Citing alibaba to cut prices by as much as 55 for more than 100 products. Alibaba currently trading down 0. 6 . In the markets it is trepidation. Investors waiting for that crucial pce data out of the u. S. On thursday after a hotter than expected cpi data, prompting questions about perhaps what signs may be gleaned from the data to suggest what the fed might do with rate cuts. Bear in mind, Market Expectations now coming to about an 80 basis point car from the year, down from that 150 basis point level. In the broad market in terms of the Chinese Market, inching higher at this point in time. Csi 300 index up by 1. 6 . Still, there are concerns despite more Foreign Investors pouring money into the Chinese Markets, concerns about the clampdown prompting the expectations of more meddling by china. Gains due for the philippines and malaysia. The nikkei 225 currently consolidating, down 0. 6 after reaching new record highs. In terms of the fx space we have the yen trading at 149. 78, below the 150 level, up 0. 6 versus the usd expectations. Flip the page. Take a look at the set. One stock we are watching, scbx. This is the biggest bank in thailand. It is set to buy home credit vietnam for 860 million. The set meantime down by 0. 2 . Thai baht 531 versus the usd. A needing here in singapore for its first dollar bond since the hit on prices. We will give you the details slightly later. We are doing a check on cryptocurrencies on the back of bitcoin going gangbusters, on fire, exceeding the psychological 60,000 level, now inching higher by almost 2 . Ether, binance coin also getting a lift. Lots of expectations that we could see more gains. That capitol that etf demand triggering the bitcoin bull run. Fed cuts may prompt more appetite for risk. Lets bring in the chair of the european securities and markets authority, the eus Financial Markets regulator and supervisor. We know that you said before there is no such thing as a safe crypto asset. How are you looking at the rally we are seeing right now, and what are you looking in terms of regulation that may be needed . Verena hi, haslinda. Good morning. Very good to be with you. I obviously look at this, as you rightly say, from the perspective of a regulator and supervisor. There, the issue is Investor Protection and quarterly markets as well as financial and orderly markets as well as Financial Stability. The developments in the crypto markets is something we wanted regularly. We have seen in the past significant volatility and movement of the markets. And we have seen investors losing quite a lot of money. So there is volatility, and there is certainly also operational risks for retail investors, therefore we have continuously warned that investors need to be conscious when they get into the crypto market, and in europe we now have a Regulatory Regime in Crypto Assets that will create a Regulatory Framework around the authorization and supervision of Crypto Asset Service providers that are reaching out to european clients. This will come on stream over the next month, starting formerly in formally in 2025. We are preparing it the moment together with the National Supervisors to make sure we have a consistent supervisory regime and a firm Regulatory Regime that tries to help deal with some of the issues around conflict of interest, operation resilience, and other areas that are clearly important from an Investor Protection for orderly markets and Financial Stability perspective. Haslinda do you think the regulation will go far enough, or do you expect that more guardrails are needed both in europe as well as the world . Verena certainly there is a lot of discussion on this also in the international forum. The International Securities regulators and the Financial Stability board have looked also at the issue of Crypto Assets and the potential risks that they pose. This isnt something that we will certainly continue to work on, and where also alignment at an international level, making sure that different jurisdictions work with each other, cooperate and share information is extremely important. Haslinda we know that you are in hong kong to talk about esmas role in sustainable finance. How do you see that playing out and what kind of collaboration do you see in countries especially here in asia . Verena yes, im in hong kong for a particular meeting that we had yesterday between the european commissioner and European Markets Authority and also the asian Securities Markets regulators as part of the asiapacific regional committee. And we discussed amongst other things a sustainability challenge, the issue that we now have Global Corporate reporting standards in the sustainability area based on the issb, that we are all trying in the different jurisdictions in europe and in asia to now implement that and make it happening on the ground. This is a challenge not only for companies that now have to look at how they report on their sustainability credentials, how they look at the climate challenges that are ahead, but also to make sure that the supervisors are properly trained, have the capability to deal with then supervising these corporate reports, and that we have an assurance framework that supports the data being delivered and making sure that in the end investors, whether retail or institutional, have the right information about companies and sustainability credentials. Haslinda so in terms of collaboration in europe and asia, how do you see that panning out . What are the key areas you are looking . Are looking at . Verena we are looking at a number of common challenges both in europe and asia, sustainability and making sure we have the right Regulatory Framework is part of that. At the same time we also talked yesterday about the digitalization challenge, the transition to an evermore Digital Financial services sector, and the opportunities and risks that poses that we need to be aware of as supervisors on a day to day bas is. In addition to that, we are all facing the issues of the current risk environment with high inflation, high Interest Rates, and how that is playing through the market. In this area it is also important that we share views, work together, and link to each other to ensure that markets remain stable. Haslinda verena, i want to pivot to the clearing outlook in the eu block, and just wondering what the end goal is for the eu, what the vision is like for the longer term. Verena so, first of all, following the Global Financial crisis, there was a clear view from across the globe that we needed to ensure that the clearing landscape was helping markets to remain stable, even in difficult times. As part of that there was a general drive to concentrate more of the clearing in central counterparties. That is something that in europe has a particular structure due to the very dominant position of the u. K. Clearing systems, also for european and euro markets. That is something that has recently been discussed again in the context of new legislative provisions in the framework, and as part of that there was recently an agreement on a framework around active accounts where European Market players need to ensure they also have the possibility when necessary to clear some of their trades in the European Union area. It also related to some other changes in that legislative framework, which we will now implement together with the National Authorities over the next years. Haslinda we know that you said it wants to see more clearing the eu said it wants to see more clearing within the block to maintain Financial Stability, but some say a move is politically motivated. To move a key part of the business out of london postbrexit, is that a fair criticism . Verena the considerations around that are clear, that on the one hand you have efficiency by clearing in a single place, so you can ensure that counterparty risks is properly netted, and you create an efficient clearing system. At the same time, you need to make sure that the system is secure and that you have Financial Stability and Systemic Risks at the forefront of your mind. And for that it is important that you have the right set up that ensures that the Systemic Risk is probably is properly taken into account. One of the considerations is how to ensure that there is proper cooperation, that the coordination between the supervisors works well, and that you have some capability to ensure that clearing can also be conducted in the jurisdiction where the currency is actually traded. Haslinda we know there have been proposals that esma be given more power to force banks to do more clearing within the block. Is that still on the table or not . Emma there is a proposal on the table which is just been agreed which requires European Market players to have socalled active accounts in european clearinghouse. That means they have to set up the operational facility to clear in the European Union, and that they occasionally have to also show that that works practically by taking a trade through the clearing in the European Union. Haslinda thank you so much for your time, verena ross, chair of the european securities and markets authority in hong kong. Hear why Bloomberg Economics thanks hawkish rates and global trade could have taken a toll on indias fourthquarter gdp growth. Details coming shortly. This is bloomberg. Thanks to avalara, we can calculate sales tax automatically. Avalarahhhhhh what if tax rates change . Ahhhhhh filing sales tax returns . Ahhhhhh business license guidance . Ahhhhhh crossborder sales . Ahhhhhh item classification . Ahhhhhh does it connect with acc. . Ahhhhhh ahhhhhh ahhhhhh haslinda in news that just broke slightly earlier, alibaba ruling out its second major cost cuts for Cloud Services in years, aiming to win back users from rivals like tencent. Competition intensifies to provide the tools critical for trading ai. Lets get to Bloomberg Intelligences robert e. Lee with his reaction robert l ee. Looks like alibaba getting aggressive inviting for its own turf. Robert my initial reaction on this is here we go again, because alibaba tried this strategy last year. When they reported their year end numbers, their cloud intelligence growth for the Fourth Quarter was up in the low single digits. It is a strategy they have tried before, as others have. I think the evidence speaks for itself. What are the choice do they have at the moment . They are trying to stimulate growth within this business, so to increase their share, price cuts is an obvious way to try to do that. Going into a slowing economic environment, im skeptical this will deliver material results to them. Haslinda so what should be the followup action . A price war does not always work well, like you said. Robert and the china tech sector is notorious for these. You think china is the Global Leader in solar panels and leds for example, but as a result of too much capital going into those sectors in previous years, they were lossmaking, making very low levels of profit. I think there are parallels to be drawn with the cloud sector. Yes, trying to stimulate growth is what they will do. I think the only other option available to them would be some sort of government stimulus coming in to try to stimulate growth within a sector that is key to building up a natural infrastructure, etc. That is something we might possibly hear on next week with the npc reporting in beijing. Haslinda and in the broader textbased, baidu out with tech space, baidu out with numbers. Some say 2024 is a make or break moment for the company. Robert yeah, thats one way of looking at it. As a said before, the reality is baidu is chinas leading search engine. That is a mature business, again going into a slowing economy. The major driver of revenue for the business is advertising related. As corporate tighten their belts in the new year, advertising revenue will be hard to come by. That was one area of concern on the results last night. The second being that whilst their ai related businesses are beginning to deliver more revenue, i think management spoke of 3 billion or 3 billion in renminbi. The level of revenue that they are generating on the ai side will be quite low. Aggregate, their ai businesses are lossmaking. Those losses will continue. They have got great intellectual property. Ai is clearly en vogue at the moment across the globe but we will not get the earnings kick for baidu. Haslinda before we let you go to enjoy your tea, results today, we know that the bar is high. Robert the true enlistment enjoys his midmorning cup of tea, but hopefully it has not gone too cold. Love outnumbers expected. You look at consensus numbers, the group is coming to a complete halt. That is the nature of the videogame sector, you have to keep the hits coming. It is a year of stagnation, if that isnt too strong a word for them. They will plateau into the next year. That is the area people will focus on. Haslinda robert lea, Bloomberg Intelligence on everything tech in china. We have been hearing from Central Bank Officials including the fed and rbnz on the prospects of rate cuts later this year. Yes, there is always a risk of overdoing it in Monetary Policy. This is why patients is critical. You are confident that the Monetary Policy transition is weakening as interest abated, then have patience. That is what we were reflecting. In december my colleagues and i put out what we called projections or forecasts. The median was for three rate cuts this year in 2024. We are data dependent. Im going to watch the data. A sign of success to me, with inflation coming down and the economy still strong, that we are thinking about doing that later this year. Haslinda lets dig deeper into those comments and what we can expect from Central Banks with mark renfield. Data dependent, patience, nothing we have not had before. Mark we did not hear it in that particular sequence, but he reinforced the idea that he believes in three rate cuts this year and is still sticking with it. The market as we know, they gradually got to the point where they are almost in line with the fed, but there was a risk. We had some strong data already, some pce data today which is important, more jobs data to come, another cpi before the fomc meet. There was a feeling in the market that the fed dot plots come up for review and there could only be two cuts rather than three. That looks as though that will not happen, they will stay with three cuts. From treasury bonds, that is a slightly bullish signal. That is a belief that they will not have to go for just the two cuts. It was important what he was saying. Haslinda so probably justifies the rally we are seeing so far. I want to talk about the yen. Stunner. Below the 150 level finally. Mark the comments are very interesting. If you look at the spectrometer we do from Bloomberg Intelligence, it is right on the line of neutrality. There is no such thing as neutrality really in the boj because they are all doves, so hes relatively hawkish. The market is still taking it as a hawkish coming. There is a stronger conviction among young traders that something stronger is coming. They can see get out of the boj building. It is not far away. Some are thinking march is a possibility for a change. Because of the japanese year end, my guess is they will defer, and april will be a done deal for tightening. March, they may surprise us. They have surprised us before. It looks as though there will be no more excuses and japan will accept negative rates. Haslinda but how much more upside can we expect . How quickly can the yen move . Mark we have to look at the previous episodes, and it will not be as big. We saw two big moves in the past years. The big one, u. S. Interest rates are coming down, treasury yields are falling quite fast in the states, and we had hawkish comments following the. We had a move last year, 10 yen, people were thinking the bank of japan would do an early move at the end of last year. We probably have some thing smaller than either of those. We are probably looking at a move of five, six yen. Still pretty decent. The currency markers by todays standards are pretty quiet. Haslinda mark, thank you so much for that. If you have not been to japan, get there soon before the yen moves. Plenty more ahead. Keep it here with us. This is bloomberg. At Ameriprise Financial our advice is personalized based on your goals, whatever they may be. All that planning has paid off. Looks like you can make this work. We can make this work. And the feeling of confidence that comes from our advice. I can make this work. That seems to be universal. I can make this work. I can make this work. No wonder more than 9 out of 10 clients are likely to recommend us. Because advice worth listening to is advice worth talking about. Ameriprise financial. Haslinda in the markets, it is preoccupation, whether pce data. This is the feds preferred inflation gauge, on the back of positive than expected pce, pci report we have seen. Hang seng down 0. 2 . The kospi in negative terri