Says carlos ghosn left the country by illegal means. Theformal nice former nissan boss is expected to give a press conference this wednesday. Yousef it is 8 00 a. M. Across the emirates. This is Bloomberg Markets middle east. Are talking about those geopolitical jitters currently running through markets, so lets take a look at where gold is trading this morning. Gold trading at the highest level in about six years, with Goldman Sachs suggesting that shiny metal will be a better hedge against geopolitical risk than crude oil. Goldman sticking to its forecast for 1600 announced, but with risk for prices to the upside. Gold building off of what was a stellar year, up Something Like 18 in 2019. That is the biggest annual jump in over a decade. Changes the dollar, the dollar also strengthening off the back of that safe haven appetite. Yousef crude oil is extending its surge from friday. We are at threemonth month highs for wti and brent. You have the fallout between the u. S. And iran escalating. The markets team is writing the relative calm we are seeing signals this geopolitical driven rally could be fleeting and like the one that followed the attacks in saudi arabia. Crude has arent premium of about six dollars a barrel above the december contract. That will be a very important metric. Lets get to some of the other metrics. The yen holding at its highest level since october, and the 20 year yield in japan dropped as many as 3. 5 basis points to 2. 4 . We are also watching these moves from the oil market into the em currencies. You have the philippine peso declining to its lowest levels october. The philippines inflation ifecast could be affected rising tensions because oil prices to surge farther. Tracy it looks like the risk off sentiment is feeding into india as well. What is going on . We are marking the second straight day of losses at this point, considering that they are declining by as much as 1 . Besides the fact we have a lot we doatility on account, have some political tensions which have been rising, and there has been some selling coming through. The indian rupee has weakened against the u. S. Dollar. Index hasvolatility also bounced and is advancing at this point in time. At this point in time, there seems to be no respire. We need to watch as to whether or not we see some record recovery. For now, Indian Markets are in the red. Yousef india is one of the largest Oil Importers in the world. Thank you very much. We will check back in with you later. Lets get back to the top story and continue to flesh this out. President trump is threatening iran of major retaliation if they do anything to avenge the killing of their top military general, Qassem Soleimani. Tehran has already said it will no longer be bound by the 2015 nuclear deal and will enrich uranium, while iraq is calling for all American Forces to be expelled from the country. All of this is having major implications for middle eastern markets and oil prices. Lets start off with the political movements in iraq. With the votes from parliament, it was against the american position. Reporter the vote was in an emergency session that was split between the sunni and the bloc. H and the shiia they basically voted to expel the u. S. Forces out of iraq, while the sunni and kurdish mps did not even come to the vote. We are seeing a lot of voices and iraq for the expulsion of the u. S. Forces, saying that iraqi sovereignty was violated. The u. S. response was very dismissive. They say the Prime Minister does not have the authority because he resigned. They threatened sanctions that would dwarf those imposed on iran if they force u. S. Forces out of iraq. Tracy it is good to see you as always. I think it is fair to call this a brinkmanship for now. Theis the gulf and surrounding region responding to what is going on . Reporter this has all escalated very quickly. For the gulf, which has been trying since the tanker attacks and the attacks on aramco, to lower the temperature and ensure this does not turn into an additional war that they bear the brunt of, they are doing their best to tell trump and the u. S. Administration that they dont want this to escalate beyond what it is. We are seeing a buildup where there are additional tropes coming to additional troops coming to kuwait. Is coming to talk to the u. S. During this whole thing, we are seeing a flurry of diplomatic activity. We saw the foreign minister of qatar go to iran, along with others, to reduce the temperature. Yousef i want to get you in this discussion, because we saw a strong reaction in middle east markets. What were some of the important takeaways as you look at the different indexes . Reporter good morning. Redas pretty much a sea of across the middle east and the region for every market that was open yesterday. Kuwait taking a particular toll, but dubai markets and saudi fidel also falling. The eg ask 30 also falling the most, not having to contend with u. S. And iran tensions, but also dealing with escalating rhetoric around libya, the Turkish Parliament authorizing the government to deploy troops there. This has not been confined to the equity markets alone. We have also seen a spike in fiveyear saudi credit default swap. We saw previous spikes when the aramco facilities were attacked in september. But this one even bigger. We will be watching the bond markets closely, because it is not pictured here, but the spreads of gcp bonds over treasury is widening. Tracy thanks for that. Since we are talking about the Market Reaction, lets bring in our guest to talk about what we have seen in the oil complex. Crude prices clearly reacting in a big way, that long missed geopolitical risk premium finally coming back into the market. Guest good morning, tracy. Oil is going above 70, which is a price we have not seen for a while. They had a nice rise toward the end of last year. We just mentioned the saudi but oilwith a spike, prices fell after those attacks. A lot of the analysts have been saying the geopolitical risk in the oil price should have been higher anyway, even going through last autumn. We might be getting more calls from those same analysts saying we should be looking at higher prices now. We spoke to one analyst yesterday saying they think they will be maintained in the First Quarter between 60 and 70 a due to the risk in the market. Some of the comments we are getting is that iran is a company that buys its time. They will feel the need to retaliate. It will be difficult for them to do something on a one to one basis of a military direct confrontation with the United States because of the additional powers the u. S. Has, the military power the u. S. Has over iran. We will be potentially facing a period of waiting to see what iran does and how they respond. Will it be more tanker attacks . Will it be attacks on infrastructure, like the saudi attacks that were blamed on the u. S. And saudis by iran . That will increase that tension in the oil Market Going Forward and will keep the prices elevated. Yousef thank you very much. Lets widen out this discussion and bring in our guest. She joins us on the line from california. Aroundk at the arguments a push for rationality based on the rainy inside. That might make sense on the face of it, but we are breaking through to unprecedented territory diplomatically around this iran story. What comes next, as far as you are concerned . Hopefully, what we are seeing in the region itself is they are pushing for diplomacy because the parties in the region, the gulf states, no they will suffer through whatever conflict the United States starts with iran. Just like the region suffered with every other conflict we have seen in past decades. The announcement today about iran, the reduction of the jcpoa, is not actually linked to the assassination of soleimani. This was something that was planned from before. It was part of the calculated measures they have implemented over the last seven or so months. What was interesting about the iranian statement was that it said if sanctions were lifted and iran benefited from interests enshrined in the jcpoa that they would return to the commitments under the deal. That means that while people are talking about the deal as if it was gone a month a more accurate way of looking at it is iran has stopped its commitments on the deal because it has gained no benefits from the deal, but left the framework in place. Another glimmer of hope for diplomacy, and that should be something that is focused regionally. Every state in the region will be affected the most by any kind of conflict than the United States would be. And hopefully drawing in the International Community more into trying to get a diplomatic solution toward arguably aggression from the United States, which we have seen visavis iran, and now we are seeing with iraq. Is exercisingraq its sovereignty by saying u. S. Troops should not be in iraq. Tracy its Tracy Alloway in hong kong. I wanted to ask you about the response we have seen from iran. Setting aside the nuclear deal for one second, they are also talking about the notion of crushing revenge. Is that all rhetoric coming from iran . What can they actually do here . West in terms of rhetoric, have seen for decades this kind of rhetoric coming from iran. I want to say the precedent for this is different because the president that President Trump set by assassinating arguably the second most important or powerful political figure in iran. Situationling with a that is unprecedented. At the same time, i would not get lost in the rhetoric. The reason i brought up the deal was to point out exactly that. On the one hand, you talk about crushing violence or crushing revenge. While there is this rhetoric that existed, in reality they have made rational decisions, and even diplomatic decisions, which is emblematic of the deal itself. What they can do is they can hurt u. S. Interests in the region, starting with oil. The strait of hormuz is a Strategic Site because of the carrying oilps that come out of that small area, and that is really controlled by iran. It can use its asymmetric warfare, which it has done in to create problems for u. S. Interests in the region. It has support within other states in the region as well, so you can see things happening in iraq, which we have already seen. That becomes a playground for the United States and iran to play out their own and. Tracy we will have to leave it there. That is assal rad. Thank you so much, we appreciate your insight. Lets bring in jan morman. He joins yousef and myself from our singapore studios. I know it is difficult with these ongoing geopolitical events, but how much more flight to safety would you expect in markets from this current point . Uncertainty honest, is never good for markets. We have seen a little bit of the selloffs yesterday in the middle east markets. And today, obviously in the asian markets. I am actually quite surprised the fallout was not more than what we have seen. As long as the Central Banks around the world accommodate this, we always have a buyer in the market. I would not be surprised if it time andw over over d notons would calm down an more retaliation. Gtv thate have the tells the story of the time spread in rent crude oil. In brent crude oil. It could be a bit of a sweeping development. Picture, arebigger you preparing for higher oil in the comingh months . Guest yes, of course. We have seen that brent went up 70 wti, at 64, around that. Have clear that this will ramifications and oil will go up. Oil has been in a longterm bear market. Isthe end, the price functional of supply and demand in the end. I think the supply picture is still good, and it is quite surprising that we had last year the sanctions coming in. Iran and the attacks on saudi oil assets. It is already tested twice. I am actually surprised that this is going to be a much more unlessived scenario, Global Growth picks up a lot more. Prices could go higher, but i would see this as a shortterm and will probably go back. If you look at the u. S. Oil , i think it is interesting. And dont forget in 2009, 2010, the u. S. Was buying 50 of the oil are broad and now they are exporters. Maybe that fits into the picture that prices are not higher. Yousef we are going to flush that out in more detail. Jan moermann stays with us. Bushfires continue to rage in australia. We will be live in sydney with the latest. Tracy next, janet yellen and mario draghi say the u. S. And eu face daunting economic challenges in a world of low inflation and low interest rates. They warn that policymakers cannot cope alone. This is bloomberg. Tracy the u. S. And European Union face daunting economic challenges in a world of low inflation and interest rates, and policymakers cannot cope alone. That was the message from mario draghi and janet yellen to the American Economic association this weekend. The former ecb chief says the euro zone faces the risk of japanification, while the next fed chair says the u. S. Is suffering with stagnation. Moermann is still with us. I want to start with the data we see out of the u. S. , including a terrible number on friday. How long can the wider u. S. Economy withstand weakness in the Manufacturing Sector . Jan indeed. Was not thatr inspiring last week. I think manufacturing is still probablyy weak and there is a long way for certainty to pick up. The trade war ways pretty heavily on the account weighs pretty heavily on the economy. Lets see how that plays out. Probably the labor market is still strong. Unemployment rate is at 3. 5 , a 60 year low. Probably the economy is benefiting more from that relatively strong consumer. It is not only true in the u. S. , but also true probably in other regions and countries with consumers picking up the tab at the moment. But the fed is still keeping rates low, a signal we will stay at the same level. As long as Central Banks and the fed are accommodative, that obviously supports markets. It remains to be seen how the labor market and manufacturing will associate in the future. Yousef in conversations we have had with some of our guests the last few days, what really crystallizes a potential anxiety around inflation picking up considerably toward the latter part of the year given the amount of accommodation afforded by the fed and other Central Banks. But run me through how that translates into assets. How do clients capitalize on the Current Situation . Jan that is a good point. Inflation is a big topic, the 2 maybe somehe fed, dinner party trivia is that only in the last 20 years, the fed only managed to reach the 2 goal only 25 of the time. It seems to not be that easy to hit the 2 inflation goal, so they will still be accommodative. How does that play into allocation . We invest in allocation, undervalued equities. Is verythe headline important. It translates into earnings of the underlying companies. Obviously that is really important. We would recommend to general investors, if they are longterm equity players, they can be cautiously optimistic in gdp growth. The average is 2 a year, and that can be higher or lower, but on average, Equity Investors have done well. The s p has done well in excess of 10 , so it is hard to see that people will let go of equities. You still have the buyouts in the market, which are the Central Banks. Dont forget that a lot of the Central Banks are buying assets still and Still Holding onto their liquidity programs, even increasing them. I think that is still an important factor. You have seen gold rally. Gold will probably crack 16 hundred in january, which is a very good month for gold. Last year, nearly all Asset Classes were up. We are cautiously optimistic, but if we see some more tensions or potentially a war, hopefully not, obviously, but that would change the outlook and would lead to Central Banks stepping in much stronger. Tracy we are going to have to leave it there. Nn, thank youoerma so much for that. Lets get a check on the Business Class the business flash headlines. Annabelle tesla said it delivered a Record Number of vehicles in the Fourth Quarter and is predicting fast growth in china after beginning Factory Production there at the end of december. They will soon be able to triple production to 3000 cars a week, with the stock soaring to an alltime high on friday. There near 80 billion market cap is double that of fords. Samsung says it will launch new products at an event in San Francisco next month. A campaign shows a rectangle and a square, prompting speculation of a new galaxy sseries and a foldable smartphone. Samsung launched its first in september. Mercedes will recall almost three quarters of a million cars in the United States due to potentially faulty sunroofs. It affects models sold between 2001 and 2011. The bonding may deteriorate and lead to the panel breaking free. The recalls are expected to begin on february 14. That is your Bloomberg Business flash. Yousef . Yousef thank you very much. Lets check in with live images coming from tehran. This is the funeral procession for the iranian general who was killed, Qassem Soleimani. Currently taking place. We had some important threats from the iranian government, including statements they are not bound by the Nuclear Agreement deal, in a sign that the fallout is widening even further. This is putting pressure on asset prices across the board. It is risk off, but brent crude is 70 a barrel. We have broke through the key 70 mark. To be we are going discussing that Market Reaction in more detail in a few minutes. Middle east markets slump as tensions rose over the weekend. We will have all the details of that next. Lets take a look at how the wider asia trading session is unfolding this monday morning. We have mci asia index down at the moment. You can see that flight to safety in the u. S. 10 year treasury yield. Plenty more to come. This is bloomberg. Tracy it is 3 30 in the afternoon in sydney, australia. You are looking at pictures of the famous harper bridge. A little respite for the raging wildfires, with some rain forecast. It has been a terrible situation. The aussie dollars softening against the greenbacks this morning. That is against the risk off sentiment in markets. It perhaps says something more for appetite in safe haven currencies like the yen, the u. S. Dollars, than it does about the aussie dollar itself. Lets check in on the first word headlines from around the world. Heres annabelle droulers. Annabelle President Trump is threatening iran with major retaliation if they do anything to avenge the killing of top military general Qassem Soleimani. Trump earlier threatened disproportionate strikes if american interests were targeted. Iran has already said it will no longer be bound by the nuclear deal on the enrichment of uranium. Iraq is calling for all American Forces to be expelled from the country. Hasphilippine president ordered the military to prepare plans to evacuate Filipino Workers in the region. He called an emergency meeting to discuss safety. The latest count says there are more than one and a quarter million filipinos working in the middle east. Set Justice Miniter minister says carlos ghosn left the country by illegal means. He said the Immigration Agency would strengthen its controls to avoid similar events in the future. It is the first time a japanese official has commented since news emerged that he had fled to lebanon, despite being under roundtheclock surveillance. The case is currently under investigation, i will refrain from making specific comments. The investigation has revealed no official record of mr. Ghosns departure. It appears he has left unlawfully using illegal means. Hisbelle two years after arrest, Harvey Weinstein is finally facing court. On fiveinal trial felony counts, including predatory Sexual Assault and rape, is scheduled to begin monday in manhattan. Jury selection could last two weeks, with the trial itself at least six weeks. Accusations against win weinstein triggered the me too movement. Global news 24 hours a day, on air and on quicktake by bloomberg, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. Im annabelle droulers. This is bloomberg. Toll. Ns are taking a the ms ciare seeing asiapacific index see a drop. There is a risk off move across equity markets, with the exception of chinas market. They are on the lunch break, up by 0. 5 . Going into the yen, the nikkei is down. Mostly widespread selling from the major markets that we track. We have been watching this move in the oil as well, with brent adding to the 3. 5 surge we saw. Ae contract now above 70 barrel, holding at its highest level since may last year. Tracy juliett, the other major storye we have been following is the australian bushfire situation. What impact are we seeing on aussie listed companies . Qantase we have seen cancel some flights in and out nberra. Ra ca a number ofg factories in the area that have been affected by bushfires that are still operational. And did say their employees Dairy Farmers have been hit by the fire situation. We are also watching what is happening with the insurance space. They are down by around 2 . They say they have received around 2800 bushfire related claims since september. They expect it will be a total of 400 million. Thank you very much for that round up. Lets turn now to the markets in this part of the world and bring in our equities b specialist. Markets across the board getting hit hard. What are some of the nuances . Reporter it was an interesting session. Everyone in the region was expecting a reaction from the events of the weekend. Friday, the market here was closed and foreign assets were pricing in the increase in tension. Egypt was the market losing the most yesterday. This is an exchange that always reacts by quickly to an increase in geopolitical tensions. It was the worst performance for the egyptian index since september, when we had those protests in cairo. Then of course we had kuwait. It was the best performer last year, a lot of profit to be taken within this market. A lot of people say it is trading expensive right now. After that, dubai. It is one of those stock exchanges in the middle east that react quite quickly to geopolitical tension as well. The economy is diversified. It depends on the rest of the region. It is not that surprising to see dubai at such a level as well. Tracy lovely to see you as always. We know you like Technical Analysis with your monday morning coffee. What are the charts telling us about the increase in volatility so far . Reporter tracy, that is very true, and i think it is fair for us to take a look at volatility right now because this is not new for investors that actually put their money here in the middle east. The lines we see on the screen right now are showing a 10 day volatility for the saudi index and the dubai index. We can clearly tell that last year when we had the attacks to the tankers and the attacks to the aramco facilities happening mostly in june and september, we had a clear spike in volatility, but very quickly the level of strength got back to normality. We are seeing an increase right now after yesterdays session, and it would be natural for us to see this. What we hear from many investors is this is a natural reaction. It would be expected for investors to price in this higher tension, but they dont see this staying at such high levels, unless we have new developments coming from either iran or the u. S. Yousef stocks of saudi aramco were down about 1. 7 . Choppiness toarre some of these numbers. What do you hear from traders . Reporter it was not a massive decline with aramco yesterday. They closed one. 7 lower, which was less than the decline from the saudi to dow index. Politics plays a big role. The company was a target of drones and missiles as it was developing, moving forward with its ipo. At the same time, investors who hold the stock, who are mostly locals, they are not used to this. This is not news to them to a certain level. Adding to that, oil is climbing today. We mentioned several times during the show that brent is trading over 70. This is very good for aramco. It would not be surprising to see the stock performing better today than we saw yesterday. Tracy sort of a natural hedge in for saturday aramco. Thank you so much. That is our goal for equities reporter. Lets turn to palladium. It is extending a record run. Gold is also at a six year high, with geopolitical tensions driving Prices Higher in an environment where looser Monetary Policy was already giving it a boost. Lets get more from our reporter david stringer. Walk us through the prospect for further strong gains this year, because a lot of investors would have said 2019 was already a stellar run. Reporter that is absolutely true, and as you say, gold had its best performance last year since 2010. We have certainly seen some of those catalysts that drove it forward last year continuing to propel the metal to gains, before we saw that jump in the tensions in the middle east, gold trading at a more than sixyear high. We had already seen banks across wall street protecting further price gains. Goldman sachs had earlier been calling for a gold price of 1600 dollars. Today, it says those geopolitical tensions could see further upside in that price. We are certainly expecting, at least in the short term, some sort of momentum. Some of the other factors that investors will have to consider our potential crimps to that demand if we see the u. S. And china make good on the trade deal, and also looking for the prospect for a stronger dollar, which would potentially be negative for gold. Yousef we have put this up on a gtv for our clients to get additional context, all the way back 20 years. Get it on your terminal for the perspective on the latest moves in gold. When i look at the wider complex, there are some interesting patterns bubbling up to the surface. What are you seeing in terms of a demand for haven . Thister as we have seen morning across haven assets, there has been a real urge toward them. That is expected. We have seen what has happened with the yen trading in asia this morning. Gold certainly benefited from that. Pilatesser extent, also also palladium. Certainly investors will be expecting to see Strong Performance from those haven assets while these tensions continue to unfold. Tracy i have seen a couple of the sell side houses recommending that investors buy Energy Equities as opposed to crude oil out right. Could you make a similar argument for metals and gold specifically . Should they be buying gold mining equities instead of the actual boolean bullion . Reporter we can see that in trading today, they are outpacing the gains we have seen for the metal itself. In australia, some of the gold mines are posting gains of 10 in some cases. It will be interesting in north america whether we see similar advances for the really big gold producers. Equities also had a great year, and it definitely is an alternative route for investors. Tracy we will leave it there. David stringer in melbourne for us. Next, beijing sends a strong man and a signal to hong kong. We will ask if they can quell the longrunning social unrest. This is bloomberg. Yousef it is 1 44 in the afternoon in tokyo. Clear skies. Close to key threemonth levels. The markets team is writing that the nearterm risks are skewed to further dollaryen downside because of japans currency benefits from its haven status. You are looking at potentially 106. 48. Lets check in on the Indian Markets. Prices higher, what are you seeing at the moment play out . Screen, right on the good morning to you and tracy. It is right on the screen, about 0. 5 down. The last few days, a lot of people have made these references about how the ratio of the nifty to the small index is at levels from which it bounces back. This is a chart of the ratio of the nifty smallcap to the nifty. It has retreated 50 from the peak. The same kind of retreat was seen back in the Global Financial crisis in 2008. From there, the nifty smallcap index made a bounce back. The nifty smallcap index makes a bit of about, ash a bit of a bounce makes a bit of a bounce. But it starts contracting, then that would be painful. Otherwise, there is a case for the small caps to do well. Tracy thank you so much for that. To hong kong, and china has with noperson experience in hong kong as the top official in the city, signaling their intention to reinstate law and order after seven months of protests. He will take over as the liaison. He tells reporters how he plans to calm the unrest. We have confidence that the constitution and the basic lot will be fully enacted in hong kong. That will maintain the one partyy, two systems. Our china correspondent Tom Mackenzie joins us from beijing. Walk us through the significance of this move. Reporter it is significant, but it is not unexpected. That has been speculation the former head of chinese affairs, the head of the Liaison Office in hong kong, would be pushed out of his place. It is not a major surprise, but it is interesting that luo huining will be coming in without any experience in foreign affairs. What he does have experience with is in acting and executing president xi jinpings orders. That we saw in the province where he was a Party Secretary and he took epps to crackdown on corruption and weed out officials who were not loyal to beijing, and president xi jinping in particular. He is seen as a strongman man by some, a yesman who will enact beijings orders. The question is how successful that will be in a city where we have seen seven months of unrest. The man he is taking over from was seen to have taken a number of missteps. Electionslar, the last year, which really surprised beijing, when these antibeijing politicians came out in force and were voted into power. Just at the district level, but it came as a surprise from beijing. The other question is, what steps can he take to quell the unrest . Yousef it looks like there are key logistics falling into place. The chinese are expecting to send a highlevel delegation to washington for the signing of the phase one trade deal. Is there anything tangible we can work with . Is tangible is we seem to be narrowing down on this date. January 15 is the date President Trump says is the date for the signing ceremony in the white house. That was a tweet he sent on new years eve. We know from the China Morning post that this took officials by surprise. They had to push back their olanned visit fro two d. C. Know the Broad Strokes of the in response to a commitment by china for purchases and to put in place stricter laws around things like intellectual property. The exact details of this document, we are still waiting for. Yousef tom, thank you for that round up. That is Tom Mackenzie live from beijing. Lets stay with some of the stories in that part of the world. Authorities in australia are counting the costs for the devastating bushfires after one of the worst weekends in the crisis so far. Hundreds of properties were destroyed southeast. Firefighters are still trying to extinguish about 200 fires before the weather conditions worsen again this week. Editor forg australia Eddie Johnson is following the developments from sydney. Give us the latest where the fight against the fire stands. It wasr as you say, another devastating weekend in australia. Two people died on kangaroo about one third of the island was scorched by wildfires. Another person died in new south wales. Tot brings the death toll six since the fire season that brings the death toll since the fire season started to 23. We have seen more than 12 million acres of land destroyed. The 2018lutely dwarfs california wildfires, for instance. 12 million acres, that is massachusetts and vermont combined. There is one fire northwest of sydney that has burned out an area of land seven times the size of singapore. These fires are so big they are generating their own weather systems. They are causing dry thunderstorms that are causing lightning, which in turn is sparking more infernos across this parched landscape, which is in the midst of a prolonged drought. Really a huge challenge for authorities to get these under control. Thankfully, cooler weather for the next two or three days, maybe some rain. But we are again expecting terrible conditions this weekend. Tracy there is a school of thought that australia is an early test case for the developed affluent worlds ability to get together and deal with climate change. What are we seeing from australia, and what sort of action might we expect at this juncture . Reporter you are right. Dishe very much the petri of a developed country suffering from the impacts of global warming. Hottest and driest year on record in australia, which still gets the majority of its electricity by earning fossil fuels and is governed by a conservative government that scrapped the price on Carbon Emissions and has refused steadfastly to increase its commitment to curb emissions further than its existing paris accord agreement. The Prime MinisterScott Morrison has insisted they are doing enough already, and that any further steps should not jeopardize jobs, particularly in the coal mining region of queensland, which is so pivotal to his comefrombehind victory eight months ago. Morrison has come under sustained pressure during this bushfire crisis. He took a prechristmas unannounced Family Vacation to cut that short after two volunteer firefighters died. What you are seeing on screen is footage of his tour of a bushfire ravaged Community Last week, where he was heckled by locals. Also embarrassingly, he was filmed trying to shake the hand of people, including a pregnant woman, who then asked for increased help to tackle the bushfires, and he was seen turning his back on her and walking away. Really quite damaging images of the Prime Minister that are causing questions about his political judgments in handling this crisis. Tracy that is our managing editor for australia and new zealand, ed johnson. Thank you so much. Coming up, bloomberg size and scope. Todays number is 3 billion. I will give you a clue. If you are on twitter, you are part of this statistic. You will find out what it is in just a few minutes. This is bloomberg. Tracy it is time for bloomberg size and scope. Every day, we break down one superlative from our coverage, and today is 3 billion. To explain what it is is eric land. Reporter we are taking a look at the internet. 3 billion is the expected number of global users of social media accounts in 2020. It will hit 3 billion for the first time. This accounts for almost 80 of the total online population and just under 40 of the global population. Those are staggering numbers. Looking ahead to 2020, the expectations are that advertisers will be ramping up their spending to target more of these consumers, and there will be plenty of reasons for engagement. The 2020 olympics, the u. S. Elections, and probably a few cap videos in there. Few cat videosyoa in there as well. Yousef lets check back in with the markets because we have a situation where risk off continues to dominate off of rhetoric by the United States and extractions by iran pulling out of its responsibilities toward the Nuclear Agreement. Ms ci asiapacific is trending down. Brent is pushing higher, cracking through the 70 a barrel mark. U. S. 10 year yields are 1. 77. For Qassem Soleimani currently underway in iran. Coverage continues on bloomberg. This is bloomberg. Announcer the following is a paid presentation brought to you by rare collectibles tv. Announcer imagine holding a coin in your own hand so historic and rare that examples are only held at museums and exclusive collectors. One example of such an exquisite coin is the greek coin that began mintage around 500 bc and ended around 38 bc. Throughout the years, the