changes unseen in a century as he prepares for a major speech on taiwan. meetingt trump calls a of top congressional leaders after suggesting he is open to a deal to end the government shutdown. breaking economic data crossing the bloomberg now. singapore s fourth-quarter gdp rating is out. quarter,the fourth adjusted quarter on quarter. was what the market was looking for. year on year coming on 2.2%. expectations of 2.5%. the revised movement coming through as well. 3.5%. 2.2 percent to 3.2%. we did hear from the prime minister overnight for his new year s address, basically saying that over the course of the year we did see singapore s economic growth hold about a 3%. singaporering that will unveil its 2019 budget on february 18. the prime minister moving to really transition into the new leadership. certainly a miss on this three for the fourth-quarter adjusted 1.6%. let s have a quick look at the markets. is very lonely on the gmm function today. new zealand and japan st
kidding the tape as we speak, as expected at 51.4. the prior number 51.4 as well. that is the eurozone reaction, the euro reaction versus the u.s. dollar. the euro has been falling over the last hour or so. what you have seen is significant strength in the yen crosses. the yen is up quite sharply, but so is the u.s. dollar against the euro as well. let s show you what is happening with equities. earlier we anticipated that we would see a positive session coming through. that was the anticipation after president trump called his congressional meeting to brief on security or border security. the chinese data really turning things around, as you can see the european markets are down. brent also trading lower. dollar-yen trading lower bite 0.7%. you can see the impact that came through into the chinese equity markets. let s get a bloomberg first word news update. trump invited top congressional leaders from both parties to a white house briefing on border security. this follows
the iso. france is up by 3/10 of a percent this morning. let s have a look at a fax fx the pound is trading higher. clearly some anticipation we will see tones of potential rate rises. the euro is spikes higher on the back of data. german orders are better than anticipated, up 2%. we saw the euro come off lower. employment surprised me the aussie dollar came back down. we are seeing unexpected jumps in unemployment. we are not sure if there will be cuts in the interest rate and the australian central bank. yield spiking higher in britain, ahead of the super thursday. will we see a split? spain and france go to the debt market, selling bonds, deals coming lower on both. let s have a look at some of the equities. still coming thick and fast. could we see a merger in a u.s. company, looking at merging with oci. rio tinto is up 1.21%. profit down 43%, but it was a beat. munich re is raising the profit with a net income over one billion euros. jonathan: let s head out to hong ko
francine: welcome to the pulse or call the pulse. super thursday has been dubbed the thursday of the year. the bank of england is said to publish a slew of data. the boe decision minute of it meeting are being released at lunchtime as the governor mark carney works to improve transparency. in this torrent of data, how many members are we expecting to call for an interest rate hike? that is the big question. the majority of economists do expect a split in the vote. there are nine members. 19 of the 20 economists surveyed by bloomberg expect if it expect a split. more than half expect to members to vote for decision. we have seen some vote for tighter policy, they dropped that in january when they all inflation fall. they will be closely watching to see of any others vote. francine: the strength of the currency is also compensating things for the governor. absolutely. this is a tight rope he will have to walk as he delivers his press conference. the pound in the past
continue astroubles a social network fails to add new users and says sales will miss estimates. a warm welcome to countdown. anna: it s 6:00 in the morning here in london. you re watching countdown and we have some results coming in this morning. manus: you re safe, that s the message, despite underlying profit coming in at $4.5 theion, just slightly below $4.57 billion estimated by the market. rio says no longer appropriate for a progressive dividend policy. the final dividend comes in at $1.05 per share. they maintained the 2015 for .our dividend this is all about protecting yourself from an s&p downgrade. s&p real says further actions will be taken to maintain the balance sheet. they are in protection mode. the rio will speak to time ono at 7:45 u.k. on the move. banke s second-largest fourth quarter profit missing analyst estimates with earnings falling. 400 million euros in litigation cited outweighing again from the sale of their stake in the asset manager, the toplin