Crimea has held a referendum on the session, overwhelming majority in favor of joining russia. Washington says the vote is illegal and has threatened sanctions. Vote, 95. 5 of the ballots are counted. This is quite controversial because it does violate International Law and the ukrainian constitution. , 220 thousandpact Russian Troops on the border. The eu and the u. S. Are threatening sanctions on russia. Crimeas leader will look like today to join russia. Hat may lead to a boycott the wall street journal russia is pulling u. S. Treasury bills out of the u. S. Because of concerns about the sanctions. Three times the record before. This crimea vote, hugely controversial. What is the reaction from the west . Obama telling Vladimir Putin he will never accept this crimean vote, ever. Merkel has been quite vocal about this. Listencain speaking to what he has to say. Russia is a gas station masquerading as a country. Nation that is really only dependent upon oil and gas for their economy. Economic sanctions are important. U. K. Imea relies on the 425 of their gas, 90 of 25 of their gas, 90 of their electricity. Bills, no dramatic reaction. The next stage as troops on the ground from both sides in ukraine and russia. Asia see how markets in are reacting. The asx 200 is looking like this amid the tension ratcheting up in the ukraine. It is down a quarter of one percent. The aussie dollar is slightly strengthening, 90 u. S. Japan is just opening and this is the look right now. It is down a fifth of one percent. The dollaryen is weakening. Over in korea, the cost be the yuan is strengthening. The search for the missing malaysian airliner is entering its 10th day. 25 countries involved. That bring in our Southeast Asian correspondent. , includingvelopment the thought that perhaps it was intentional. What is the latest . Bigger every gets single day. 25 countries now involved. What has changed is large strikes of land being looked at. Deep remote oceans being explored as well. Among countries being asked for assistance, pakistan, bangladesh, india. The plane operated almost seven hours after the lost contact with Traffic Control. Transmits data to and from planes was disabled just before the plane left malaysias coast. It was a deliberate act. It then flew in a westerly direction back over the peninsula of malaysia before turning northwest. Point at which it coverage,ary radar this movement is consistent with deliberate action by someone on the plane. That is why the focus is now on the crew. Police searched the homes of the pilot and copilot trying to find out why the plane was deliberately flown off course. Motive, noon of a one has claimed responsibility. What do we know of the pilots . Pilots, theye two did not ask to fly together. Own flights simulator. He is also quite a handyman. Religious inclinations, a friend of his said he is a moderate muslim and performed his daily rituals. His youtube page did have links to atheism. After the Boston Marathon bombing, he expressed condolences for the victims. It seems like he was a jovial man. Expect more volatility from the yuan starting from this morning. Chinese authorities to double the daily trading dan. Stephen engle is on the story and joins us from beijing. How significant is this . Good morning. Make theave pledged to Exchange Rates more marketbased. This is another step in achieving not. In that sense, it is significant, but chinese authorities like to take these things in a stepbystep manner. This does not mean that full convertibility is right around the corner. They depegged from the dollar in 2005. In 2007, they widen the band. April, 2012, they widened it again to one percent. Now they have widen it again from one percent to two percent. Timing seems to signal from authorities that the currency is no longer considered just a oneway bet to appreciate. That has been the general direction. It has appreciated to around six to the dollar. U. S. Now 6. 15 to the dollar. Growth in china is slowing and we have seen recent weaknesses. It has slid against the dollar, 1. 8 since reaching a 20 year high on january 14th. What we have seen is the widening of the band from one percent to two percent. Maybe the yuan and can trade every day within two percent either side of this daily reference rate. In theory, it could rise or fall as much as two percent each day. The key here is authorities still set that daily fixing right, which is probably more important than the band itself. We should expect more you wantdollar volatility yo uandollar volatility. Meaningful reform is to change the rule on citing the daily fixing rate. Some other stories making headlines, no Hong Kong Ipo from alibaba. They are said to be working with investment banks. It is being valued as much as two hundred billion dollars, the secondbiggest Internet Company behind google. Alibaba turned its back on hong kong. Is sheddingrale some of its businesses in asia. The buyer is dbs. Nearlys recalling 900,000 odyssey cars. Could causeoblems gasoline leaks. It concerns vehicles produced between 2005 and 2010. Checking honda, it is down a fifth of one percent. Turnaroundmarket after the worst week so far this year . We will find out what is in store. Time now for a look at the stories we will be following for you this week. China is out with property prices tomorrow. The Real Estate Market has been holding up. Supplier japan display makes its debut wednesday in tokyo. After pricing at the bottom of the range, the Company Raised 3 billion. China mobile report earnings on thursday. Profit was little changed last quarter. Of the the opening week world 2020 cricket tournament featuring hong kong for the first time. They play bangladesh on thursday. ,f hong kong gets out of pool a they will face australia and west indies in the next round. With me now is principal Global Investor folio manager. Thank you fort joining us. Thank you for joining us. Tensions are ratcheting up in ukraine once again. How is that going to continue to worry investors . What actions on on the west contemplates. If you go by the exit polls, people have voted to join russia. The process may not have been the best process, but the peoples vote is clear, right . It is this the facts on the ground are transparent. Right now, they are not and it looks like it is under Russian Military influence. Russians mayic have been shipped into crimea for the vote. We also have the group who have it said we will not legitimize this in any way. That is an open question. It depends upon how severely the west reacts to the results. Hopefully, they will be able to get to some kind of were week where they can work for the work with the russian authorities. How much dominance does ukraine focus for you as you look at your portfolio . It will have a bigger impact on the european influence on our portfolios. If it becomes a big political or if there is a sign of war, it it might impact europe negatively. At this point, it is ok. More ofou worried sector plays in europe or is it more broad than that . Reaction toased profitability estimates. Europe seems to be coming out of a prolonged recession. It might mean that if Natural Gas Prices go up because they have to import gas from else where it will be a broadbased impact. Lets talk about the asian part of your portfolio. China is widening the trading band. I think this was expected. Howve reached a stage it plays out depends upon how it moves in the next two to six months. It is an except in so greater market volatility. What is the one thing in this region that you are focused on . Guess, what will happen in europe. You have seen the yuan weaker. It is baked into expectations. You need to watch out what happens in russia and crimea and ukraine. What is the one thing that would were you the most and are you worried about your position in europe . What is the geopolitical move . If western policymakers announce sanctions that impacts and curtailed flow. Thank you so much. Next, a look at the currency markets after crimea votes to join russia. More on the biggest eastwest crisis since the cold war. A very good morning to you. It is monday, march 17. Lets start things off with the big news on the weekend. China has doubled the trading band and its currency and starting today, it will be able to trade as much as two percent on either side of the central bank daily reference rate. A little more legroom. The referendum and crimea, exit polls suggest a clear majority, more than 93 of voters, prefer the crimea he comes part of russia. Becomes part of russia. The rest will not the west will not recognize the results of this. A strategists says a further raises risk aversion, it the chances of what they call broadbased economic sanctions against russia. Go long on the japanese yen. Safe haven trades will be in focus today. The japanese yen, further risk aversion. Watch out for government yield on the 10year. Watch that as well. Highly correlated to the yen. This is a onemonth chart youre looking at. Majors. Check on other the euro, where are we now . 1. 5 over one month. 1. 39. A tad over that is what we are focusing on right now. Those were the stories surrounding your forex markets. A quick check of the equity markets in asia. The nikkei started the day in the red and is extending those losses. Kospi isreas cos gaining this morning. Tensions right now, crimeas vote to rejoin russia. Nasa is appealing for help in saving the planet. It is offering some serious money to anyone who can spot an asteroid whizzing towards us on earth. Sam grobart has more. Important forre two reasons. They contain lots of valuable Natural Resources and we have the power to kill everything on earth. Reasons, nasaese has created the asteroid hunter. You can win ready 5,000 if you come up with a new and improved orithms to track asteroids 35,000 if you come up with a new and improved algorithm to track asteroids. There could be a world killing asteroid heading for us right now and we would not even know it. Of closead a couple calls recently. In 2013, it missed us by only 1000 miles. On the very same day, an asteroid over russia exploded with the force of an atomic bomb. That was 50 feet across. ,n asteroid onemile wide things are about to get cataclysmic. The asteroid hunter contest, it would be better to find these things before there is a planet gripping event. Contest isner in the hunting asteroids for an entirely different reason. It turns out many asteroids are loaded with precious minerals, which means crowd sourced asteroid detection is not only a good way to prevent extinction, but a good way to make a buck. You can get more on that here on earth and all of the days top stories on our website. Bloomberg. Com, check it out. You can follow me on twitter. Still to come, it is not Hong Kong Alibaba has chosen. It is 8 30 a. M. In hong kong this morning. Another cloudy, smoggy day. A live look outside the torilla harbor. Victoria harbour. You are watching first up. Confirming the news, alibaba is to list, but it will not be here in hong kong. The mystery of the missing link, day 10 of the search with no clues. The worst eastwest crisis since the cold war, crimea votes to join russia. An ipo years in the making is headed for, not here, new york instead. David is here with the latest on alibaba. We could be looking at the biggest the last one of the size was facebook. Wasone here in hong kong 20 billion. They have gotten the process started of listing in the u. S. Softbank jumping on the news over the weekend, up five percent. Japan. N 43 of yahoo a big valuation for ali baba is good news for the likes of these big shareholders. What is the size going to be . What we know based on these estimates is how much alibaba entire firm, 150 3 billion. The highest one says it is worth 200. We do not know and it has not been decided yet how much it plans to raise or how big of a stake. That will determine pricing in all of these other things. On the issue of whether or not why it shows the u. S. Over hong kong, the Sticking Point was do we go to hong kong or do we list in the u. S. . The statement on the weekend put little bit of context into this when they said, should circumstances permit in the future, we will be constructive towards extending our public status in the Chinese Capital market. We will revisit this possibility in the future. It still needs to change the rules. Hong kong stock exchange, it would need to change the rules if they want to participate. It was the Sticking Point of alibaba wanted its partnerships and executives to nominate the majority of the board. That is not allowed in hong kong. Different shared classes. That is allowed in the u. S. If they do come here, that is obviously well into the future. They have not even listed to begin with. The lawyers will be busy on the banks. And the banks. That is the list of those who will be analysts going home at other things have yet to be decided. When they will actually file for the listing. The prospectus may be released as early as next month. Another part of this is alibaba has online payments exposure. Over the past couple of days, will that impact . They want to be stricter. They are looking at Virtual Credit cards. Free to buy things online. It is not only online payment methods. They sell a lot of things online. If you cannot pay for it or if you take away one channel, that impacts trade. We were down 11 into friday last week. David, thank you. Lets take a look at some of the other stories making headlines. May be in talks to go public. Therson familiar with matter says the company could be valued at 1. 7 billion. Payinge is said to be 10 million 10 billion for a spanish cable operator. The transaction preamps and ibm preamps and ipo. The Worlds LargestMining Company is planning a multibillion dollar share buyback. The ceo has told the times of london that it could happen by the middle of the year. The share buybacks will only happen when is reduced to 25 billion. Those are the company headlines. Move toibaba looks to the u. S. , one chinese videogame maker is doing to the game being bought for 3 billion. To you. Morning 3 billion is a lot of money in the online game space, hugely popular. Take giantto Interactive Group private. It has been listed in new york since 2007 on the nyse. I shouldve let my report with the game that most people are familiar with. A bit of research into this. It means journey in chinese. Online multiplayer roleplaying game. It specializes in these multiplayer games. People pay for services in the games and that is how it makes its money. This is the topselling game in china. Why are they doing this . Any Chinese Companies in the u. S. Going private because of very restrictive accounting rules. Of thesescrutiny Chinese Companies for their accounting standards. Even the cfo of this company said last august that it had been caught up in this probe into irregularities. The negative publicity that came as a result led the shares to be undervalued by 60 . To your earlier guest and he said this is a stock to watch. A lot of private equity groups are interested in this. One of the key investors as they take this private. The search for the missing malaysian airliner is entering its 10th day with 25 countries now involved. The operation has been widened considerably. Authorities say could have flown as far as catholics dan or to the southern indian ocean could have flown as southern as far as the southern indian ocean. It flew in a westerly direction back over peninsula malaysia before turning northwest. Point at which it coverage,ary radar consistent with deliberate action by someone on the plane. Back itsm is scaling search for the missing plane saying it has found nothing in its waters. Hanoi said it is willing to help out swear if asked. Last known location was midway across the gulf of thailand just before it was due to enter vietnamese airspace. Pilot is 50 three years old. Friends describe him as an aviation addict. He and his copilot had not requested to fly together. The two men are being investigated and police have searched their homes and question their families. Ground staff are also being checked. From to come, the threat all the debt on where the bad loans are. It is monday, march 17, and these are the top stories. The government of ukraine has moved troops near to the border as the region voted to join russia. Exit polls show more than 93 of the voters want to leave ukraine. The deepening crisis is the worst between west and russia since the cold war. In the autonomous republic of crimea, there is a circus going on. The socalled referendum, 21,000 electric personnel are safeguarding the socalled referendum. Wants to pour money into rundown urban districts to spur growth. 100government will invest 63 billion in pour shantytowns this year. 163 billion dollars in poor shantytowns this year. China is on the radar of my next guest. He sees Downside Risk because of rising debt. He has been looking at leverage asia wide. What does leverage mean . You could tie up the two, the fact that there is a debt problem. Have someo ensure you type of monetary easing as well as a weaker currency. We have seen what has happened in the u. S. And we know what japan is trying to do. You have to have the currency that is supportive and not dynamic. In that dynamic. A weaker yuan helps with exports, right . That is also an extraneous benefit. Pmi has slipped, exports have been week, chinas market share trying to match the weak economy and you want to try to help that would weaker currency. In the background, you have pbi diffraction ppi differentiation. Are you forecasting a weaker yuan . We do think that kerry is still there in chinese Interest Rates we do think the carry is still there in chinese Interest Rates. Waye have seen from the they have moved, it will not be dramatic. Interest rates in china are higher than the u. S. That leads us to the original problem of shadow banking on this high leverage debt situation that china finds itself in. Its for and its first bonds default or seven. March 7. What it will mean is the debt to gdp has increased a lot. The debt load that you can do to support your domestic demand will be much slower. It has moved up dr