sides, janet yellen does not want a boom bust economy. she just wrapped up remarks. ♪ itnne: that q&a just ending and. a fireside chat more than a question and answer panel. very lighthearted moments, talking about her first days and weeks as fed chair as she does wrap up one of the last speeches we will hear from her before she steps down as fed chair. a lot of talk about inflation as well. betty: saying the fed is not certain low inflation is indeed transitory. pretty significant headline coming from her. mention, wide-ranging talk from everything from her first days at the fed, do the most interesting person is she has ever met. certainly covered a lot of bases. as we digest these headlines from janet yellen, let's get to the first word news with jessica summers. jessica: the mexican peso weakened against the dollar. robert lighthizer says there is no evidence canada and mexico will seriously engage in renegotiating nafta. this follows a fifth round of talks. they fell short of working on any section of the agreement. light hiser says the u.s. hopes for meaningful progress this year. the new york attorney general opened an investigation into uber after bloomberg revealed the company paid hackers to steal personal data of 57 million customers to keep the breach private. a compromised names, email addresses and phone numbers of 15 million customers and 7 million drivers. joe sullivan and one of his deputies this week, had a role in concealing the hack. zimbabwe's is entering the unknown after losing the only leader the country has ever known. mugabe resigned as president, he had been rolling zimbabwe 37 years. he quit after being placed under house arrest by his own party. reports from berlin say chancellor merkel is leaning toward a revived alliance with social democrats. that is 24 hours after saying she is ready for a new election. our preference is for a grand coalition of spd. leadership is going back to merkel's aid. global news 24 hours a day, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. i am jessica summers, this is bloomberg. ♪ yvonne: let's take a look at how the market open is shaping up. we saw fresh records on wall street. s&p hitting the walls -- landmark of 2500. sophie: potentially we could see a new milestone. asian stocks have been on a steady rally most of the year. we did see pullback in recent weeks. looks like the bulls are back in the driver's seat. little in the way when it comes to risk event. we have yellen's speech before the fed minutes. on the eco agenda, southeast asia a pretty good second-half growth story. which could be good news for the fed, meaning the region can withstand policy tightening. the nikkei 225 gaining almost one sent. opix up 0.7%. and the kospi up 0.6%. a pretty good start to the day. has -- inc has the best growth. they reported a 19.4% rise in eps. and they beat forecasts on an aggregate basis. goldman boosted its target for them topix and nikkei. that gives further support for the japanese stock market. it has been a wild ride for bitcoin. news of another digital suffering ather, fast. you can see this on g #btv 6021. bitcoin did hit a fresh eye before returning to negative territory. the hedge fund manager is calling for 10,000 by year end for bitcoin. thank you, sophie kamaruddin at the movers, including bitcoin. we are getting headlines from the japan had cabinet secretary, hirohito.bout emperor december 1, the date of the emperor's abdication. lots of speculation from local press about when this might happen. at the end of april, 2019, according to some reports. december 1 is when the meeting is planned to discuss the actual date. you are seeing the dollar continuing to fall against the yen strengthening on the japanese currency. we will continue to monitor how these headlines might affect the yen and japan markets. back on the fed, janet yellen gets ready to hand the reins of power to the federal reserve. her message one of caution because the risks of hiking too fast are at least as big as hiking to slow. lookeen hays here with a at that conversation we just saw between janet yellen. i guess because i can see the fed conundrum's so clearly -- they want to move ahead to normalize policy. unemployment is very low. but the big problem more and more, inflation has fallen further below target and stay there. i think you can really hear janet yellen more and more acknowledging that side of the coin. she said tightening too fast could keep inflation below target. the fed's ongoing concern, g #btv 3140. we look at this over and over. target, 2%, pce core, 1.3%. far from that 2% target. \ this is what she is concerned about. she can see the risk of inflation expectations coming down even more. she is talking way that could be a problem. let's listen. >> one reason it is dangerous is because inflation expectations are likely to also drift down. ideed there is some evidence, do not think they have drifted down very much, but there is some suggestion that after many years of slow inflation, it may be drifting down. that would be a very undesirable state of affairs. kathleen: let's see what is happening with inflation expectations. g #btv 9351. the blue line, consumers where they see inflation next year. -- an uptick. in five years, flat or lowered. investors, where they see inflation in five years -- they have come back down. i get what she says about coming down only a little. but inflation expectations have consistently come down since 2012. they areays evans, referring to charlie evans, president of the chicago fed. he is one of the governor's getting more cautious, continuing to hike rates while inflation is below target. yvonne: that is why we are seeing debate about policy briefings when it comes to ot.icy targets and the dotpl what about risk of going to slowly? of said there is possibility overheating the economy, as well. kathleen: this is classic risk, like people used to worry about. it could control the economy if things got to slow. if it gets too strong, you cut. it was textbook, but no longer. listen to what janet yellen said on this score. she expressed concern. levels ofon at low unemployment -- i am not sure this would happen. i think the evidence is limited, but there is risk it can move up to tighten aing us monetary policy and cause a recession. kathleen: again, if we look at 9, youre chart, g #btv 18 will see why there is concern about a spike in inflation, why it has eased so much. when you look at this yellow line, you can see how unemployment has come down so much. you can see, yes, wages have recovered. nowhere near they were before the great recession. and they plateaued. in some sense, the trend seems to be flattening out. where is this worry about a spike in inflation? it is interesting, toward the end of this conversation with marvin king, he asked her, are you surprised about inflation? or the circle on inflation. she said come in 2013i wasn't, because the dollar moved a certain way. she had all these reasons why inflation stayed low when it should not have. but she said, this year, low inflation is surprising. i think that is interesting. we could explain it away before, can we continue to? she also said the fed is no longer certain low inflation is transitory. again, as jay powell gets ready to take over the reins from janet yellen. governor kuroda, they may be a beat -- ready to turn over the reins of power. economies are growing, labor markets are tighter and tighter, but inflation rates are not rising. janet yellen expressed the concern about low inflation, inflation expectations lower. you cannot get rates up. how do you cut rates to boost yourself out of it? it is an interesting conundrum. and it is one i think janet willing tot be more talk about it she gets ready to leave the fed. yvonne: opening up just a little bit. kathleen hays, thank you. still ahead, our exclusive interview with a chairman about why he is optimistic about 2018, despite rising competition. message, theg a saudi foundation on why the kingdom elite's no longer have untouchable status. this is bloomberg. ♪ ♪ yvonne: this is "daybreak asia." i am yvonne man in hong kong. betty: i am betty lou in new york. this is the global story. returning to lebanon after announcing his retirement as prime minister more than two weeks ago. his shocking resignation is only one piece of a series of political shakeups in the middle east. what has now to break this down a chairman. it was a bizarre return. a lot of questions about what transpired over the last few weeks and whether there was coercion when he arrived in saudi arabia. what do you think happened here? >> i think we are operating on imperfect information. but we do know saudi arabia has a lot of influence in lebanon. especially with outgoing prime minister, saad hariri. lebanon is a tumultuous country. a lot has to do with cap -- what happened elsewhere. the confrontation between saudi arabia and ironic. -- saudi arabia and iran. a dominant force, and they still have a fig leaf with hariri and government. betty: growing tensions between saudi arabia and iran. how might this transpire, going forward? in that hariri is back lebanon, what kind of response might we expect? what will his relationship be like with hezbollah? firas: i do not think there will be much of a political partnership with hezbollah. they have been in place for a year. but prime minister hariri has a choice. either he stays in the country and leads a broad-based political opposition against the group, particularly leading up to the elections next year. or he goes back to paris and somebody else leads the coalition. phase ofs entering a greater confrontation as a leads up to the election next spring. betty: how much is a hallmark of the new leadership, particularly the crown prince? firas: there is new blood, new leadership in riyadh. it is one looking to shake things up. for a long time, saudi arabia was known as a place where things move at a glacial pace. the sense iran has encircled the kingdom in many ways, influential in iraq and syria, making inroads in the assad regime, not going anywhere anytime soon, hezbollah and lebanon -- but most important, the growing influence on the southern doorstep in yemen. whoever is in power in riyadh today needs to do something. certainly the crown prince salman seems up to the task. yvonne: in terms of the purge he has undergone, and we know how long this crackdown could extend to? firas: i think where things are right now is that there are a number of negotiated settlements that are being attempted. not too different from what happened in the u.s. those that have accumulated wealth in a illegal manners through the use of influence and corruption are asked to give some of that wealth back to the state. those who agree to be let go and those who don't will be put to trial. yvonne: and what point does the start to hurt the economy? there are some reports saying there are companies in question that are being held up when it comes to refinancing. will it slowdown business activity in the region at a time when private investment is also slowing down? firas: there is no doubt that the short-term impact on investor confidence is perhaps going to be negative. medium toook at the long-term view, saudi arabia has long been known as a place where deals are cut in corrupt ways. and certain royals take their share. that kind of doing business is going to change in the medium to long-term, and that can only be a good story. betty: that crackdown, we will -- we asked one prominent foreign investor, we asked him his reaction to this. i just want you to listen to what he said. >> there are a lot of countries known for corruption. the kingdom is not one of them, frankly. it took everybody by surprise. it is probably worth getting behind the headline a bit to think about what is really perhaps going on. betty: do you agree it took everyone by surprise? firas: i agree it took everybody by surprise. but most of the headlines are ort of a power grab consolidation of power on behalf of the crown prince. that is not the story. consolidatednce power between june of 2015 and june of 2017 when his father became king, and when he named him as crown prince. this is more about getting saudi arabia up to speed with the 21st century, and reforming the economy and much of the corruption that is there. thise: do think any of derailed the saudi aramco deal? firas: i do not think so. we heard from the prime minister of saudi arabia that they are still on track for next year. there are still questions about where the ipo would debut. askedrk, president trump for the new york stock exchange to be asked -- to be considered. however, there are political and legal risks with listing their. perhaps listing in the saudi market with the china offering to take a stake in aramco is more likely. ,vonne: appreciate your insight joining us from d.c. one feature on the bloomberg to bring to your attention is our interactive tv function. if you have missed out, you can find it at tv . live, findch us interviews, dive into securities are functions we talk about. become part of the conversation by sending us instant messages during our show. this is for bloomberg subscribers only. check it out at tv . this is bloomberg. ♪ ♪ yvonne: take a look at the yuan. we are seeing strength here this morning. closer to 1090 against the dollar, the strongest we have seen it against the dollar since may of 2015. a lot of factors, with geopolitical tensions, some say have eased a bit, but it contributes to the rising. we could see a bank of korea rate hike perhaps as early as this month. the flattening yield curve has helped. but you have to get people from both sides. some say the fact that president trump is placing north korea back on the list of state sponsors of terrorism, there is risk surrounding the won. betty: perhaps a discount related to the geopolitical risk. lots of money flowing into various markets in asia, including south korea. let's turn to social media. a back-and-forth battle between china's tencent and usa-made facebook. who wins the crown of boasting rights as the world's most valuable social network? after the close of u.s. trade we have a new winner. on the wall with the reveal and the bloomberg chart you need to know. i have a hint that there behind you. ramy: you have a hint right now. we do have a new winner in this g #btv 5109 terminal. that is in purple and it is facebook. it is coming in just over the course of the day, so we will see what happens in asia-pacific trading. tencent here in red could try to overtake the throne. $523 billion is the market cap for tencent. in u.s. trading we did push-ups a $531 billion for facebook. tencent at least through the course of yesterday's close was up 125%, year to date. $292 billion over the course of this year. we will see what happens when asia-pacific markets open. this is something we highlighted in the past few weeks. looking at revenue growth, it is up 61%, gangbusters over the past few years. you can see the share price reacting over the first part of 2017, up by 100.5%. net income even better, 69% year to date -- 69% higher, year on year. pros, but there are cons. g #btv 3783. tencent is pushing its valuation 50 timesle more than average earnings, an average of 30 over the past two years. looking at the analyst recommendations, the closing price is at 430 hong kong dollars. you can see the average analyst estimate is tracking close to 2.4%. just below that right now. the question is whether we can get this higher or it will hit its peak in the fall. facebook seeing a 61% premium against that price target. people have been pushing this higher and higher. they may push it even higher. betty: thank you, let's get a quick check of the latest business flash headlines. find $51 million in hong kong linked to lehman brothers. they will have a license to advise on security suspended for a year and they're dealing license halted. this was leading up to the 2008 bankruptcy. $1.25: they will pay million in claims on not doing enough background screenings on the nonregistered employees for more than eight years. period up to may this year, four people worked in the unit who would otherwise have been disqualified because of criminal convictions. jpmorgan's chairman jamie dimon will he making remarks in chicago. you can catch that here at 1:00 p.m. new york time. this is bloomberg. ♪ ♪ >> 8:30 in singapore. i am yvonne man in hong kong. quite a nice day shaping up. i am betty liu in new york. you're watching daybreak asia. jessica: janet yellen says while inflation should move back up in the next year or two, it is not certain that the current low-inflation environment is transitory. she said that while the fed is close to its goals, tightening too fast can strain below 2%. she will have some advice for her successor. >> one of the most important things i learned as chair that is important to making a policy noto keep an open mind and to simply assume that history was repeating itself. >> the u.k. has told europe that generally impasse pacifist discuss a new trader. between northern island and the public, or the divorce bill until the terms of future tribulations are clear. davis said it is possible that brexit will happen without a deal. comfortableid i am with a deal for the european union, it is possible, not probable but possible. the trump administration has sanctioned three chinese trading companies in north korea shippers which disrupt the funding as kim jong-un's nuclear program. treasury secretary steven mnuchin is being taken against one individual. there is a total worth hundreds of ninth of dollars. none of the firm's sanctions republican traded. hours that the ceo is living. she will step down at the company present antonio narrative. she became the ceo and will remain on the board. andmissed estimates first-quarter earnings for share forecast also below analyst expectations. and saudi arabia cut oil shipments to the lows it -- lowest since 2011 in september. they boosted refined products to a record. they imported 6.4 million barrels of crude per day. millionwn three point -- 3.1 million. they are keeping to the spirit of the agreement. news, 24 hours a day, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 100 20 countries, i am jessica summers, this is bloomberg. >> > the asian markets are shaping up to see some record highs when it comes to the asian benchmark. let's get the latest from sophie. andt could be groundhog day the party could keep rocking in hong kong as well. these help underpin the world's best performing rally. it is like a tencent. they are trying to help to push this higher. they are not indicating a breach of 30,000 points for the hang seng. we are seeing the korean won rise to the highest level since may of 2015. the markets are expecting a rate hike. this would be the first move since 2011. the bank is under pressure after the u.s. trade representative raise concerns that are not making headway. -- nafta talks are not making headway. basic competence is there when it comes to wage growth and faster inflation being helped along by falling unemployment. the are some movers across region. we had the tdk rising to a july 2015 high in tokyo, it had developed the first rechargeable state battery which can be used in i.t. devices, bluetooth or wearable. rio tinto said it is to be considering a lithium player. chip stocks are climbing at the in recordrs are territory, field by rising demands, record profits and industry consolidation. ay you were taught -- they are having a good start to the day in seoul. taking a look at the breakdown. this is the best ball by okun a. dna, the game maker is rising the most and a month after the release of nintendo's latest game -- animal crossing four. thank you so much. chinese company sold up multimillion dollar buyouts with little push back from investors but increasingly hedge funds are demanding better payouts. debra mao has been tracking all of this so, why are these funds starting to make themselves heard? earlyall started in the 2000 teens when there was a rapid chinese companies of thing the u.s., mostly under pressure from a lot of short seller firms that were putting out reports, questioning their profitability, their legitimacy so that depressed valuations for this countries listed in the u.s.. they were seeking restructuring or even potential relisting. investorseir minority including one hedge fund based in hong kong that we spoke to were left in the lurch and thinking what about us? one thing they noticed was that in the cayman islands, the founders of the chinese companies -- they actually get to vote their own chairs. when they want to do a take private, when they are owning a majority of the shares they can push these as easily. this was the first to realize that in the caymans. they realized there was a means of recourse for them which was to contest these transactions under the merger regime in the cayman islands. they were able to bring some of their concerns to light. bring about these disputes about valuations, what is the response from the cayman court? >> what we have seen is the delisting of china again -- shonda game. they contested some of the forecast provided by the company were not entirely objective. theidering the fact that company and the leadership of the company were involved in the buyout. went in and wait up some of the numbers, listen to the expert testimony on both sides and it came out in favor of moscow. the company should i pay than 2.3 times more than what they actually offered to the other investors. >> there are scenes of mutual funds. thank you. singapore and indonesia working together on a common standard for tax reporting, speaking exclusively to bloomberg, here is the administration -- administrator of state finance. >> our regulations have always been clear, if you put money into singapore, if you invest or do business activity here, you should make sure that it is clean, it abides by our government regime and if there is anything wrong with that money, it is something you should be very careful about. where as we are concerned about people put their money, they want to see the best returns on their money. beforeink the paces economic activities, those are the moneys we want to attract. if there is outflow for wrong reasons, that is up to the company. you should be here because you want legitimate business activity and if there is anything that is wrong, obviously we will clamp down on that. >> could you share some clarity? how will this involve insurers and nonfinancial companies like your agents? will they be impacted the same way? >> i think all companies will be looking at the new regulations. they would have to see where they wanted to base their activity. part, as long as you have good, solid standard activity from singapore, you are fine. cupping his life to make decisions based on where they want to put that. -- companies will have to make decisions based on where they want to put that. >> how do we ensure that that is being done within limit? >> that is a good question. you really have to be careful with data. obviously, individual organizations need to have a proper procedure. when that is shared with tax authorities, the tax authorities themselves have to make sure they have proper processes and procedures in terms of who can access the information, witty shared with but above all you need to have strong i.t. systems, if you need to have a strong protection against hacking, it is a complete wraparound approach that you have to take with respect to data protection. >> that was the senior minister of state finance. she was talking exclusively. up next, competition heating up in the fastest growing market for air travel. china -- just ahead. we will see how this affects china's big three airlines. and also, whether they are expanding their international expansion. this is bloomberg. ♪ ♪ asia, i amdaybreak yvonne man in hong kong. china's biggest airline says the beijing airport will help that offer more international destinations and increase flights to the u.s.. they specify about 50 million passengers in and out of the hub every year when it opens in 2019. expansion to america is a key part of that strategy. tom mackenzie is at the airport and tom, how is china southern broadening its horizon? this was a wide-ranging interview exclusively with the president of china, they are shifting their strategy, they have quartered -- cornered the market. as you really point out, it is about this airport being built out in the south course of the south of beijing and it should be opening in 2019. it will offer china southern about 40% of the stocks. they are expecting 100 million people, passengers will pile through these efforts and when it does open, it shifts the ground under the feet of the big state on airlines. they are adding routes to the u.s., european union countries as well. in terms of the u.s. flights, they are hoping that their partnership with american -- they hope it will help them expand on that front. that is something i talked to the president about. you invest in each other. is not semi-but the meeting is clear. i think on the one hand, we want to keep their regulations guiding. them -- theet market between china and the united states, the market is the biggest. we need strong support. why we use reason the strategy relationship. it is just the beginning. more.k we will find they will be more to china. i do think we have a lot of potential space to cooperate. i know that air china and china eastern are structuring that's out of their businesses and they bring in private investors, is that something you might consider? >> we have to be very careful. and a lots employees of very sensitive men. i think we will. >> that was the president of china southern talking about their expectations and ambitions to add routes to the u.s.. clearly they are building out of these new airports, this one in shenzhen are really shipping the landscape the massively and have acquisitions for a competition here but also the competition more broadly in the region worldwide. it poses a question as to whether hong kong and singapore have two of game because policymakers and china are very hubsin beijing to be major for the region. we also talked to the china southern president about the competition posed by high-speed rail. -- is being built at an they are looking at international expansion because they don't want to go on with the high-speed bed that is being built out here in china. china southern, the longest by passenger numbers in the asian region talking about their expansion plans. >> the race is on. tom mackenzie, the china correspondent join us live from beijing and that new grounds of the beijing airport. we have a chart that shows just how the state of play is currently right now. in the complicated but all you have to do is focus about the left side of the panel there on where everyone stands at the moment. air china controls the beijing side of things, china eastern nowmore sway in shanghai, we will talk a little bit more about what this new mega-hub really means for that and we have a special guest joining us from shanghai, it is aviation expert steve saxton, partner at the company. we briefly showed this on camera. thank you for joining us. this mega-hub in beijing right now, how does this shakeup the balance of power here among the chinese? also, for foreign carriers trying to break into the chinese market? >> this new hub in beijing is fantastic news. for the carriers, all of the carriers were based there, it is good news for the foreign carriers with more opportunities and ultimately good news for the customer as well. thepassenger growth rate on major airport on the east coast have been slower around six or 7% growth per year. compared to china, around 10% growth. that is not because they are people who want to fly, there isn't airport capacity for them to be able to fly. but that has led to is increased prices, muttering demand out of the east coast. this is known to be great for the customer, opening up more options and bringing down the ticket prices. how are the likes of united or american airlines or delta, how will they tap into this market right now and benefit from this additional capacity? this could constrain any airline, especially u.s. airlines flight to china. the first is availability of slots. that is what everyone focuses on, airports are congested. that is true for the major airport on the east coast, there is also the bilateral, there is a government to government agreement between the u.s. government and the chinese government which limits how many flights or specifies how many fights and which airlines get those flights. that bilateral is almost full. as well as the new airport capacity there will have to be additional government to government agreements for additional flights. the goodness of that flight is it could happen. i think there is will on both sides to increase that bilateral. the u.s. and china does not have yet what is called an open skies agreement with the u.s. has signed with other countries. >> clearly some challenges for the foreign carriers. the market is still attractive to them, you mentioned how this is all going to be better for the consumer, prices are going newecline given this capacity but does not mean that is air carriers, in particular the foreign carriers will lose more money? >> it is a challenge. this is a good market for the consumer at the moment. ones in chinanal have run significant with faster in demand and when supply grows faster than demand, ticket prices come down. most carriers are not making money on international loops in and out of china. that is true of the chinese carriers let expanded very rapidly and also for the foreign carriers. any of them have launched secondary cities in china and those are typically struggling. they are not earning the sort of money they hoped they would when they launched them. >> wire this going -- why are they struggling questio? >> it is mostly down to lack of demand. there is not enough people looking to fly from the secondary cities. airlines don't want to fight their plans and do still the way they do that is this to be a demand by dropping prices. for the chinese carriers, they have been able to rely heavily on the outbound china tourism boon. they so many of those two tour operators or to package towards and many subsidies and benefits. chinese outbound horse, first of all, they are highly price-sensitive and they are going where there are the cheapest ticket. secondly they prefer to fly a chinese carrier. more familiar, the services more familiar, they have enough to support national carriers. that makes it harder for the polling carriers. >> interesting to see the shift in the change theere in the aviation market in china. you can get that and more stories. bloomberg subscribers can go on the terminal and it is available on mobile. you can customize your settings so you only get the news on the industries and the app that you care about. his is bloomberg. -- this is bloomberg. ♪ ♪ this is daybreak asia, i am yvonne man. >> i am betty liu. a quick check of the latest business flash headlines. apple has found that his main employedin asia has high school students working illegal overtime to assemble the iphone x. it says in turned at a foxconn factory were volunteers that are benefits at work longer than the law allowed. the students were on a three-month work experience scheme. six of them told the financial time that they routinely worked 11 hour days. available inonger the giant liquid app store for apple and shall be. it still appears to work on the mainland. apple has said it has been notified that the minister of public security says that a number of acts don't apply with local laws and haven't been moved from the china store. astonishing pass of facebook in the largest corporations club. it would hundred 20% rally this year. it boosted its market value by, $300 billion area it pushed facebook out of the top five. tencent is valued at $523 billion. a whisker about facebook's iphone to 22 billion, it is the first chinese tech company in the top five. that inna achieved recent years. that is it from us on daybreak asia. a look at what is coming up in the next two hours here on bloomberg markets. how will this boost everything overall for tencent? >> i think it is absurd what we have seen so far this year. up 30%, 33%, more than doubling the stock. it is unbelievable, we get all these companies in general bank, part ofnt these resistances could be to the upside. with that asia global dialogue taking place in hong kong university and being joined by a nobel prize laureate, mike spence, he will join us to talk to us about life and everything around it. 20 days after that, a former government ceo will be a long and talking to steve as well. moving along to what we have at the moment, to make sense of where people are putting their money, is jp morgan asset manager, john bolton discussing if this rally has legs, do we just give up for now and start off in 2018 and aviation has been in the frame. the u.s. has been talking about china and opening up its average and pathways. peternter for aviation, will be there for 45 us to discuss what is going on with chinese airspace and chinese carriers. that is a flavor of what we have coming up. flavors in the next two hours. that is it from daybreak asia. our market coverage continues next with rishaad and heidi. this is bloomberg. ♪ rishaad: asia-pacific markets extending gains and the hang seng within touching distance of 30,000. the korean won at its strongest since may 2015. uber is under investigation it paid to conceal a half that compromised the data of 57 million customers and drivers. and flying high, china southern aims to build on its ties with american allies, targeting 50 million passengers a year from the new beijing airport. i'm rish