international wonders if they have faced widespread pressure. opposition fighters have also been accused of crimes. meanwhile, sources tell cnn that syrian president bashar al-assad has rejected the latest peace proposal. 28 people are dead following a bus crash in switzerland according to the swiss news agency, 22 children and six adults died when the bus carrying belgian tourists collided with the wall of a tunnel. it happened on the border of italy as the tourists were returning from a ski holiday. those are the headlines from cnn. i'm juanita rajpal. "world business today" starts right now. good morning from cnn london, i'm nina dos santos. and good afternoon from cnn hong kong, i'm andrew stevens. welcome to "world business today." the top stories this wednesday, march 14th. finance stocks lead the gains on wall street as bank stress tests give some investors cause to cheer. china's premiere gives the last speech of his ten-year term. we've got his outlook for the world's second biggest economy. and profits at hong kong's flag carrier, we'll be taking a look at cafe pacific's reversal of for the tune. so europe is stagnating. the brit countries are slowing. just months after a warning of a double dip recession, things are looking better. exporters in asia have been rallying in response. this man, ben bernanke, says he expects moderate growth in the u.s. economy to continue in the months ahead. he's again though steered clear of announcing a third round of kwaun at this timetive easing. he says the fed's benchmark lending rate will stay near zero percent until the end of 2013. his prudence is paying off in other areas as well. you remember that he asked all major american lenders to prove that they could withstand a severe downturn, and of the 19 banks that underwent the so called stress tests, 15 passed muster. that's one more reason for investors to be cheerful, nina, this wednesday. yes. slightly better than the european banking stress test that we saw released four or five months ago. here in europe stock markets have just opened. they're really taking heart from a number of things that ben bernanke was saying but also let's remember that some of these gains are being cautioned by an ongoing rise in the price of oil. let's take a look at the ftse 100. the u.k.'s finance minister is saying that he's moving potentially 100 year bonds. this market isn't doing quite as well as the others but still up by .3. okay. interesting story here, nina. if you look behind me, mixed market. a big boost for regional markets right off the top from ben bernanke's targets. the chinese premiere pouring cold water on the chinese markets as you can see here. first the good news, stronger than expected u.s. retail sales which came out overnight for february. boosting earnings. look for the asian exporters on top of the more bullish markets. the exports led in japan. the nikkei is up by 1.5%. to give you an idea, sony up 5.2% today. nissan, 3.8%. australia also getting a boost from the u.s. outlook. this affects the australian economy since they're such a big producer of global goods in general. take a look at hong kong and china, both markets falling as property markets and raw materials slumps after the premiere said he had no plans to relax measures which are designed to keep a lid on china's bubble prone housing market. just to give you an idea, shanghai up. when we get to wen's comments on no help for the property market in china, property prices still too high, we saw that big tank. that's what happened in hong kong. we got a dip towards the end of the session, nina, following on from what the shanghai markets were doing. certainly no joy from premiere wen for the chinese investment community. yeah, indeed. andrew, let's hone in when we were talking about the bank stress test before. now 15 major u.s. lenders can breathe something of a sigh of relief today as their stress test successes have paved the way for dividend pairs and also share buy backs. all of that is being greeted positively by the investor communities. four other banks, including citigroup, for those guys it's not such a positive picture at all. felecia taylor has told us how they've reacted. >> market soared 100 points on word that jpmorgan not only passed the federal reserve stress test but was increasing ilts dividend by a nickel and a stock buy back of $15 billion. in essence jpmorgan chase almost jumped the gun a little beth. we weren't expecting to hear from the federal reserve and those stress tests. the federal reserve announced the results of those stress tests. what's significant that 15 of the 19 banks did pass the stress test. the banks would have enough capital reserve to be able to understand another recession if, indeed, that were to happen. the criteria for the stress test was very severe with a 13% unemployment rate, a drop of 50% in the stock market, and a 21% drop in the value of housing prices. keep in mind that the stress test was extremely severe in terms of the criteria. so the four that didn't actually pass the test which include citigroup, sun trust, ally financial and met life, not that they're going to be in financial ruin or certainly not in any danger necessarily but didn't meet that 5% or one portion of the criteria of the 5% capital ratios. citigroup has said that it is going to submit a revised capital plan to the federal reserve in hopes that it can meet the criteria that has been put upon it. again, these 15 banks that did pass the federal reserve stress test, very significant in terms of being able to withstand a recession should that happen and not have to go to the u.s. taxpayer to be bailed out or to the federal government. back to you. felecia taylor. the u.s. stock market rallies to close sharply higher as investors welcomed the results. businesses were also cheered by cautiously upbeat statements by the fed. strong retail sales numbers in february also helped to boost to close the dow just over 1.68%. pretty strong start there. it was the best performance for the year on the u.s. markets, nina. yeah. things seem to be getting rosie and rosier when it comes to the u.s. stock markets. it's been a number of times when we've seen the dow up above 13,000. so most u.s. banks seem to be behaving responsibly, at least that is what has been coming out of the federal reserve support on those stress tests. ben bernanke, it seems, nevertheless, isn't taking any chances with the financial system. he's optimistic but he is still sticking to a cautious game plan here. let's remind you what that game plan actually involves. interest rates will be staying at rock bottom lows, near 0% until the end of 2013. a third round of quantitytive easing, often referred to as qe 3 remains off the table. the current stimulus program known as operation twister will stay in place. that encourages lower interest rates at the consumer level by moving billions of dollars off a short term bonds towards longer dated securities. and one more note of caution was sounded, namely that escalating oil prices could in turn eventually drive up inflation. mr. bernanke is more can have debt that core inflation excluding items such as food and energy will stay within the 2% target. all in all, nina, a pretty upbeat assessment for ben bernanke who is known for his cautiousness when it comes to the economy. this is what the futures markets looks like. this is what's expected the market to look like when it opens in five or so hours trading for now. i'm not getting my words out the right order. i'm going to head back to you. i can't do this. >> you're not the only one, andrew. it's early over here in the morning in london. i have more an excuse for that. coming up next on "world business today." we're on the campaign trail in the united states where rick santorum has swept to victory in the states of alabama and mississip mississippi. we'll tell you what it means for the race for the republican nomination. that's next here on cnn. but now, with zyrtec-d®, i have the proven allergy relief of zyrtec®, plus a powerful decongestant. zyrtec-d® lets me breath freer, so i can love the air. [ male announcer ] zyrtec-d®. behind the pharmacy counter. no prescription needed. the sleep number bed. the magic of this bed is that you're sleeping on something that conforms to your individual shape. wow! that feels really good. in less than a minute i can get more support. if you change your mind once you get home you can adjust it. so whatever you feel like, the sleep number bed's going to provide it for you. at our semi-annual sleep sale, save $400 to $700 on our most popular bed sets. plus, free standard shipping - but only through march 18th! only at the sleep number store, where queen mattresses start at just $699 brent crude may be down about 25 cents on the barrel, but it's still trading above 125. welcome back. you're watching "world business today" live on cnn. the republican u.s. presidential hopeful rick santorum has been celebrating a strong showing in the american south. alabama and mississippi held their republican primaries on tuesday. while it was a good night for rick santorum, it wasn't so good for mitt romney. take a look at tuesday's results from the state of alabama where santorum, a former pennsylvania senator, finished first with about 35% of the vote. newt gingrich a southerner who represented georgia in congress came in second with mitt romney third with less than 30%. meanwhile, in neighboring mississippi it was a closer race but still another win for santorum who received about a third of the vote. second again to gingrich and again romney third with about 30%, nina. andrew, the candidates' differences may seem more pronounced than their similarities right now, but there is one thing they can definitely agree on these days. at a time with soaring gas prices and a region that's struggling economically, what they're calling for is more oil production and also fast. rick santorum played to his local audience as he took the podium at the gulf state city of lafayette, louisiana. here's what he had to say. >> we're seeing gas prices at what are projected to be historic highs and yet this president almost put this whole region out of business by -- because of the extreme environmental policies of this administration. and we wanted to be here in lafayette to say to average folks who are struggling right now because of those energy prices, we will put this town and this region back to work so you can go back to work and have a better quality of life. >> trying to keep his faltering campaign alive southern candidate newt gingrich said the need for more oil production wasn't just a southern issue but a national one. >> it now turns out the current estimate is there are 160 times, 16,000%, more oil in north dakota than they thought there was in the 1990s and some experts believe that number is off by a huge margin that future technology will ultimately lead us to find about 500 billion barrels of oil. now i'm not trying to fill you up with numbers, but i'm trying to make a point about a general direction. an american president who believed in energy and an american president who believed in science and technology would drive the price of gasoline below 2 point point $50 and would never bow to a saudi king. >> it was just as telling what mitt romney did not say after his third place finish in both states, romney issued a written statement congratulating rick santorum. romney appears undaubtnted sayi he looked forward continue to creasing our delegate count in a substantial way after tonight. staying in the united states, andrew, the billionaire investor warren buffet's calls for higher taxes on the rich hasn't fallen on deaf ears. we've seen nearly 2/3 support for that buffet tax according to a new reuters poll. the buffet rule says 30% on anyone earning $1 million or more per single year. support for the tax was strongest among democrats. about 76% of them supporting it. 49% of republicans also backed the idea suggesting that tax rises are not off limits so long as they're targeted at the richest americans these days. live from hong kong and london you're watching "world business today." coming up after the short break, china's national people's congress is brought to a close. we'll have an update from beijing as the prime minister speaks to his delegates for the last time. this is "world business today" live on cnn. welcome back. china has wrapped up its national people's congress. that's what passes for parliament in china after ten days of deliberations. around 3,000 delegates gathered in beijing to discuss a range of policies from china's wealth gap to the country's legal system. the premiere, wen jiaabao overseeing his last npc meeting as a leader brought the event to an end. >> reporter: the chinese parliament wrapped up its annual ten day session as a way to better manage the overall economy. the 3,000 delegates voted for measures that would help bridge the wealth gap. china's premiere, wen jiaabao, opened this year's annual congress with a speech that cut the nation's economic growth target to 7.5%. this is wen's last appearance at the national people's congress as premiere. in a three-hour long press briefing wen explained how the new target would benefit the world economy. >> translator: we in china can surely overcome the problem of lack of adequate balance, coordination and sustainability in our economic growth and get the chinese economic growth on the path of quality development. this is a fundamental way is good news for the development of the global economy. >> reporter: the premiere said china would step up its efforts to reform its currency. he said he regretted he didn't do more for his country over the past nine years. premiere wen and other senior members of the communist party are going to step aside later this year to make way for the next generation of china's leaders. it's important just to see wen sitting there, nina, because that is the only really press conference that the chinese leadership does in beijing. it's all fairly organized, of course, but at least he is taking questions from the floor. it was interesting that after nine years wen sort of returning to what had been a bit of a theme of his, talking about political reform in china to protect what he says are the economic break throughs so far. so that will be interesting to see whether or how political reform actually manifests itself under the new leadership. certainly a lot of food for thought coming from beijing today. it certainly will. it'll be interesting to see how the new leader continues with that particular plan of wen jiaabao. let's move on. if we move down under now, four oil fields off of australia's northwest coast have halted production as a tropical psych cloenl called lua intensifies. we'll get the latest from the cnn weather center, ivan. >> wood side petroleum that halted four of the facilities there as far as oil production precautions. this happens often here on this coast when we get these tropical cyclones. indeed, an important industry here. $28 billion a year industry in australia where 58% of primary energy comes from oil and gas and 70% of oil production is actually off of western australia, which is where i'm going to take you now and show you what has been occurring here. look at all the activity across the entire northern coast of australia. this is what we're watching here. that's tropical cyclone lua. it will move away from australia right now. that would be fantastic. that won't continue to be the movement. a system will pull it back in and that's the problem. that's why they've halted production and that's why residents along sparsely populated region here are going to be watching this closely. we do have folks that live here. not a whole lot, but they are there. and they're going to be watching lua as it tries to make a move over the next 48 to 72 hours. expacting land fall anywhere from the early morning hours of saturday through midday saturday. that's our best thinking. that would be local time here in port hedlin. water temperatures very warm which these features like. this will continue to intensify so by the time it does make land fall we are going to be dealing with perhaps a category 2 with winds of upwards of 148 kilometers per hour. a bit of a storm surge to contend with here. if that verifies and also we're going to be dealing with a lot of heavy rain. further to the east we have more action. we're going to continue to monitor this area here for the potential flooding where we have more residents here in darwin. this had the potential to develop into a cyclone. it has run out of room right here. continuing to weaken. the rain is not going anywhere. that's going to continue over the next couple of days. again, the big story will be to the west in lua. we'll keep you updated throughout the week. nina. ivan cabrera, many thanks for that. andrew, with those tropical cyclones putting oil production offline in plates like australia, just another reason for that oil price, especially brent, to stay above $125 a barrel. >> absolutely, nina. just ahead on "world business today," travel in the air, cafe pacific. hong kong's showcase carrier reveals less than showcase earnings. we'll give you all the numbers in just a moment. from cnn hong kong, i'm andrew stevens. and i'm nina dos santos at cnn london. warm welcome back to "world business today." let's take another look at how the european stock market is performing. here's where things stand at the moment. let's take a look at the opening figures because do remember that "world business today" has been starting about an hour earlier than we usually do so we're only 30 minutes into the trading day at the moment. as the picture progresses, take a look at this. we have the etc. dax up to the tune of 2/3 of 1%. one of the reasons why these markets are up is largely due to the strength in the financial future. also the stress tests we saw coming out of the united states where 15 of those major u.s. banks passed those stress tests and that paves the way for them to increase. that's one of the reasons why the market is up. >> that will give a boost in asia, nina. the benchmark doing pretty well in the early going here in asia. there was a sharp turn around in the china markets. hong kong and shanghai both dipg into the red after the chinese premiere wen jiaabao said that he thought property prices in china were still too high and there were no efforts planned to take the recent breaks applied to chinese properties off. that was a sharp turn around in shanghai closing down by 2.5%. hong kong was up by 1.5% finished in the red. nikkei got a boost from the news coming out from ben bernanke and the general mood of optimism from wall street. want to get you upto date on a corporate story. cafe pacific has reported a huge slide. in 2010 it reported record earnings of $1.8 billion. we're joined now. what were the numbers at cafe and what's behind the result? >> cafe said its net profit fell this much, 61% for 2011. it pulled in just over $700 million for the year. it's a huge disappointment especially after that 1.8 billion that you mentioned. the reason for the fall in cafe's profit is the soaring price of fuel. that's not just burning a hole in our pockets but also putting a big squeeze on airlines. cafe was also hurt by a 9% drop in cargo demand in 2011. cargo makes up a good 1/3 of cafe's profits. last year's sluggish global economy meant weaker demands in things like clothes and electronics from here and asia. if we check out cafe's competitors, we can see that hong kong's flag ship carrier is not the only airline whose bottom line is suffering. singapore airline's is down. the flag ship carrier blamed high fuel prices. air china's q 3 ne