school. the gun was found at the scene. witnesses say lane walked up to a group of students sitting in the cafeteria and opened fire. the latest polls put republican presidential frontrunners mitt romney and rick santorum in a dead heat going into today's primaries. both candidates have made a final push in michigan. the second contest is in arizona. michigan is a vital test of romney since he was born and raised there and his father served as governor. "world business today" starts now. good morning from cnn london. i'm nina dell santos. >> good afternoon from cnn hong kong. i'm andrew stevens. welcome to "world business today." the top stories this tuesday, february 28th. asia chief explains the latest results and tells us where the growth is. >> the world conference, not -- his latest company's weapon against apple and google. >> it was wall street's gordon gecko who famously said greed is good. the actor who played him now has a very different message. first up, though, we start with the news just in to cnn in the last half hour or so. we knew it was coming but it serves as another reminder that greece's troubles are far from over. in the last half an hour, the ecb suspended the use of -- as collateral. what this move means is it comes with the debt swap begins and exchange you'll see investors kiss goodbye to 70% of their holdings in real term. in the meantime, what we've had a standard & poor's deciding to become the first of the big three credit rating agencies to relegate grooez to a selective default rating. the agency hit out -- the so-called essf with a negative outlook. today's votes of low confidence coincides with yesterday's parliamentary vote to approve a second crucial bailout for athens. overwhelming in favor of a deal that will see them paying out morph any other country. it marks a victory for angela merkel as well as other champions of the eurozone. in europe, investors are fairly optimistic this tuesday with all of the the major markets trading into the green an hour into the session. it's only the athens general index suffering to the tune of .4%. not surprising about the collateral changes of eecb. not surprising given the fact that this country is in selective default, andrew. >> the optimism you mention there, it was evident here. in the asian markets as well. take a look at this. three green arrows. australia down by a tenth of 1%. to give you an idea of what's happening in the market. pretty much from the start, it's continued to climb for most of the day. now, helping the mood here is what happened in the u.s. overnight. better than expected u.s. housing numbers. when we get good numbers on u.s. housing, that is important. as we all know, the housing sector has been the epicenter of the problems with the u.s. economy. an uplift in housing numbers certainly spells good news for the broader u.s. economy which in turn spells good news for the big exporting economies around this part of the world. one stocky want to focus in on in hong kong is the biggest stock on the market. also listed in hong kong. it was the worst performer on the hang seng index in a day when the hang seng was up 1.6%. down by .6 of 1%. that came after the bank share price 2.5% in london following the expected earnings for 2011. underlying profits at hsbc came in at $17.7 billion. that was down 6% on the previous year despite a strong performance in the emerging market. now, hsbc's urging markets in the u.s. were considerably lower than had been expected. now, with growth slowing down in the key market, questions are being asked about the performance and earlier today spoke to the asia pacific ceo and despite the disappoint numbers, he's encouraged by the bank's performance. >> these are a set of good results under very unusual circumstance, very challenging economic background, you have the eurozone debt crisis, the u.s. not performing as well as the economy. i think that these are reasonable sets of results. >> how concerned are you about china's slowdown affecting hsbc? >> well, actually, our performance in china has been great in 2011. our profits went up by 230%. as far as china's economy is concerned, what we see is that the inflation pressure is coming down to about 2% and we see that the -- relaxing. the reserve ratio. so that it will pump more liquidity into the economy. >> which countries have been the best growth prospects in your opinion? >> this one is still going to be asia. we have six key markets, also hong kong that we focus on. malaysia, the pbt went up by 32% in 2011. indonesia is 18. singapore is 14. china is 230. indeer is 20 and australia is 19. the growth profit is doing -- >> i want to think about your ceo, he received an annual bonus of $3.4 million last year. that's half of what he earned the year before. in tough times, you think it's right that bankers are earning these sorts of bonuses? >> well, these compensation are subject to very close scrutiny of the board, of the remuneration board and also the close scrutiny of fsa. it passed both hurdles. you think it's okay. >> hoping to cut can annual cost of $3.5 billion to reshape hsbc. what is he planning on doing? >> i think we have already had 19 disposals released $50 billion worth of assets. these disposals also take off a lot of sustainable costs. and we will continue to do that because we have a lot of restructuring costs. the numbers don't look too well. once we have the restructuring costs out of the way and also at the same time we have some of the notable items out of the way, i think we're going to achieve the higher end of the 2.5 to $3.5 billion by the end of 2013. >> 2011 was an extremely tough year for the banking industry. what is your forecast for 2012? >> for 2012, the asia gdp is going to be 6.9% and the euro is going to be 0 and the u.s. about 1.5. if europe continues to stabilize and u.s. continue the unemployment rate continues to come down, i think that the year is going to be all right. but it's not going to be anything fantastic. >> it's interesting, nina, anna asking about that bonus. the bank failed to hit one of its own key targets on cost restraints. there was an efficiency ratio. one of the reasons it failed to hit that was because of rising wages in countries like china. we'll hear much more of this. the wage moving sharply higher in the emerging markets now and it's the big businesses like hsbc, plus the big manufacturers who have to pay the high costs that will eat into its own efficiency target. that's a story we'll continue to follow here just how difficult it is for the companies to continue the big margins, profit margins in the emerging markets. >> the payment is also surprising given the fact that the predecessors left on a cloud of controversy after he was paid what was considered at the time an exorbitant amount of money. the situation does seem to be history repeating itself, andrew. let's talk about the markets. u.s. investors had plenty to consider on monday's session between a better than expected housing report, the debt crisis in europe and the crucial rising oil prices. >> the combination of market cues and numbers, how did they set stocks on fire monday in awful the major industry -- the dow closed one point lower at 12,981 after once again pushing through that crucial psyche lonl cal level of 13,000 in earlier trading. remember, that's the third day so far in the last week and a half that we've seen the dow flirting that kind of territory and coming back down afterwards. focusing in on the technology, nasdaq, two points and we saw at the end of trade, the other markets doing not that bad either as well. nevertheless, the markets looked set for gains when trading sets under way on tuesday's session. let's look at how things stand, about five hours from now. they're up .4% taking cues from here in europe. we'll see if we can hold on to the momentum and when trading begins, andrew, that's anybody's guess. >> yes. when u.s. futures are looking like that -- for japan, the futures were bleak. when we come back, we'll have all the details of the bankruptcy filing. the biggest for a japanese manufacturer since the second world war. hello and welcome back. you're watching "world business today." it is the biggest bankruptcy protection filing by a japanese manufacturer since world war ii. japan's biggest memory chip maker admits it can't dig itself out of its mountain of debt. all told, that's more than $5.5 billion. the last chance came and went on monday as an 11th hour rescue deal failed to come through. randy inocencio has been following the story. what pushed that over the cliff? >> the fundamental reason is darwinian. failed to adapt to the tech industry and headed towards reorganization. but if that fails, it will head the way of the dodo. the president there, admitted in a news conference yesterday with a deep bow to the cameras and his shareholders. their common d. ram memory chips that make our computers and smart chips work. that's hurt them. they're just about $1. it's down more than 50% from this time last year. while prices have fallen, the japanese yen strengthened. it's risen more than 30% against the u.s. dollar and that's walloped them when it sent the earnings back to overaes markets. the drama unfolds in this five-year share chart for he will pid a. in 2007, the ram prices started falling. then in 200, the share price plunged more than 90% during the global financial crisis. in 2010, it got a $1.7 billion bailout. that lifted its share price just a bit. but in april 2010, elpida gains reversed course after reported $21 million in network for the entire 2010 fiscal year. not to mention last year's floods in thailand. that was pretty much the last straw. from the 2007 high to just before elpida's bankruptcy filing announcement, that was a loves 94% in the last five years. the company will be d listed from the tokyo stock exchange on march 28th. andrew? this is no small player in the industry either, is it, ram i? it accounts for 12% of the global market in d ram. what does the loss of a company like elpida mean for the chip making industry? >> one company's loss is another company's gain. in this case, many companies actually stand to gain from the demise of elpida. south korea's jumped. jam sung is, the world's number one chip maker. closed up 1.2% in seoul. and the number two, that jumped nearly 7%. earlier today, rating's agency fitch forecasted this as well as samsung would gain market share now that a key competitor is out of the race. with the fall of elpida in japan, others fell too. that's on fears that a strong end will hurt their bottom lines. add van tus corporation was down. micron jumped more than 7.5%. this is the world's fourth largest chip maker and may be looking to buy one or more of elpida's manufacturing plants of course at a discount. the creditors of elpida can minimize loss. thanks for joining us on the demise of elpida. nina, the japanese invented the ram technology. as we've seen with other technology they've invented, it's been overtaken by other countries. the taiwanese threw the chip makers out of the water. it's a depressing scene in japan. with the rising yen, that makes it even harder. >> yeah. companies like for instance, sony, liolympus, toyota. in the headlines for all the wrong reasons, the companies that we grew up with as leaders in the world of technology. coming up next, we'll be talking about ancient history, sunken treasure, half a billion dollars worth of it at the bottom of the sea. we'll tell you how it got there and whose pockets it's going into. that's just ahead here on cnn. 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[ male announcer ] tempur-pedic brand owners are more satisfied than owners of any traditional mattress brand. ♪ to learn more or find an authorized retailer near you, visit tempurpedic.com. tempur-pedic. the most highly recommended bed in america. welcome back. you're watching "world business today" live here on cnn. police in london dismantled the occupy london campsite. one of the longest running protest sites in the so-called occupy movement which swept the globe. activists that said that hundreds of police x some of them in riot gear, arrived at the en compment around midnight local team and took down tents. one activist told cnn that the police had been met with peaceful resistance but there were still 20 arrests made. london was given permission to clear the site late last night after there was an eviction appeal. let's bring you breaking news coming into to cnn on the subject of syria and the journal i..ists there. we're learning that the british journalist paul conroy is now safe and sound in lebanon after being smuggled out of the syrian city of homs. this is according to diplomat. let's put this into context. this was the cameraman who was accompanying the now late american born journalist marie colvin who has since died in that mortar attack on homs earlier on last week. so this is the british photojournalist paul conroy is safe and sound in lebanon according to a diplomatic source after being smuggled out of homs. there was a lot of concern about his welfare because he's injured and in need of medical treatment. andrew? >> consider the tens of thousands still trapped in cities like homs with essentially no medical assistance. no real hope of getting out, at least in the near term. let's switch now to the weather. ivanka brer a is standing by with more on that. ivan, you've been looking at people in the southern part of australia trapped by rain. >> too much rain. we're talking about places that will reach their entire rainfall this week. i'll share with you the satellite perspective. the radar and some of the tallies here. particularly, south australia getting in on this. look at this. 55 millimeters since sunday. already surpassing their monthly average. we're going to continue to add to that over the next couple of days, as the boundary will be stuck here. look at some of the tallies in and around victoria, very impressive here. upwards of 12 to millimeters of water that caused significant flooding because the water has come down so quickly, we have had flash flooding. folks have not had too much time to be warned here and we've had rescues that have been under way. the emergency services have received hundreds of calls from folks that need some assistance down south as a result of this trough here that's not going to be going anywhere. look at the explosion of thunderstorm activity. very impressive. the radar showing rain everywhere in australia here. but primarily concentrated across the south and the east. that's where we're talking about the potential for additional flooding. the ground is already saturated in many areas here. we're going to exacerbate the situation here. look at this strip of moisture here. just concentrated in the same area. this is in the next 48 hours. we're not moving this system here. it's going to remain in place and so the shower and thunderstorm activity will continue. now, this is going to be a daytime heating situation. the trough is there. but we're going to need the daytime heat to get the thunderstorms going here. during the evening, overnight hours we quiet down and during the afternoon we pop the showers and storms once again. some of them, again, will be locally heavy. producing that potential for flooding. this continues, andrew, through the later part of the week. cannot catch a break here in australia. the cotton growers have had a significant go of it here as a result of the very flooded situation that started off here in 2012. more rain, although, this time it's shifted further to the south. >> it's interesting how that primary industry, things like cot torso important to the australian economy still. ivan cabrera at the world weather center. as the price of oil hovers near a nine-month high, middle eastern supplies, what's being done to prevent an oil shock. we'll bring you that in a moment. @ j@ hong kong, i'm andrew stephens. >> i'm nina del santos at cnn london. welcome back to "world business today." let's see what's going on on the european stock markets. about 90 minutes into the trading session. second trading day of the week and this is how we stand. largely, well, it's a positive picture especially across the eurozone market. only slightly. a gain of a quarter of 1%. the can you remember ant is being boosted by boosted on talks that gm may take a stake in the french car maker. we're keenly watching that on "world business today." we're also watching the athens general index, losing half of 1%. this is mainly because this country is relegated to selective default and the ecb decided to temporarily suspend taking greek bonds as collateral as the famous private sector involvement swap now starts. andrew? >> here in asia, nina, it was a pretty strong day, actually. the key markets were higher. the investors basically reacting to bit of an unexpected numbers from the u.s. housing picture. shanghai up by a fifth of 1% reversing yesterday's losses. the nikkei, as you see nearly up by one. australia slipping marginally into the red, nina. >> as you can see, not a huge amount of movement for the stock markets on either side of the planet this tuesday. however the commodities market have been painting a different picture of late. the rising price of oil is continuing to be a concern because of the concern -- and also to hamper some of the signs of life that we're seeing in the united states. this is how the main new york mercantile exchange, crude oil contractor is trading right now. as you can see, it's down to the tune of .2 of 1%. this is where the price of crude, the main european contract is standing at the moment. this is often a little more indicative of the state of the market internationally. while one is down, this one is up. just marginally. six cents on the dollar. $123.35. remaining higher than nynex. we often see that spread $10 to $12. it's a little more pronounced, andrew. >> absolutely. present is the one to watch, nin. as we've been saying, it's sensitive to developments such as the supply concerns in the gulf that have arisen along with the tensions between the ws and iran in recent months. this is how much brent has gained up by almost 10%. remember, we're not yet in march. worries over iranian threats to oim shipments through the straits of hormuz have pulled prices lower. becoming evermore uncertain as the price of oil continues to rise. now, in the united states, that economic uncertainty