This is DAYBREAK.Asia. We're counting down to Asia's majormarket opens the start of trading here for Japan and South Korea just a fewmoments away. But, Heidi, I think really the focus forus is is heading into the next round because it's all about that BNZdecision. And are we going to be getting some sortof surprise from them? Yeah.And as you mentioned earlier, so much of the focus is shifting back after theNVIDIA and tech frenzy back to the bread and butter of central banks, right?Not just the ANZ.
We do have some outlier calls in termsof whether they might move, but also watching Fed speak, watching inflationout of Australia and in the US and of course and repricing around expectationsas well. Yeah, that's right.We've really been forced to sort of recalibrate expectations for a number ofdifferent central banks. But we here this morning we've got toJapan just coming on line here. The Japanese yen there, you can see itunchanged at this point in time, but still add to that 150 mark.So a weak level. But what else we're going to be trackingin the session is just that cautious.
Tone that's going to be coming acrossfrom the Wall Street day. Given that, as you said, it is thatcountdown to those inflation metrics. We've got the Fed's preferred inflationgauge, we've got Australian inflation data that's also coming out, and tradingvolumes have been pretty thin really over the past few sessions.As we await those numbers, we are taking a look at the Nikkei here.It is being unchanged at this point in time, but of course, watching what'spretty close to a psychological level of 40,000 points that you can see.Let's change on. Take a look at what else we're trackingtoday.
Korea markets, likewise, just openinghere. And again, you are seeing, yes, a littlebit of positivity coming through, but it's very, very modest here as well.So not too much movement coming through in either direction.US futures, you can see that again, fairly steady.We didn't have big moves for the broader index overnight.It was really just those individual movers that came through some of the bigtech, for instance, a bit of a change of fortunes there for some of those names.A bit more moves at Macy's as well. Another another mover in the priorsession Heidi.
Yeah, Take a look at how we trading inAustralia and New Zealand ahead of that. Our BNZ decision stocks, we're seeingSydney stocks pretty muted at this point, a little bit softer at thispoint. About 2/10 of 1% in the negative.The biggest laggards really saying of course, communication services andconsumer names are struggling today as well as financials, but some prettyrobust gains still across tech, 1.3% and a little bit of leadership from minersand materials names there as well. The Aussie dollar is holding prettysteady at 6544. We had some resilience when it comes tothe US dollar, the delegates erasing US.
Decline, traders awaiting that Thursdayinflation data. Various Federal Reserve speakers are infocus as well. And we are also just watching what we'reseeing across bond markets ahead of, of course, that key BNZ decision.And we are seeing when it comes to some of the trading across Australian bondsfalling before the CPI numbers was in Kiwi debt down a little bit before theANZ as well. But of course when it comes toleadership from treasuries, it is a big, big week when it comes to corporateissuance as well as in sizable bond auctions as well.A quick check of oil, we're seeing some.
Declines this morning, US stockpiles andthe OPEC supply policy situation there very much in focus.But focus for us at the moment is really that ABN said decision in the cominghours. Let's bring in our next guest who isbullish when it comes to in particular the tech space within equities.Joining us now is Mike Bhandari, who's the CEO of SG AMC Capital.Mike's great to have you with us. So obviously we had a massive week lastweek with the anticipation before Nvidia and then just the big, you know, as yousay, melt up following those numbers. Do you think there's further to go?There are some concerns with the.
Extraordinary gains that perhaps were atthe peak, but do you think you should be adding to those positions?Well, we believe we're actually only at the beginning of a melt up.We're not seeing the irrational phase yet or valuations get completelyirrational. So we believe there's a lot morepotential meaningful upside for the Nasdaq.And there's actually three main reasons for that.If you look, first of all, that the ease with which the market has digested thenew interest rate expectations, they went from pricing in 7 to 8 counts ofthe Fed to about three cats today in.
Line.What we've been saying actually last year and the market has not correctedbecause of that. So that shows inner strength andsolidity of the market. Then, as you correctly pointed out, ifyou look at some of the blow up numbers from the semiconductor space and airspace, like Nvidia, like Palantir, you can see that if you know where to look,there's still huge growth and huge potential in some of the industries inthe US space. And if you couple that with the factthat the growth overall in. The US remains solid and you're actuallyseeing a lot of potential new.
Infrastructure packages or basically newinvestments with respect to new capabilities within the tax space,within the semiconductor space. While this makes us extremely bullish ofthe US tech space going forward with a gain and not insignificant chance of afurther melt up with NASDAQ potentially materially surprising to the upside fromhere. Does that mean you would be prettyconstructive on some of the Asian markets that have heavy exposure toAsia, to chipmakers, Korea, Japan, Taiwan?Well, definitely the whole space is going to be seeing potential move up.But there are some areas that we like.
More than others.For example, we do like Korea, we do like India, even though it's a littlebit less exposed to the names and the sectors that I've just said, Japanselectively. We've been seeing, of course, a greatrun. We remain still over a little bitskeptical on Japan going forward. But in terms of names, if you look atthe industry that I just mentioned, yes, the potential for a move up is there.And overall, we feel that the whole industry across the globe and Europe aswell, let's not forget that, but the whole industry across the globe islikely to be seeing more and more.
Inflows for global investors.We still have some cash available and who want to get in on the party thatwe've been seeing so far. So if you're saying that you're seeingsome gains for those tech heavy indexes, Japan and Korea and Taiwan, but reallyare you still more preferring in the US for this sort of melt up scenario?Correct. We remain overweight.The U.S., from a geographical point of view.That's just because if you look at the kind of growth, if you look at the kindof developments and in general, they tend to be a little bit ahead of thecompetition.
When you're talking about these sectors,then US remains our preferred geographical area and we are overweightU.S. and we expect to remain overweight theUS for the foreseeable future. Max, we've actually just got some somebreaking news coming here. That country garden hasnow facing a winding up petition here. So this is coming through from acreditor. It was filed this petition by EVA CreditLtd at the High Court of the Hong Kong ACR against the company.It's in relation to non-payment of a term loan facility between thepetitioner as lender and the company as.
Borrower.The principal amount here is relatively modest.It's 1.60. Rather, it's well, it's perhaps arelatively modest, but it is 1.6 billion HKD plus accrued interest here.It is interesting because it comes roughly just one month after a Hong Kongcourt delivered a liquidation order to Evergrande.So it did sort of spark off one of the biggest casualties in the propertycrisis and in quite a quite a significant process for them to be goingdown that track. But as I said, Country Garden is is nowfacing a winding up petition and that.
Date for the first hearing of it isactually May of this year. It's still a couple of months away.But when you hear these sorts of headlines, Max, it tells us that there'sstill perhaps a lot of pressure in the China property sector is still yet to beplayed out, even though we've seen that recent rallyin Hong Kong stocks and mainland equities as well.Do you really feel optimistic? Well, again, we're talking aboutvaluations which are cheap from a relative, an absolute point of view.You've pointed out that we've had a rally in Hong Kong, but it was comingfrom extremely depressed levels.
And talking about, you know, countrygarden, these kind of headlines expect them to keep coming over the comingmonths. Again, it's not going to be an extremelyorderly kind of development, especially within the real estate, which is one ofthe main industries respect of China, Hong Kong, which has gone throughincredible pressure over the last years. And you can expect more of theseheadlines to come through. But hopefully we're closer to the endthan the beginning. It's going to get messy for sure.It's going to get even messier. But at the end of the day, if we getsome kind of catalysts whereby you get.
More visibility with respect to the kindof policies they're going to be putting in place for business and for realestate going forward, you could get a sustainable rally.But once again, until we see that, until global investors can perceive that, thenyou're not going to be seeing a rally which can be sustained.The rest of the year, it looks like geopolitics will just become more of aconcern as we head into the November U.S.presidential election. Are you sort of positioning to try andeither leverage or find some protection against those risks?Well, for the US elections, it's still a.
Few months away.Of course, we're going to keep hearing about it every single day from now untilNovember. But the actual outcome is going to beonly a few months away. So we're not overly worried about that.We're going to be looking more at from here to August and then looking toreduce before the election. In terms of geopolitics, geopoliticsoverall. Yes, that is the main risk out there.There are, unfortunately, a number of conflicts with respect to the throughoutthe globe, and those unfortunately need to be continued monitoring.And you need to have a worst case.
Scenario in place for your portfolios,whether that is a hedge, whether it is being exposed only to liquid names,which you can very easily and quickly get out of should something escalatemeaningfully. Hopefully we'll we all think and we allhope that no escalation is going to happen.But yes, you need to have some kind of a risk of kind of switch if something doeshappen in order to protect your portfolios.Max, always great to have you as my fundraiser at SG M.S.Capital. AU Getting back to the NZ decision inthe coming hours, most economists expect.
That New Zealand central bank will keepinterest rates on hold in the next few hours while retaining that hawkish toneon inflation. Wellington bureau chief Matthew Brockettjoins us now. And Matthew, we just throw up this chartthat shows the sort of expectation, right?A hold is expected. There must be a chance of a hawkishsurprise, about 25% pricing in that area.And we did see, of course, the chance of more hikes for the RBNZ that they don'tcertainly see a cut until November. What is the biggest argument, though,for staying on hold, even if they think.
More needs to be done down the track?Well, I think probably the biggest argument Stone hold is that, you know,while some indicators have been firmer than expected, they're still moving inthe right direction. The economy is crawling.In fact, the statistics agency came out last year and revised down previous GDPout tunes that showed the economy had been in recession.And, of course, you know, a lot of the tightening to date is still flowingthrough to the economy. So, you know, it would be a bold call toraise interest rates in that kind of environment.As Heidi alluded to, and you as well.
Matthew, we we did have a couple ofeconomists. We spoke to one of them in the lasthour, ANZ, but we did have a couple of economists saying that we could see ahike today. Why is it that speculation?Yeah, well, this is the other argument. I mean, the BNZ did warn late last yearthat it might need to raise interest rates again if inflation was strongerthan expected and arguably it has been at 4.7% inflation and New Zealand ishigher than in many of the countries we compare ourselves to.The labour market is not calling as quickly as expected.Record immigration is fuelling demand.
And inflation expectations remain quiteelevated. And you also have to look at the recentcomments from policymakers which have sounded quite hawkish.So I mean, there certainly are arguments there to be made for a rate hike today.The other thing, of course, will be in the forecasts.Right. What are you keeping an eye out for inparticular? And what are you expecting to see?Well, I think the key there is the forward track for the cash rate.The previous track implied the risk of a hike.We'll be waiting to see whether they.
Push that that risk a little higher,maybe imply an even greater risk of of a hike or, as you say, they couldpotentially push out any future rate cuts, perhaps towards the end of 2025 tosort of send a message of high for longer on interest rates.That was our Wellington bureau chief, Matthew Brockett.As we count down to that decision as to at the top of the next hour.And you can also turn to Bloomberg for more on the BNZ decision, We're going tohave a team of of analysts of of expert commentary as well coming through onthis decision. So go to t live.Go to get more on that that blog kicking.
Off shortly.Still ahead, the US treasury secretary calling on the world's biggest economiesunlock frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine in its war.We get more from the G20 gathering in Sao Paulo later this hour.But first, Apple is said to be canceling a decade long effort to build its ownbuild its own. As we get more from our walk up moviescoop next. This is Bloomberg. All right.We're about 15 minutes so far into the session for trading in Tokyo, andthere's a couple of different movers.
We're keeping an eye on today.One of those is Rock-Tenn. Here we are watching that e-commercecompany given its planning to issue up to ¥100 billion.That's about 666 million U.S. dollars of corporate bond type shares.So it's all about trying to strengthen its financial position.They planning to sell as much as 75 million of the stocks.They're not going to have any voting rights.And they also can't be converted into common shares.So it's all a well about trying to avoid any dilution but bracketed in one of thenames.
So watching, as we said, planning tosell up to 666 million USD of bond type shares.Sony also in the headlines today because it's cutting some jobs.So 900 positions are going from its gaming division worldwide, and that'sactually about 8% of its employees. And they're also going to be closing agroup in London. So Sony saying that they've made thisdecision after many leadership discussions over several months, butthey're saying that changes are needed now for for the company in order for itto continue growing. Toyota, we're watching and also some ofits affiliates here, because we do have.
Essentially Toyota restarting its Japanplant lines. They were suspended earlier given therewas some issues with the engines that were being manufactured by the companyor one of its affiliates, as I said. So essentially, we're watching Toyotathat you can see a little bit under pressure, Heidi.Some of the other corporate stories, though, that we're watching this hour.And Bloomberg sources say Alibaba has led the largest single financing roundfor a Chinese start up, we're told, and joined Monolith management in$1,000,000,000 funding round for Moonshot, boosting the firm's valuationeight fold to some two and a half.
Billion dollars.Moonshot is among the best known start ups developing generative in China,hoping to rival the likes of Openai and Google Chinese chipmaker in July.Integrated circuit has been cleared of economic espionage and other criminalcharges by a U.S. judge.The verdict comes more than five years after the firm was blacklisted as athreat to national security. Prosecutors had alleged that FujianXinhua stole secrets from Micron Bell. Yeah, and Heidi, one of the big storieswe've been tracking over the last few hours is actually a Bloomberg scoopbecause we had this big story coming out.
On Apple.And and it and it's really a program with a lot of twists and turns.And maybe that applies to different divisions at Apple.But certainly the one we're talking about today is the electric vehicledecision, because just a month ago, we were saying that Apple has plans for anelectric vehicle had been pushed out. They'd also scaled back their ambitionsin this sector. And now we understand actually they'regoing to be completely canceling this. And and as we were speaking with withTom Giles in the last hour, I mean, this is something that they put billions ofdollars into and thousands of resources.
Or personnel and and a more than decadelong effort all about trying to build an electric car.This is according to sources. But we did have a Bloomberg scoop onthis. So we we got some disclosures that weremade internally, but certainly a surprise to more than 2000 employeesworking on that project, it seems, Heidi.Right. And it comes, though, of course, aswe've been talking about, it's been difficult for a lot of the playerswithin this space. Right.Even some of the competitors that have.
Really been, you know, trudging throughthe research and development and trying to get a piece of this market.We had that, you know, pretty, I guess you can say, smugresponse from Elon Musk on Twitter and on X, I should say, just responding toour reporting. But as you say, in terms of how thisimpacts nearly 2000 employees working on this project, and it was a decision thatwas shared by the chief operating officer as well as the VP in charge ofthe effort, according to our reporting. In terms of the reaction, of course, youknow, in the long run, Bloomberg Intelligence says that the shunning ofthe AV project shifting to AI is a.
Better strategy for Apple in the longrun, given its expertise really is more on small devices.They're very different to building a car.Right. But Bloomberg Intelligence saying thatdecision really shift resources towards generative.It's a good strategic move given the long term profitability potential ofrevenue streams versus cars. They anticipate that a large portion ofgenerative enhancements will be part of the Apple operating system.And obviously Apple that has one of the strongest consumer distribution networksglobally.
So if they can bring those two together,hugely, hugely lucrative operation and opportunities there.But we understand that this project will begin winding down the core teamemployees, which is known as a special projects group or as.You will be shifted actually to the air division and they'll be focusing on whatis really becoming a key, a key priority for the company.So investors clearly seeing that as a relief.We saw the stock up about 1% by the close.It's still trading a little bit higher in after hours.And that story is one of our top.
Stories, though.But also you can get a roundup of the other stories you want to know to getyour day going. In today's edition of DAYBREAK,Bloomberg subscribers can get that debut go on the terminals.It's also available on the mobile in the Bloomberg Anywhere app.You can customize those settings as well for these in the industries and assetsyou care about. This is Bloomberg. I dropped to the G20's closing statementthat was seen by Bloomberg News says the global economy has a growing chance ofpulling off a soft landing.
The group's finance ministers aremeeting in Brazil against the backdrop of wars in Ukraine and Gaza.And Bloomberg's Bruce Einhorn joins us for more.And Bruce, yeah, I mean, it's we're just sitting there on the outbreak.It seems like things are looking up a little bit.Yeah. So this is a draft statement.So still things could be changed. But from, you know what our colleaguesat Bloomberg have seen, the statement will talk about how there is a greaterlikelihood of a soft landing for the global economy, underpinned to a largeextent by the U.S..
Janet Yellen, who's there in Brazil forthese meetings, took a victory lap. She said that a press conference shesaid that America's path to a soft landing has underpinned global growth.First, what was some of the remarks being made when it comes to Russia'simmobilized assets? So Janet Yellen in that in that samepress conference also did talk about that.So some background here. There are about $280 billion of Russianassets that have been frozen. About two thirds of those are in Europe.The question is what to do with them, especially given the the dire straitsthat Ukraine is now facing with Russia.
Now making some advances in the war withaid to Ukraine really tied up in Congress and unclear whether that'sreally going to get through from the U.S..So there are there are proposals out there to do something with that $280billion of assets the U.S. and the U.K.have advocated just seizing it. There are other possible ways, becausethere are others like Germany and France, are opposed to the idea ofseizing it because seizing it because of the precedent that could set elsewhere.Janet Yellen talked about other ways that that money could go to.You say it could be used as collateral.
For getting funding for Ukraine.So it's just an idea out there. Unclear whether there is going to be anyfurther progress on this, but Ukraine needs the money.And to that end, I mean, we've sort of seen Zielinski being quite mobile andtalking with a lot of different world leaders of late, and that includesmaking a second trip to Saudi Arabia where he met with the crown princethere. What what was the outcome of thosenegotiations and how how did he come to go to Saudi Arabia in particular?Good question, because Saudi Arabia is one of the few countries that has hostedVladimir Putin since the since this full.
Scale invasion started two years ago.China, of course, being another one. So Saudi Arabia could play an importantrole in any sort of diplomatic effort to to end this war presence.LINSKY As you said. This is the second trip to Saudi Arabiathis year. He has been talking up a blueprint forpeace proposal. That's clearly something that he'd likethe Saudis to get on board with. It's really unclear just how muchprogress they made on that. No sign that there's any agreementthere. It is something that he is going to keepon advocating whether Vladimir Putin and.
The Russian government is willing to goalong with that. It's a big question.When bags were assigned home there. Much more to come here on DAYBREAK.Asia. This is Bloomberg. We do just have breaking numbers when itcomes to consumer inflation. The January reading for Australia comingin at 3.4%. That is actually a little bit softerwhen it comes to expectations that were sitting at around 3.6% but still stayingelevated from the previous month reading of 3.4%.And there were some.
Really some concerns when it comes tothe mismatch potentially between what we've been hearing from the RBA and whathas been very aggressive positioning for rate cuts and this surge that we've seenin Australian bonds in particular, perhaps setting up some of that reliefas well. We are seeing Aussie ten years sittingat about 12 basis points under Treasuries at the moment, but perhaps alittle bit of a relief when it comes to expectations that we continue to seethat heat coming through from Australian inflation readings and they come offthat reading actually at 3.4%, a little bit softer than expectations.And in fact, that broad slowdown kind of.
Starting to stretch out potentially alittle bit. There are concerns, though, fromeconomists, including here at Bloomberg Economics, that CPI potentially couldcool even further over the rest of the the first quarter, but that we do stillhave those lingering upside pressures from rental costs, insurance, householdutilities, amongst other factors that could keep inflation more to the upside.So the March 19 to 18 and 19 I should say, the always the next RBA meeting.So that will be heavily deliberated along with the next fourth quarter GDPnumbers as well due out. Now, Heidi.Also, it not too much changed all that.
But let's shift now to some breakingnews that we had at the top of the hour, because this was the distressed Chinesedevelop a country garden. It's received a winding up petition inHong Kong. It defaulted on a dollar bond back inOctober and it overtook rival Evergrande as the epicenter of China's propertycrisis. Let's get more from our bond and loanreporter Loretta Chen joining us. And Loretta, just give us the headlinedetails here. Who filed this petition?What exactly are they hoping to achieve as well?Yeah.
So from the following, we think it's asingle creditor named ever credit. And it's actually a unit of a Hong Konglisted company called King Board. So they had a loan agreement betweenCountry Guardian and this company of Hong Kong dollars 1.6 billion HKD.So it's not a big amount. And could you go to actually emphasizein its statement that it doesn't represent the broader interests of itsother creditors? So on the surface, it does seems like adispute between two companies rather than some broader creditor dispute.How does this play into the broader restructuring process?Yeah.
So Country Garden is in discussion withthis other creditor. So I think that winding up petitionreally comes at this unfortunate time when it in the case of everyone, weactually see that eventually the creditors are siding with thesepetitioners of winding up petition because they're so disappointed by thetalks they have by the by the failure of that restructuring going on.So the same rules could apply for a country garden.So we need to see more that comes out between country guardians, othercreditors. Maybe there will be some progress on therestructuring and maybe there will also,.
On the other hand, be some privatesettlement between this single creditor and the company.And so, so far, we are not sure. And there's a hearing in Hong Kongscheduled in May. So in three months time.So I'm going to be tracking quite closely.And as you're saying, you've got to really dig into the details more of thecourse the today. But that was at bond and learnedreporter there, loretta chen joining us. Thanks for your time and sticking inhong kong but shifting slightly here because the city is expected to easecurbs on property transactions when its.
Annual budget is unveiled later onWednesday. The city's real estate industry, alongwith many local politicians, have been pressuring the government to help lift alackluster market out of its worst slump in more than two decades.Joining us now is Rosanna Tang, head of Hong Kong research for Cushman Wakefieldand Rosanna. Yes.As we know, the expectation is that we're going to have all property callingstamp duties scrapped. Realistically, is that going to sort ofshift the needle here at all for the sector?Well, I think if you look back,.
Actually, the government has alreadyannounced an easing policy in their policy address last year in October.And we did see that in terms of the transaction volume, it did help toslightly pick up the residential S&P falling from a very low level last year,in December and January this year. However, it didn't really pick up theprice per say. So I think for this time, even though ifthey can well completely ease all the cooling measures, it may help to restorecertain market confidence and buyer sentiment, but it won't really trigger aV-shaped rebound immediately and boost a housing price.Yeah.
So just on that house price, would youhave any sort of estimates on the sort of gains that we could see?Well, I think currently the residential market overall is being impacted by acouple of different external factors. So apart from the cooling measures thathas been hinging on the market, we also see the interest rate hike as well asthe economic recovery pace, as well as the reasons, stock market volatility.All these factors are also impacting certain buyer sentiment and hence we dobelieve that in order for the market to restore its stability, we do need allthese factors to getting sort of getting in pace.So apart from the policy itself, we do.
Think that interest rate hike was alsobe a very important factor. Whether the fact would see the peak interms of the rate hike in the latter half of this year or even for the ratesto slightly come down a little bit would definitely help on restoring the marketprice. Yeah.So when it comes to restoring the market price, because as you say, a fewdifferent factors here, what do you think is really going to have thebiggest bearing on on the outcome here? Is it going to be government policies?Is it going to be some sort of pickup in China's mainland, China's economy, or isit going to be the Fed that starts to.
Cut rates and the economy can followsuit as well? Well, the biggest impact will definitelybe the interest rate impact, because we do see that currently in a buyingsentiment in the residential market, one of the big group would be the potentialpanel demand from the end users. And these buyer, they are actuallywaiting on the sidelines because they are afraid that the market hasn'ttouched a bottom. Yes.And they are waiting until they can see a clearer picture whether the interestrate is going to peak or is going to come down this year before they'reactually going to purchase into the.
Market, because this group of potentialbuyers is sensitive to interest rate. And the other types of fire that we'veseen is perhaps those who already have certainhome already in Hong Kong but purchased residential apartments for theirinvestment. And these buyers, currently they parktheir money in banks because of the higher interest rate that the banks canoffer. So if the interest rate can come down,they may as well review the residential apartments in Hong Kong as a viable toolfor their investment, a gain that they will get back to the market.Do you see a better outlook when it.
Comes to retail and commercialfor the commercial sector? Retail, as you said, I think that thiswill also be one of the key focus of the government by.Today because I think currently they are really keen to attract or expand atourism base to attract different tourists back to Hong Kong.And at the same time, I think for the retail sentiment here, what's thecurrent challenges? Is that apart from attracting differenttravellers back in town, we also see that the local spending habit has beenchanging. We do see that some of their localresidents, they are willing to spend the.
Weekend across the border toShenzhen or nearby Greater Bay Area cities, which also can erode certainlocal purchasing power in town. So I think the government would reallywant to boost the retail sentiment this time.No. Do you think that when it comes to race,how particularly when it comes to high end luxury and the impact that we'veseen over the past couple of years as a result of the COVID policies and theChina slowdown, do you think that sort of restructuring and the exit of a lotof these brands is permanent? And how does that, I guess, play intowhat the retail side of of commercial.
Real estate potentially looks like?Well, I think currently, as far as we talk to our clients and our retailleasing team, most of the international brands and luxury brands, they currentlyprefer to stay put and observe the market for at least a couple of moremonths because as we mentioned earlier, because of the changing spending habitsof the tourist as well as for the local spending power.So they may be eager to see that after some of the government policy of thiskind of boosting the retail sentiment or to trigger more mega events in HongKong, how actually the tourists will react in town, Because currently some ofthese tourists, they are not necessarily.
Only eyeing on shopping in Hong Konganymore. Some of them are actually leaningtowards to have a more experiential retail experience in Hong Kong.So they are some of the retailers are waiting to see how these changingbehaviors would be before they really restrategize their expansion plans inHong Kong at the moment. We've seen a lot of pressure on officeoccupancy globally, but Hong Kong perhaps is a little bit in a worseposition in some ways than other places, given there is a lot of supply comingonto the market. We haven't had a lot of mainlandbusinesses.
They've sort of been retreating from thecity. Other Western businesses have beenleaving as well. What's the outlook here?Well, I think our well, in terms of the new demand, it actually aligns with someof the other oh, what we've seen in the other global cities.Work from home would definitely have certain impact in town.But at the same time, I think the market is also seeing that, as you mentioned,perhaps the opening of border last year didn't really trigger as much of a newdemand as the market expected before. So currently the challenges is reallydue to the upcoming new supply pipeline.
Added on the already high availability.So in a way it may be good for some of the occupiers in terms of the flight ofquality move, in terms of those corporates seeking for high qualitybuildings with ESG mandates, then we do see some kind of these relocationshappening in town. But at the same time, I think from alandlord perspective, perhaps more of them would be more flexible in providingCapEx, in providing different incentive to really secured existing occupants intheir buildings to keep up that occupancy rates.Because then it's hung. Head of Hong Kong researcher CushmanWakefield, great to have you with us.
You can also turn to your Bloomberg formore on this. Lizzy Go is a commentary and analysisfrom our team of expert editors. And you can get an insider's guide tothe money and the people shaking up the finance hub in our new Hong Kong editionnewsletter out every Thursday. You can sign up via bloomberg.com slashnewsletters. More to come here on DAYBREAK.Asia. This is Bloomberg. And so I look at where the bestinvestors in the world are today, and they are places where the decisionmaking and the investment are very.
Closely tied together.And I look at places like Singapore and I look at places like the Emirates whoare doing unbelievable things. Apollo Global Management CEO Mike Roweand there on where he thinks the best investors are.Take a look at the state of trading this midweek session.And it has been pretty muted, to be honest, as we continue to sort of waitfor a bunch of Fed speak. And of course, the BNZ decision is onthe slate today as well in the coming hours with still that slight chance thatwe could potentially see a bit of a surprise move there.So pretty quiet session, if you will.
The Nikkei 2 to 5 is actually prettyflat at the moment. We're looking at that 40,000 level, butwe're a few ways away from that next milestone.Yet despite some pretty steady positive trading in that market, the cost base,South Korean stocks up by 3/10 of 1% there.We're seeing a muted session here in Australia.We did get the CPI numbers out just before paring those losses.When it comes to the equities side, after we had inflation remained kind ofsurprisingly steady in January and that potentially adds more evidence for thecase for the RBA to begin cutting rates.
Later on this year.We're seeing a bit of downside there for the Kiwi stocks, very much cautious aswe get into that RV NZ decision and looking also to some of the thepotential sort of forecasting changes as well.But what we are also seeing quite a bit of activity in terms of that potentialfor fireworks from the ANZ is really if you take a look at Kiwi impliedvolatility, we're sitting at around a seven month high Now the bulk of thatmove did happen yesterday though. We're seeing this tick up even furtherjust ahead of that RBA ANZ decision. So we're bring you the details and ofcourse that reaction when it comes to.
The trading in the Kiwi dollar, theAussie Kiwi certainly continuing at an advance when it comes to that pair aheadof the RBA. ANZ with the dollar still a little bitstronger compared to its its Kiwi peer I should say fellfor Heidi. Of course that decision is due in justunder 15 minutes from now. So going to be tracking that.And as you said, we do have that blog running if you go to t live, but whatelse are going to be tracking at the top of the next hour is shares of AussieICBC, because we've got trading that kicks off in Singapore and that's afterthe bank reported fourth quarter net.
Income that missed the average analystestimate. For more, let's bring in Bloombergintelligence senior analyst Sarah Jane Mahmoud in Singapore.And Sari ATM is at the top line level but still you're picking up on thebrightest spots that we had as well. Yes, that's right.So although Ocbc did miss consensus forecast in the fourth quarter and for2023 on profit, it did report overall very positive results with goodperformance across the business. Now the consensus misses chiefly due toweaker than expected non-interest income contributions with a weaker contributionfrom its insurance subsidiary, Great.
Eastern.In the fourth quarter. Its total income actually reached arecord high in 2023 on strong margin expansion off the back of the Fed ratehikes and also favorable shifts in its asset mix.And I think this is reflected in its higher dividend payment, whichrepresents now 53% payout ratio. What are the expectations for 2024?I think 2024 is going to be somewhat of a mixed bag.ICBC can certainly expect some tailwinds from growth in wealth assets undermanagement in 2023 and capitalize on its strategic expansion plans in ASEAN andalso in Greater China.
So we do expect an uptick in fee incomethis year and loan growth is likely to remain relatively weak, especially inSingapore. And then we've also got to factor inmargin compression in the first half with rising costs of funds and alsoexpectations for the Fed to start cutting rates in the second half.What about the outlook for M&A? Because we've seen subsea maybe coming alittle bit under the radar here, but still somewhat active?Yes, that's right. ICBC has been very active in M&A,perhaps with less high profile acquisitions than its peers, DBS and UABafter they acquired the retail units of.
Citigroup in various regions in in AsiaPacific. So Ocbc is in the process of acquiringacquiring the Indonesian unit of Commonwealth Bank of Australia, andthere's such high growth potential in Indonesia, it's quite an excitingopportunity. And also our MetLife over in Malaysia,it's also, I think, important to note that ICBC maintains a stronger capitalbuffer than its peers. So it is armed with the the right moneyto invest, to engage in further and they when the right opportunity does ariseand to grow organically and inorganically over the mid to long term.That was Bloomberg Intelligence senior.
Analyst for South-East Asian Asian SarahJane Mahmoud in Singapore there. And as we said, Singapore trade openingat the top of the next hour. But let's take a look at some othercorporate stories we're tracking today. eBay shares jumped in late trade with astrong holiday quarter, giving investors fresh hope following steep job cuts.Fourth quarter profit was $1.07 a share on sales of $2.56 billion.All of that is actually beating the average analyst estimate.eBay also added $2 billion to an existing stock buyback program.Shares of dating app Bumble tumbled after the bell after its revenueforecast for the current quarter of up.
To $268 million fell short of estimates.It's also cutting about one third of its workforce or about 350 roles globally asit seeks to revive slowing user growth. Bumble says the cuts will helpcentralize engineering and product teams in fewer locations.We'll have more ahead on DAYBREAK. Asia.This is Bloomberg. The CEO of gold and copper producerNewmont, says the company's position for a once in a generation stock gains.Speaking exclusively to Bloomberg, Tom Palmer told us that plans for$1,000,000,000 buyback are on track following the acquisition of Australia'sNewcrest.
Mining.Our stock is at a once in a generational price.Last week was a big week for Newmont. We announced following our bigacquisition of Newcrest a go forward portfolio that's never been seen beforein the gold industry. It's all Tier one operations.It's got great exposure to copper. It's got some great projects sitting inbehind it. If you come in into new mug stock nowand ride the value with us back us, you were going to go for a journey with usthat will significantly increase that stock to where it is today.Don laughing because that was a CEO.
Answer if I ever heard one.On the flip side, though, you're looking at cutting the quarterly dividend whenyou reported and you had to reset your dividend policy in part because you'reabsorbing Newcrest and you have to sell a lot of assets to kind of make thisacquisition happen and you have to deal with synergies and stuff.Part of that is $2 billion in cash sale of assets.How's that going? All going to plan?Alexis, what we announced back in May of last year when we announced the deal, wesaid there'll be synergies. We said to be $2 billion of cash fromportfolio optimization.
We expected to adjust our capitalallocation to match the transform business.We'll get our balance sheet nice and fit.We'll pay a $1 share based dividend. We'll get 2 billion of proceeds at leastcoming in from those divestments. And and a good portion of that moneywill go towards our $1 billion share buyback.Everything consistent with what we announced in May of last year.How soon do you think those divestments will come time and once they are done,where does that put Newmont next? We committed to work through six assetsthat we held for divestment.
We worked through those for the courseof the next 12 months. Processes started with two of them.There's a bunch in North America that will start in the next month or so.So we're on track. Got clear plans to have that workthrough over the course of this year. Our focus is on delivering the value andthe synergies from our go forward Tier one portfolio.That's our focus for 2024. Get beyond that.We have got some very big copper gold projects sitting in the wings waiting toincrease our exposure to copper in 25, 26 and beyond.Really exciting time.
That was the Newmont CEO, Tom Palmer,speaking exclusively to Bloomberg there. And let's get a look at this.Some of the stocks are going to be watching when markets open in Hong Kongand mainland China at the bottom of the next hour.First up is the stressed Chinese develop a country garden.It's received a winding up petition in Hong Kong.The first hearing date for that petition is scheduled after May 17.We're also going to be watching the moves and other developments in the cityafter local media reported that financial Secretary Paul Chan mayannounce the easing of some property.
Curbs.New well development sunk Hong Properties and Henderson landdevelopment are among the stocks on our radar.And Heidi, not just those names are also taking a look at Baidu in theexpectations around earnings there. Yeah Badoo is a big one that we'rewatching for in terms of really wanting to see evidence of them seizing theadvances to trying to erase that 30% drop and the lackluster sales growthreally going to be progress when it comes to the progress.But, of course, we are headed into in the next 5 minutes the BNZ policydecision.
You can follow along at our live blog.This is Bloomberg.
