -- yeah. >> how about one of those -- >> oh, one of those, you know, a lot of developing countries are in that situation, yeah? the so it shows that too much free market can be bad many that sense. but of the funking ones, probably -- functioning ones, probably hong kong is the closest that comes to mind. but, you know, hong kong's a tricky proposition because it never was an independent country. it was always part of a bigger system. but before 1984, sorry, 1994 part of britain, afterwards part of china. so, i mean, if you excluded probably the countries like ireland come the closest. but then they got into a lot of trouble because of that lack of regulation and defined market. and, of course, at the other extreme is o

while in hong kong, the hang seng was closed for a holiday. >>> wall street wakes up this morning to one very big acquisition. reuters reports microsoft will announce it has beat out facebook and google buying the web video conferencing service skype in its biggest deal ever for $8.5 billion. monday the very same companies hobbled by last week's massive commodities selloff rode higher thanks to a rebound in oil and materials. silver rose climbing back from its worst weekly drop since at least 1975. energy stocks also led gains as oil once again moved above $100 a barrel. in financials, heavily traded citigroup dragged stocks falling over 2% after the company's one for ten reverse stock split. h&r block tumbled 7% after reports a group will try to force the company's defunct subprime lending unit to buy back billions in soured home loans. dollar thrifty soared 13% after hertz rivaling with avis raised its offer to more than $2.2 billion. european markets fell on worries about greece after standard and poors down graded the nation's rating in to junk territory. china posted its biggest

taking a look at overseas trading this morning, in tokyo, the nikkei inched up 16 points while in hong kong the hang seng added 19. >>> well, now that earnings season is over, wall street has it turned its attention overseas and so far the news hasn't been good. u.s. markets tumbled yesterday after a string of negative reports about europe's debt problems. the dollar rose against the euro creating a domino effect which sent stocks and commodities tumbling. u.s. shares of sony closed lower after news its losses from japan's recent disasters could total a staggering $3.2 billion. new government report finds companies actually owed the irs $757 million in back taxes. for those who pay their taxes, the government has filed & tie trust suit against h and r block to stop its purchase of tax act. bank of america has agreed to pay $412 million to settle its role in a class action lawsuit accusing banks of charging excessive overdraft fees on debit cards. >>> after the bell, campbell's beat earnings estimates thanks to snack sales from its pep original farm brand. >>> and finally, amazon.com's

taking a look at overseas trading this morning, in tokyo, the nikkei lost 54 points but in hong kong the hang seng inched up 16. >>> europe's lingering debt crisis continued to dog markets on tuesday, despite a small rebound in oil prices. energy stocks had a big day after several banks predicted oil prices will climb later this year, including one estimate that crude could reach $135 a barrel by the end of 2012. yesterday, oil surged nearly $2 to settle just under $100 a barrel. still uncertainty about the impact european debt could have here at home outweighed gains in the energy sector and a modest rise in new home sales. on the earnings front, autozone shares shot up 6% on its strong sales report. russian search engine yandex unseated linkedin with a $1.3 billion debut on the new york stock exchange. chrysler took a big step in restoring its status with a $7 of 6 repayment of bailout loans. meanwhile, the u.s. unloaded a big chunk of its stake in bailed out insurer aig, $8.7 billion worth, including a small profit. >>> finally, the newly crowned duchess of cambridge is officially

taking a look at overseas trading this morning, in tokyo, the nikkei rose 188 points while in hong kong, the hang seng climbed 499. investors have a shortened trading week ahead on wall street where the economy will be front and center. the federal reserve is expected to end its $600 bond buying program in june. that means officials and investors will be looking for signs the economy is on the right track. elsewhere on this week's economic agenda, traders will get an up-dade on first quarter home prices as well as last month's consumer confidence. manufacturing data is on deck tomorrow, followed by retail sales thursday. and then friday, it's the biggie. the government's may jobs report. companies have been hiring more workers lately, but we'll see if that makes a dent in the nation's 9% unemployment rate. also this week, we'll see how japan's earthquake and tsunami factored into u.s. another sales for may. as for japan, new numbers out this morning show auto production there is down 60% as the country struggles to recover. driving home those worries, moody's said today japan's debt rat

taking a look at overseas trading this morning, in tokyo, the nikkei lost 67 points but in hong kong, the hang seng added 202. >>> thursday was a roller coaster day on wall street as investors nervous about a recovery moved to so-called safe stocks. recently, defensive shares such as health care and consumer staples have been heading upward, suggesting jittery investors aren't bailing out on stocks altogether. pharmaceutical merck, coca-cola, kraft foods led stocks higher by end of day trade. april retail sales posted the smallest rise in nine months. pushing early losses, applications for unemployment benefits fell last week, but less than expected. commodities managed a modest comeback. oil recovered from steep, early losses, finishing nearly 1% higher, but still below $100 a barrel. cold and copper also rose. goldman sachs was lower after its shares were downgraded due to a growing chorus arguing charges should be brought against the bank for defrauding investors. cisco sank after reporting 18% slide in earnings, lower profit forecast and job cut plans. after the bell, nordstrom dr

taking a look at overseas trading this morning, in tokyo, the nikkei was closed for a holiday, but in hong kong, the hang seng dropped 87. >>> well, this might make you think twice before giving our your personal information online. one day after sony made a public apology to some 77 million playstation users whose personal data had been hacked, the company revealed nearly 25 million online entertainment accounts had been compromised. sony is offering free service in exchange for the unprecedented intrusion. osama bin laden's death gave stocks a higher open yesterday. positive earnings from dishnetwork, humana and chrysler. investors' biggest worry, gas prices. the national average is now $3.96 a gallon. warnings pricey gas could eat into high-end grocery budgets sent whole foods down 5%. in deal news, teba pharmaceuticals will pay $6.8 million for drugmaker cephalon. timothy geithner says due to stronger than expected tax receipts, the white house and congress has three more weeks to reach a deal to raise the debt ceiling. >>> watch massey energy today. after the bell, massey reported its