he travels to italy to make the transition himself. it has now been met. unesco is gaining a new member but losing $60 million. the u.s. is withdrawing its pledge after the u.n. agency accepted a palestinian bid for full member. the u.s. and israel argued that the move would harm peace talks. i'm monita rajpal. "world business today" starts right now. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com good morning from cnn lan. i'm charles hodson. tuesday, the first of november. the greek bailout is now in the hands of the greek people at great risk to the euro-zone debt. mf global is forced to declare bankruptcy protection. weakness in europe and the united states spreads to china, slowing down the factories pow iring the world's second largest economy. well, a new trading day has just begun in europe. we're expecting and getting losses, but we'll have prices in a moment as soon as they're reasonable. they've slipped for the second day in in a row following the u.s. market slide on monday's trading. japan and australia failed to bring any support. our business analyst has more. hi, remy. >> hi, charles. firsts let's turn to china. official data released yesterday shows china's pmi came in at 50.4 for china. this new growth is near a three-year low. sluggish demand pulled down production and export orders there. also today, the reserve bank of australia cut its benchmark interest rate, the cash rate from 4.75% to 4.5%. this is the central bank's first easing in 2.5 years. some of the banks match that rate to home commerce. new data shows that home prices fell for a third great courter. now, the r.b.'s governor said the rate cut would still economic growth but we didn't see any support on the asx today. it closed down by 1.5%. in reaction to china's pmi, the hang seng ended lower by about 2.5% while the shanghai composite ended flat. the hang seng was the biggest loser of the day following all of the major indices. slower manufacturing in china means less of a need for transport as well as china. finally the nikkei fell 1.7% here. it fell with sony and panasonic pulling down the index. let me bring this up right here. sony, for example, fell more than 6% as it expects to book another quarterly loss when it reports results on monday. a similar story on panasonic. they were down more than 5%. that was after it said it will post a net loss of about $5.5 billion for the fiscal year march 2012. that loss turns out to be its biggest in a decade. that's also due to massive restructuring costs in tvs and construction business that we've been talking about in the last few months as well as its tv sales. ramy, thank you so much. i say we get back to european stock markets. get ready for this. here's where they stand at the moment. goodness me, up by 2% in the case of the smi and the london ft ftse. but here's we are. it gets worse. 3.25% for the losses for the dax. in terms of the overall picture as a result of the slowdown in china, china's factories grinding out their goods more slowly. there's less demand for cars. minus on the banks because of the big uncertainties about greece and the deal that was put together about ten days ago. let's move on to the currency markets. holding on to 78.1100 that follows the intervention on monday. a bit of weakness there. relatively steady, but i think we are seeing a lot of readjustment now of what's going on, which is this greek referendum. and just to give you a bit of detail on that, the prime minister has an unexpected move that's, of course, raising uncertainty, greek voters will decide in a greek referendum whether greece will accept the deal for a second bailout worth $187 billion, the one that they agreed on. many are angered over the austerity measuring in order to get past ilts first euro-zone bailout. the second one will require more in the wife budget cuts, so it's hardly clear whether they will approve. our journalist joins us now from athens. tell us about this announcement, linda. what seems to be the prime minister's motivation? well, the prime minister realizes he doesn't have the measures of the bailout overseas. about three in five greeks overall not supporting the new bailout. there has been unrest since the decision was made with protesters disrupting events including a large annual parade just after the eu summit when the new deal was announced. on top of that, the unions are threatening to carry on with further mobilizations, fearing more austerity as a result of the new deal. so it's becoming increasingly harder for the government to see a way of implementing the measures unless it has some popular support. people here see this as a short-term solution with no plans for growth and no potential in the long run. so what they think is that they're just going to end up paying more once the money dries out. >> the risks, though, elinda seem to be absolutely enormous, both for the prime minister and the government on the one hand. because if they lose, he's toast presumably in terms of greek history. on the other hand there's worsening worry for europe. it will be disastrous if greece rejects this and more disastrous as a whole. >> now for the euro-zone they have a whole bunch of new questions that have come up only days after they thought they had a deal. but as it is, papandreou does not have the guarantee that the ref rehn dem will be to proceed with a new bailout program. so certainly not under the current conditions. are we looking at renegotiations, greek's potential exit from the euro-zone and what that would mean for europe and grease indeed. it just introduces a knew period of instability just when we thought things were getting more stable. as you said for papandreou himself, the political risk is great. at this point he's facing a maple break. if the referendum is no, he'd have to resign, which would take grease into an early election. >> i suppose what has to be said to this is it will focus greek's mind on what has been offered, having half of their enormous debt forgiven in effect. give me an assessment how good the debate has been. to what extent have the greeks been put in a situation where they can grasp it, the importance and significance of what's being offered to them? has it been a good debate? >> well, it's been a very long debate. the debate has been going on for effectively months now, but people are not convinced. the debate has been good, be what politicians have not been able to convince the people is how greece is going get out of this debt spiral without more money being pumped in and without any growth. greece will not be able to get out. if that can change, politicians can guarantee some long-term stability there's still a chance the greeks might support the current government. >> very briefly, elinda, i hear the finance minister is in hospital. is that of worry? >> no, it doesn't appear to be serious. he's in hospital with some stomach pains we've been told through the finance ministry, and he's expected to come out later today. so not a serious reason for concern it seems. >> okay. that's one tiny relief for the markets anyway. elinda labropoulou from athens. meanwhile they continue to scrutinize the euro debt deal. we saw a big selloff on wall street on monday. the dow lost 276 points or nearly 2 1/3% going down below 12,000. nasdaq down 1.93%. dow down 2.26%. on monday the dow rallied almost 10% in the month of october. both the nasdaq and the s&p surged about 11% for the month. well, that's all going to go because u.s. markets do look set for losses at the open when wall street trading begins in just a few hours time. here is where u.s. futures stand in the premarket action, off by 1% or more. and it wouldn't surprise me if we actually saw steeper losses in there if we saw the selloffs going on in europe actually continuing here. coming up here on "world business today." a former goldman sachs chief and lee man brours. we'll look at how they've become part of euro's poisonous debt crisis. stay with cnn. where there's magic. and you now understand what nature's been hiding. ♪ at dow we understand the difference between innovation and invention. invention is important. it's the beginning. it's the spark. but innovation is where we actually create value for dow, for society, and for the world. ♪ at dow, we're constantly searching for how to use our fundamental knowledge of chemistry to solve these difficult problems. science is definitive. there is a right answer out there. 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number of worrying questions. for more on that let's go to felicia taylor. >> the broker dealers we're talking about worked at mf global. it will mark the eighth largest bankruptcy in the u.s. mf global was run by john core zye. he was a former ceo of goldman sachs. it had $41 billion but this morning shares were extended on the new york stock kpanch and they were told to suspend any further trades and soon after it provided for bankruptcy protection. the shares plummeted in recent days, off by 85% this year alone. the reason behind the collapse is, of coursing, the european debt probable. in the last set of results it revealed more than $6.25 billion. that was at the suggestion of john corzai. among countries involved, portugal, italy and spain. investors who knew were naturally watching closely. many saw the company as sort of a bellwether for how well an american company could withstand the pressures created by the crisis in europe. that question has been answered and obviously the answer suspect a pretty one. the new question is how big is the fallout going to be. comparisons are drawn to lehman brothers' fall in 2008. two companies alone have a combined $2 billion loss. deutsche bank and jpmorgan. jpmorgan told reuters that their loss is only a small fraction of that number. that's one reason it may not have the effect that lehman did. they had several times more assets also when it went bankrupt than mf global but this is certainly the sharpest side yet that the threat of contagion from europe is very real, very powerful. felicia taylor there. you're watching "world business today." as clouds gather once again over the economies of europe, they're bracing themselves for a bruising. we'll have that story next. if you've just signed up for medicare or will soon, there's no time like the present to consider all your health insurance options. does medicare alone meet your needs? would additional coverage be better for you? well, now is a good time to take a look 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economy as fred pleitgen repo reports. >> reporter: even in these uncertain times business is booming. this mid-size company in berlin provides printers and office software but the owner tells me even though his firm is growing, he's concerned. >> translator: we have good plaining, our budget is good, and we have lots of orders, he says. but it's impossible to say how things will be in a year because we don't know what will happen with the european economy. >> reporter: one thing he's doing is increasing his firm's capital industry. if you have a good capital stock, the banks look at you differently. you have a better rating and it's possible to get loans each when institutes are reluctant to lend. germany is a powerhouse and the second in export of goods. small and medium-sized businesses are the motor and backbone of the economy. and now that european banks face uncertainty because of the euro-zone bailout, once again they seem well prepares as most companies have been increasing their capital stock consistently for years says this gentleman of the union of german union savings banks. right now the barjs have a capital stock of about 18%, he says. that is an absolute record. it shows that even in difficult times companies have been building their equity capital. but, of course, a strong capital stock alone does not guarantee a company will survive the harsh economic times. this man says for a company like his, every day is a battle to stay ahead of the game. fred pleitgen, cnn, berlin. singapore airlines has launched its new international budget carrier. the airline called scoot will begin operating medium flights begins in 2012. routes include trips to china and australia. and will increase to africa and the middle east in the next five years. singapore airline stocks was down about 3%. meanwhile they say all of its flights are now operating on time. this, of course, follows three days of delays and cancellations. and it was good for qantas on the stock market as well. that i finished up 1.1% at about 1.60 and a little bit of change. now, it's known as the race that stops the nation. australia's richest sporting event, the melbourne cup, took place at the remington race course on tuesday. the prize money, almost $6.5 million. dunaden was the first place finish. he had never seen the track before. not a bad day at the office for him. let's take another look at the stock managements if we can bear it for him. losses at about 2% and 3% to more. we're looking at 3.5% apiece for both frankfort and the paris cac 40. let's have a look at asia marks. for the most part they closed, slipped for the second day in a row. weak reading on the industry. china is clearly repressing things. it was the shanghai composite that gained a lot by a fax of a percent. but in hong kong the hang seng took it on the nose. again, off by 2.5%. clearly more links to what's going on in europe. off by 1.7% for the nikkei and the australian s&p asx 200. commodities being sold off at the moment by the fact that qantas was gaining in that falling market. >> that's it for this edition of "world business today." now an in-depth interview with the former european central bang jean-claude trichet. stick around for that. you're watching cnn. i'm zain verjee at cnn london. here are the top stories right now. nato has ended its aerial mission in libya, and its secretary-general traveled to tripoli to make the announcement himself. he said the alliance's goal was to protect civilians and forces has now been met. the u.s. is withdrawing its pledge for the u.n. agency accepted a palestinian bid for full membershipship. they said the move would harm peace talks. the prime minister has offered. the austerity measures that europe has changed have angered many greeks and it's not clear the voters want to accept the deal. those are the top stories. i'm zain verjee. the interview with jean-claude trichet is next. are you ready for retirement? >> i'm not sure. >> hello and welcome. i'm richard quest. outside, the european central bank. on the day that jean-claude trichet retires as president of the ec bank. over the next half hour we'll look back at president trichet's legacy which can neatly be divided into two periods of time, before the crisis and what happened after it began. saddam hussein is captured, concord make its last flight, the year is 2003 and jean-claude trichet has taken up his post as head of the european central bank. it was all quiet on the financial front. the new chief, meanwhile, had a date to follow, which he has stuck throughout. maintaining price stability, keeping inflation at bay. >> they've decided to leave the key ecb rates unchanged. >> for several year this policy worked. then the unexpected happened. inflation seemed to be on the rise. interest rates had to go up. in the midst of an emerging crisis on wall street, mid-2008 to be exact. trichet again raises interest rates by a quarter percent. inflation had surged, oil prices hit an all-time high. >> the u.s. is influencing europe an