This is largely due to the stronger yen. And yen is up. We are seeing the safety again. The asx 200 said they stocks are down to 7 10 of 1 . We are seeing these energyrelated stocks taking a dip today on the back of the fall in crude prices. Inventories are coming through stronger than expected, and ports highest since april of last year. Imports the highest since april of last year. Coming through from shanghai. We were sitting in the green bay while ago, but giving back modest gains. This is why we are getting policy tweaks coming out of the pboc, and investors are trying to figure out what that means in the longer term. Hong kong is down 6 10 of 1 , and jakarta is down 8 10 of 1 . Of thelook at some movers, because we are seeing quite a bit of movement in terms of space. The aussie dollar is down by 7 10 of 1 trading at. 7104. We had some remarks coming in. And said he would be comfortable with the aussie sitting around . 80. The yen is seeing strengths of about 4 10 of a percent, trading at 112. 77. The yen strength is waiting on some of the equity stories today, in particular when it comes to currencies. This is waiting on the outlook of earnings. We are also seeing automakers and exporters seeing significant downside in the tokyo session as well. Banks, thanks. China plans to strengthen Interest Rates by conducting openMarket Operations every business day. Joining us is robin ganguly. Robin, this was to avoid a crash cash crunch during the new year holidays, but why extend them . I think chinese policymakers are kind of burned by what we saw earlier this year. I see this as a positive sign. They are not prepared they were caught pretty much by surprise this year. They do not want to become up by surprise again, and they want to be able to manage Interest Rates on a more daytoday basis. This would allow them the liberty to do that, rather than just coming into the market twice a week, as was the practice previously. Is china going to tighten liquidity, now that excitement has died down . At marker and operations, they have drawn 455 billion yuan this week, which seems like a lot of money, the biggest withdrawal since february of 2014. They have put in a lot of money to avoid the cash crunch. They are not happy with the loose market situation, so they want stability in the markets, so they are kind of mopping up excess liquidity. Think they will maintain adequate supply of cash so that there is no turmoil or cash crunch. Companies are not affected. Thank you so much for your take on that. Lets take a look at some of the other stories we are watching today. Taking a lookte, at some of the progress that has been achieved in brussels. Juliette absolutely, shery. Some progress has been made on britains demand for reform, but they do admit a lot mornings to be done. David cameron has been negotiating for months on changes to eu regulations that would allow him to remain a member. His terms include extending a mechanism allowing those on those ons welfare to stay on the eu for 13 years. They do not want to do anything in a rush. However, frances reluctant to give ground. Says theent donald to eu must be respected. Forecast for global growth, issuing a warning on debt risk in emerging markets. The Organization Says the World Economy will expand 3 in 2016, the same paces last year, and one third of a percent lower than its original forecast. They also urged g 20 nations to consider more fiscal more fiscal stimulus ahead of their meeting in shanghai this week. It urged leaders to act urgently to combat sluggish growth in the worlds advanced economies. And it has more than doubled its forecast for brazils 2016 recession. Protecting it will be worse than last year. That makes the oecd more bearish than the imf. Won more highprofile friends in its privacy fight with the u. S. Department of justice. Twittersey tweeted that stands with apple, and thanked him for his leadership on the issue. Earlier this week, tim cook wrote a lengthy list detailing why apple is resisting fbi calls to hack into an iphone belonging to one of the San Bernardino shooters. He says it sets a dangerous precedent and is a chilling attack on civil liberties. Other Silicon Valley highfliers have also supported apples stance. More times asking for to respond to the court order. The company has until next friday to present its argument. Apples refusal to help the fbi searched the phone has put pressure on congress to balance the needs of privacy and Law Enforcement in encrypted communications. One we will continue to watch. Thanks for that. Oil and gas for santos is looking like this in sydney, currently falling more than 3 after losses tripled due to weak energy prices. Morealmond joining us with on this. How bad is it . 2. 7 billion worth of bad compares pretty unfavorably with the 935 million loss they reported in the same period a year ago. Otherwise, profit was a crucial miss this year. The market was expected it was expecting 87 million. It is a very chilly time chilling time for kevin gallagher, who has only been on the job for a month. He says his priority is to ensure that santos is stable in a low oil price environment. They are doing what they can to cut cost. In november, santos announced a plan to trim 3 billion worth of costs. Production, however, was up 7 , 257. 7 million barrels. Been we affirmed the coming year, so thats the good news. The bad news was the dividend, just five cents. Shery thanks. Just ahead, we will be speaking to him look as ceo in a few moments. David will be first on bloomberg at 10 15 Hong Kong Singapore time. You are watching. Welcome back. Chinas banks have spent decades trying to expand their reach in asia. But they have had a hard time competing with rivals. What does this mean . Reporter some of the top ones, icbc, for example, have spent billions. When i mean billions, i mean more than 16 billion. They have been acquiring players like indonesian banks to grow in the asian region, but they are still struggling against the bigger players. A Company Called eastern partners did a survey looking at 848 companies to see the relationship between Asian Companies and chinese banks and Chinese Companies and chinese banks. If you look at the chart on a trade finance only 14 of asian directes that have working relationships with chinese banks, compared with the chinese banks in the orange column, they far exceed the blue column. It has to be said that they look Something Like 92 chinese banks compared with 848 Asian Companies. In this area, it seems like there is still quite a bit of quite a bit that needs to be done for chinese banks to be more popular for Asian Companies. Shery but how important are these overseas operations for chinese lenders . Reporter they are increasingly becoming important because of the weak economy at home and bad debt. Companies are looking outside of their borders to do that. If you look at a bank like construction bank, it is Something Like only 1. 8 percent of revenue from 2014 that came from outside of its borders, from overseas. 98. 2 from china. They see there is potential out of china. They want to expand to more countries, and they want to expand their overseas to 2020. Ion by 5 it is not the only chinese bank that wants to do this. They really are looking overseas to try to grow. Angie thanks shery thanks for exploding that for us. The stories making headlines around the world. Medicine groupal says that hospitals and syria have been attacked more than 100 times since the start of last year. Msf is calling for an immediate end to its attacks on Health Care Workers and says that the Un Security Council must answer for its failure to uphold a sick human rights. The u. S. , britain, france, and russia are among those attacking rebel forces in syria. Has approved new sanctions on north korea after its recent nuclear test and rocket launch. The measures are designed to choke off funding and authorized 50 million of propaganda broadcasts. Korea is goingh for new security laws. The Prime Minister says kim jongun has ordered his military district and what her office called his terror capability. The bottom of a last the body of the last known victim of the taiwan earthquake has been found. People were killed. Rescue efforts wound up last weekend, leaving one person listed as missing. The womans body has been found in the rubble. The building was the only one to collapse. Its developer and two architects have been arrested on suspicion of negligence. News, imoomberg juliette sally. The crucial in eu summit that might decide britains place in europe has broken up for the night. There are reports of progress, but also work to be done. Lets get the latest. Tough going. Reporter yeah, absolutely. That is a quote from donald , but there is still work to be done. We are hearing from him and mark russo, who i just spoke with in the dutch briefing. Remember, the netherlands has the rotating eu presidency. From mark russo that the talks could go into friday night. Of course, we are already into a second day of talks here. When i spoke to russo, i asked if there was a possibility that we could not see a deal, and he said, of course, that is still a possibility, but both the u. K. And eu need a deal to be done. Both of them equally. I said, does the eu really need the u. K. . He has talked a lot in the past about how catastrophic it would be for the city of london were the u. K. Tags at the eu. He said yes, eu does need the u. K. As well. It seems like the real they will is there, not just from David Cameron, but from a lot of his eu counterparts, to come to an agreement that is just not there yet. Shery and we still have no idea how this might end, but we are seeing that a lot has been , and markets are reacting. Tell us about that. Reporter yeah, i have not around since running following the leaders for the past hour or so, but i can tell you on thursday it rallied against the dollar and the euro, almost by a buy the rumor, sell the facts sort of move. But if you look at the bigger picture, we have seen in sterling that it has fallen against all of its gdp peers so far. That reflects concern that we could see the u. K. Exit the eu. Also, we have seen an increase in sterling volatility. Euro sterling volatility, if you look at six months, it has raised to its highest since 2011. But if you look at the stock and bond markets, a little different. Those markets possibly not pricing in yet. The ftse 100 infancy to 50 have been declining, but they still eurozone stocks. That is interesting when you look at the ftse 250, because those include companies that would be more impacted in the event of a brexit. Looking at u. K. Bonds, the u. K. Bond market is one of the best performers on a major market so far this year, so perhaps we will see more Market Reaction when we actually have a deal and specific timing for a vote, a u. K. Vote on and in or out from the new. From the eu. Shery thanks a lot from that update. Plenty more to come on bloomberg television. Iluka. The ceo of the company is reporting a profit. Have that when trending business returns. Shery welcome back. Shares in a lookup are falling despiteuka are falling, increased profits thanks to higher sales. Wallkes products such as tiles and Nuclear Reactor cores. Joining us on the line is iluka ceo david rob. Thank you for your time this morning. Can you break down your earnings for us . Featuresthink the key were that we achieved further you get cash cost efficiencies. Revenues increased in Australian Dollar terms. We managed to protect our margins, and we minimize capital expenditure, all which led to freezing positive cash flow and increased dividends. Shery so how effect has a weekend aussie dollar then an offsetting gaming in offsetting some of the prices we have seen for quite some time . I think that price weakness is an interesting description. We have seen a marginal erosion in prices in u. S. Dollar terms in the past 12 months or so, and that has been more than offset i a weaker aussie, as you mentioned. Actually quite pleasing after years of currency headwinds as the aussie went above a dollar. To get this relief. It comes and goes. We are unhedged, so we are fully exposed to the currency effects. Shery so what is your assumption for the currency . Guest i have had about as elsee idea as everybody does. Its not anything we can control. Our job is to make sure we are running our business efficiently, that we are marketing our products well, and we are managing to protect margins, which is what we have achieved over the last 12 months. I have to say the results in the industry generally in the moment , thats a fairly unusual outcome that margins would be stable. And maybe that was quite theual just because slowdown in china has been voted has been voided, because most of these commodities have been used for decorative purposes. Signal a turn for the worse for the industry . Guest quite the opposite. We had been, for some time, choosing to run for optimum cost efficiency. As a result of that, we have had large inventories that we have not thrown down. There is significant value, if you like, if those inventories, so we have taken a decision to suspend the mining and concentration concentrating part of what we do. We will still be moving concentrate from stockpiles to our other processing facilities. It is really about drawing down heavy mineral concentrate, liberating the value in those inventories. We think now is an appropriate time to do that. In addition, our production and tiles capacity is unchanged, and we also expect both reduction and styles toion increase year on year. Removings doing is perceptions of supply and overhang, which we think is actually a positive for Market Dynamics as demand recovers. Shery so how positive do you think that will be for prices . Guest our Customer Feedback has been positive, pretty well universally, so we might have to wait and see. As you mentioned, we sell to global markets. We sell largely to consumer driven and housing driven uses, rather than major fixed asset infrastructure. From fixedalancing asset growth to consumer led growth is a positive for us, and our sales into china for last year were about the same as the year before. So we are cautiously optimistic at the moment. Shery briefly, what are your Growth Markets . You mentioned Growth Prospects in your results. I think europe has definitely been better for us in the prior year. We looked very stable in china, as i mentioned. We have seen an idling of our operations in the u. S. We have seen a fallen sales there because we are not producing there in the moment. So it is fairly patchy, but overall our sales were pretty well, study year on year will stop well and steady year on year. And we thinkstic, that now is actually a good time to be countercyclical in our thinking, and tried to put our strong Balance Sheet with no debt. We would love to deploy our capacity now. Shery and we wish you the best. , thankobb, ceo of iluka you for joining us this morning. The asiapacific are seeing downward pressure this morning. China extending losses. Down half ag don percent. Japan is still down more than 2 . Againsthas strengthened a dollar. Coming up next, Hong Kong Developers feel the pressure on prices, but still refused to cut. Are runningif they out of options when trending business returns. The top stories trending this hour. Asian stocks are declining to since 2011,st week with oil on decline once again. Japanese industries have fallen after resurgence in the yen has a esters has investors trying to pay the assets. Central bank has begun taking back some money that was added to the economy. The pboc drained the most funds from the Financial System in two years, collecting 44 billion the open Market Operations in the runup to the Lunar New Year holiday. Happenperations will now every business day, strengthening the thanks influence on Interest Rates. The eu president says work still needs to be done on the british deal with the european government to avoid a potential brexit. Was speaking in brussels, where David Cameron is speaking concessions on migration and welfare rules. Chancellor Angela Merkel says that she is ready for compromise, but it wont be easy for all nations to agree. Edi with a going to h look at the markets. Risk aversion markets moving in all the wrong directions today. This is the story of Oil Prices Falling again. Back to the likes of begin. That is waiting on equities, particularly when it comes to japan. Nikkei 225 down by one quarter of 1 . And the number of oil related firms is dragging the overall region. Shanghai oscillating, in the green at the moment, so it looks like we are setting up for a pretty volatile afternoon session. We are also getting numbers coming through from southeast asia, and hong kong is down by 6 10 of 1 of the moment. Take a look at some of the movers, because we are seeing banks across the region having a terrible day, but indonesian banks in particular. We have news that the government is wanting to cap the limit when it comes to deposit rates are by state funds. Earned by state funds. Competing news yesterday, bank of indonesia cutting rates by a number 25 basis points another 25 basis points, which is expected to release a lot of liquidity on to the indonesian money markets. We are seeing indonesias largest lender down by 4 , hank negara, 4 , about the same. Are seeing losses across japanese banks as well. Movers in hong kong, we had mgm in the u. S. Reporting is surprised loss for the fourth quarter, largely due to the drive on macau. Macau earnings down almost 30 for the quarter. We are seeing these losses in the Asian Session as well. The worst performer, mgm china, off by close to 29 today. Sherrery . Thanks, heidi. Hong kong developers are offering free gifts in the hopes of attracting homebuyers, but the fish are not buying. Joining us is frederick. How desperate are these developers . These gimmicks are pretty enticing. Reporter they are, and one developerolving is offering 1. 5 million. Its a voucher, you dont have to take their furniture. Then again, you have to pay 24 million to buy the apartment. Give withone hand and the other. How desperate are they . Sales are at a 25 year low, and i would say that on the one hand developers are fairly cashrich, but they are in the business of building places and selling them, and they are just not moving, so that is why they are coming up with these gimmicks. Shery so what does this mean with prices down the line . People are not buying. Reporter it seems likely that sooner or later, they will have to came out come out and say they are making price cuts. Earlier, they had these stealthy things. You get a tax rebate, a free iphone, so it brings your cost down. But ultimately, people want to know that they are buying something cheaper today that they wouldve had to pay six months ago, and that is likely going forward. Just last week, a Property Company up one billion hong kong dollars, so what is happening at the top end of the market . Oforter it is a question supply and demand. That was a standalone property, one of few and hong kong. Interestingly, one is going on the market tomorrow. It is a tender, and it is likely to go for at least 1 billion. It does not matter what is happening in the massmarket, when it comes to a 10,000 square foot apartment with a pool, a the people are going big fish will be binding. Shery three hours to decide on spending 1 billion . Reporter yeah. [laughter] with theederik balfour latest on the hong kong property market. Lets check in on some of the other stories we are following this morning. Indonesian stocks rose and the rupee fell after the Central Bank Cut its Interest Rate at 25. Asis points to 7 it also lower the reserve requirement ratio for lenders by 100 basis points. President said last week he wanted to see Interest Rates fall further to boost growth, addressing Business Leaders in california, he said more must be done to attract foreign investment. There are too many excessive permits, licenses, and restrictions. We will say, hostilities to, hasta la vista, baby shery minutes from their latest meeting, one member is suggesting allowing inflation to s 2 targete bank for a limited period. The president said after januarys meeting that the bank would need to review, and possibly reconsider, policy at its next meet in march. Outflow seespital no sign of slowing down, the pboc is having to change its game to ensure ample liquidity and the banking system, and to do that it is increasing open margaret open Market Operations. David is here to flesh out the details. Reporter by default, the community will be conducting these open Market Operations every day, twice a week, every day into the Lunar New Year, and they basically are going to keep it as they see benefits. This is important in the sense that this is the strongest signal yet, that china is using more marketbased tools for policy, rather than simple orders from the top. What you are looking at is the way they used to do it, or tools that they are trying to move away from, because previously they only used to conduct policy this way. You had a triple are cut, and then a pboc setting, a oneyear lending rate, and a oneyear deposit rate. When asymmetrical rates were cut, that used to predict the net that protect the net interest of the banks. What analysts are pointing out Market Operations, it improves their ability to react more to conditions of the market, and also to check liquidity a lot quicker when needed. Lets have a look at the sevenday repo rate. Several reasons why we are bringing this up. First, one of the objectives is to avoid these periodic spikes and money market rates, and other words, these shortages of cash we see every now and then. Can we get a closeup, just how we can see the course over the last five years . Before chinese new year, before we usually holidays, see spikes, so they want to avoid movement. If you look at the side of the chart in 2015, it has actually disappeared, and money market rates have come down. A lot of times, you can easily without having to cut rates. Of the where the concept Interest Rateorder comes into play that the pboc is trying to put into place. Lets have a look at the same chart over the next six months. Based on hands from the central bank, we will be looking at the same repo rate we saw here as the new benchmark, and then you have the standing lending rate at the ceiling as the ceiling. And you have the rate that it charges banks for excess reserves as the floor. Basic concept. If you are in japan, that is the line below zero. What the pboc is also trying to do is be able to ease policy. Let me get to my next chart. Bring down, borrowing costs without exacerbating this problem when it comes to capital outflows, because sometimes you have a one up move, a passing rate cut, for example. May not be appropriate for every part of the economy. That sends a signal to the market for them to keep selling down the yuan, exacerbating this problem we have had in 2015. Lets see if this works. Hopefully it improves transparency, what analysts are saying, because it avoids creating bigger problems when you dont need to cut and then you cut. Sherry, fingers crossed. Back to you. Shery thanks, david. The weekend is hurting japan airlines. Weak yenen is hurt is hurting japan airlines. Tourism in japan, but it has raised costs and other expenses. Jal emerged from bankruptcy protection in 2014 to become in 2011 to become the most popular publicly traded airline three years later. Lets get those shares up if we can. Lets move on the u. S. Airlines, because they have one thing they have won the right to flight at tokyos airport. Until now, united and american can only land at night. Americans as the move allies for more comfortable american says the move allows for more comfortable departure and arrival times, and allows access to downtown tokyo during the day. The carrier also vote this will be more profitable. Brought its struggling military transport plane to the singapore airshow. The company has not had a new owner for the plane since a deadly crash last year. Stephen engle reports. As nimble fighter jets circle overhead, the more pot and military warhorses park at the back of the tarmac, including the airbus a400 and. This is airbuss answer to the from boeing,stage which was discontinued last year, getting airbus a potential opening. This new a400m belongs to malaysia. But the plane has been harder to sell. A slew of development delays, cost overrun, and a deadly crash last may in spain has overshadowed any trauma any trams. The Silver Lining we have not had any cancellations. Stephen after receiving at least 174 firm orders, there are just 23 in service today, almost all in europe. Turkey has three and malaysia two. For a, not a good return program estimated to be 5 billion over budget. Of that production has stabilized, we are recovering. We will be focusing on the months ahead into getting additional exports. Stephen what other nations are you talking to in asia . Who would be a good customer . And a customer would be great. The airports in this part of the world are extremely professional, be at indonesia, singapore, thailand, vietnam. Stephen even at 200 million per plane . Aircraft, but very expensive. To afford that, you need to be in deep pockets. While airbus is not in talks with china about this plane, the ceo was confident the military will consider it. A tactical the a400m airlift her, it can also be fitted for air surveillance. He says he wants to have one particular pickup cured by the end of the year. Our Performance Today does not meet the ability to refuel helicopters. The plane is thing designed for heavy lifting, moore may be needed to get the plane off the ground. Stephen engle, bloomberg news. Up, david coming camerons talks with european leaders have filled into a second day, but some progress made, according to the eu president. We will break down the issues at hand when trending business comes back. Shery breaking news out of south korea, the korean yuan is strengthening after a big decline. Authorities are saying the current korean yuan volatility expensive. South korean authorities are saying they will take all behavior inded on fx markets. There are concerns on increasing her behavior in forex markets. And volatility would be korean yuan is excessive. Earlier, we were headed for weekly loss, but it is now strengthening. You can see it actually weakening 4 10 of 1 . You can see a big movement in the korean yuan. Authorities are saying they will take all measures needed on her behavior. That is the latest we have from south korea. The stories making headlines around the world. Ald trump has critic rest has criticized pope francis as disgraceful after criticizing his immigration policy. The pope says those focused on building borders and bridges is not christian. Trumpt is disgrace says it is disgraceful for a religious leader to question a persons fate. Faith. The u. S. Will join the climate deal. Earlier this month, the Supreme Court halted the plan on challenges from utility companies. European says union says some progress has been made on britains demand for reform, but there is much more that needs to be done. David cameron has been negotiating. However, france is reluctant to give ground, while poland says it wants an agreement, but not at any cost. Donald tusk says the rules must be respected. Power by 150 euros around the world, this is bloomberg news. Im juliette saly. Shery earlier we spoke to university of sydney Political Science professor simon tony. He told my colleague angie lau, watch what challenges David Cameron will have to overcome to get a deal. There are countries in Eastern Europe who basically want to say we should object to britains picking and mixing of what it can and cannot do with migrants, because this is going to destabilize the free flow of people around europe, making their lives more difficult as well. There are at least four countries in Eastern Europe who are rejecting strongly to camerons proposals. The issue is, they dont have a lot of traction where it actually accounts, that is with Angela Merkel and francois hollande. Tohink this one will be easy smooth over a for the next 48 hours, but this is the problem. Other countries come back over and they say, if you gave this right to britain, why can we do the same thing . How integral is it for britain to remain in the new, and will David Cameron get a deal . I think he will, because he set the bar pretty low. He has disappointed his conservative act ventures by going in and saying, it is important for us to get a better deal with europe, but they are saying, hold on a second. The only thing youre talking about here is benefits for migrants, which is a small amount of money. And in terms of the general antipathy towards the bureaucracy and market turning measures, which europe comes out with to celebrities business. I think the conservative ackbenchers are b saying this is an easy win. Angie is britain more important to the eu, or as the eu more important to britain . That is a good question, and there is an elongated debate about that. I think the trade will carry on. Britain is a Major Industrial economy. Is,any is, france is, italy and so on. And whether or not britain is in the euro, life goes on. People still trade with norway, switzerland, iceland. Of hot air around us, and i think the market volatility we are seeing around the pound is trying to weigh up what this means in terms of dollars and pounds and so on. I think it will settle down until we get the date of her bet, and that is likely to june, and in the runup to that referendum, you will see high volatility. Inry and coming up later the show, the oldfashioned phone booth gets a modern makeover in manhattan. We will take a look after this short break. Shery singapore is looking to mobileompetition in the market, hoping to attract a fourth provider. The tor will auction 235 megahertz of spectrum in three stages. The first will be reserves for prequalified companies that dont already have the national network. There will then be a general auction open to existing players. New york city has ambitious plans to connect all five euros oroughs with free wifi, bringing 20th tech into the 21st century. [bell rings] hello . The good old phone booth, ubiquitous, except in the movies and on tv. In new york city, this is taking their place. N. Y. C. , the citys program to bring 20thcentury communications into the 21st century. Wifi as fast as one gigabyte with a guaranteed range of 150 feet. A tablet charger to surf the web, and usb ports for plugins. Computer bringing a touch point to every Street Corner in the city. Reporter we is a consortium called city bridge, which includes qualcomm, who runs the t you runs the towers, who runs the towers. Intersection expects to make about 500 million over the next dozen years as more locations rollout. The first 17 fully functional wifi enabled link locations are now in service on 3rd avenue. By mid july, more than 500 locations will go up, with plans expand to more than 7500 by 2024. The link is encrypted, and personal information will not be sold or shared. The ultimate goal, to ultimately blanket new york with uninterrupted, free wifi. We think this is a key opportunity for future development and entrepreneurs. Reporter so long, phone banks, hello, link. Raymond in a sincere, look at the take a markets in the asiapacific. Most markets feeling the downward pressure. The hunks saying is down 4 10 of 1 . Eng is down 4 10 of 1 . And shares rallied earlier in the week on optimism that the boj would step in with more monetary stimulus. That is it for trending business. Edge, tuned for asia where we have the big stories of the day so far. Yorkom our studios in new this is charlie rose. A ceasefire in syria is set to take effect on friday. Little sign of hostilities abating. The state department acknowledged yesterday that world powers have yet to even meet to negotiate the details of the ceasefire. The calls for humanitarian aid to be
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