This is DAYBREAK.Asia. We're counting down to Asia's majormarket opens. And Heidi, perhaps not slamming so muchwith market implications, but certainly that focus over the last couple of hourshas been on that New York courtroom where Donald Trump has been convicted inan historic case. Historic day, the first woman presidentto be found guilty of crimes in all 34 charges.When it comes to the falsification of business records to conceal thesepayments. And though, yes, this is a market thattends to kind of look through some of.
These shorter term domestic US politicalcomplications, But it is a complication as we get into November and all theimplications in terms of both those swing voters and the logistics of how hecontinues to run for president from here.Yes, certainly a lot of questions and probably more questions to be got atthis stage. But we've got the open of Japan andmarkets just coming online this morning here.Very busy day as well for Japanese economic data.And the most forward looking one we've had coming through is the Tokyoinflation numbers.
Actually, we saw a bit of a pick up overthe course of May. So does perhaps keep the BOJ on trackfor rate hikes are the figures that are coming through as well.We saw retail sales has also beat estimates, industrial production numberscoming in a little bit weaker than what had been expected.The jobless rate holding fairly steady. So lots of economic data, as we said.But the one really perhaps one of the primary focuses has been that Tokyoinflation, as I said, an acceleration over the course of May.What also tracking in the session so far.Well Japanese yen of course always one.
Really to note but trading around that157 mark and you're seeing stocks coming online this morning just fractionallyhigher. So interesting as well, becauseovernight on Wall Street, it really was that story of those U.S.GDP figures. They undershot estimates concerns aroundthe health of the US economy, concerns for for corporate America, of course, inturn. And also question marks over where theFed is really going to go with its rate settings.And hearing from a few different speakers from the FOMC.That's the state of play there for.
Japan.But let's shift to Korea as well, because stocks likewise just startingtrading this morning. And again, you're seeing just a bit ofupside creeping through, keeping a close watch as well on what's happening withthe Korean one there today. Just slightly firmer against thegreenback so far, Heidi. Yeah, Take a look at how we're settingup when it comes to the staggered open here in Sydney this Friday session.We saw quite a bit of suggestion that we would see some optimism as we get intothe end of the week. A little bit of upside, about a 10th of1% there when it comes to treasuries as.
Well as, of course, we see that beingreflected across Australian and Kiwi bonds as well.A little bit of underperformance for Australian bonds expected compared totreasuries, given the CPI print and given the higher chance of an RBI ratehike through to September after that inflation data.That's according to Westpac. But a little bit of wait and see stillkind of being played out in these markets as well.Interestingly, we did also kind of get that those comments from Sarah Hunteryesterday saying that the RBA does recognise that households are strugglingand therefore maybe there is a limit to.
What we see with rate hikes.The Aussie dollar pretty steady 6629 at the minute and of course as I mentioned,we're watching U.S. treasuries in light of expectationsgoing into the inflation print, also watching oil as well, Opec+ working onthat output cut accord that could go all the way into 2025.We're seeing a little bit of softness there in crude supply, very much infocus before that meeting. Let's get back to our top story, though.Donald Trump is calling the guilty verdict a disgrace after a New York juryconvicted four convicted the former president on all 34 counts in his hushmoney trial.
His sentencing has been set for just afew days before the Republican convention.That's set to nominate him for another run at the White House.This was a disgrace. This was a rigged trial by a conflictedjudge who was corrupt as a rigged trial in disgrace.And it wouldn't give us a venue change. We were at 5% or 6% in this district, inthis area. This was a rigged, disgraceful trial.And the real verdict is going to be November 5th by the people.Well, President Biden's campaign is also weighing in, saying it proves that noone is above the law.
For more, let's bring our political newsdirector, Jodi Schneider. Jodi, in so many ways, we're inuncharted territory now in terms of how this presumptive Republican nominee thenproceeds from here, in terms of how that campaign is run.We know that in terms of his supporters, this will probably just galvanize moresupport for him. What do you make of the implicationsgiven there's so much we don't know about, you know, whether he will, infact, be sentenced to a jail term, for example?Yeah, it is remarkable, Heidi. You know, the fact that a formerpresident for the first time in history.
Was convicted of on criminal charges.This is these are actual criminal charges in state court in New York.And the fact that he is the front runner for the Republican nominee and that hehas a very good chance of winning the presidency in November and having beennow as a, you know, convicted of criminal charges.It is remarkable. It's a historic day.We've never seen this before. We've never been here before in U.S.politics. The question that you raise, will itmatter to a lot of voters? Probably not.We've talked to and had polled a lot of.
Voters who have said they're stickingwith their plans. But also, according to the BloombergMorning Council poll that we have been doing every month for the past five orso months, we have had a significant number of people say that their feelingsabout voting for Trump, for the former president, could be impacted if he wereconvicted of a crime. So that's what we'll be looking at.That's among swing state voters. They're the ones that are the mostimportant. So those are the states where, you know,they could really make the difference and who wins in November.There's also the question of how Donald.
Trump will use this.So far, he's tried to say that the system was rigged.We heard that at those remarks that he made just after the verdict wasannounced and that this is Joe Biden's fault, that he's taken the Department ofJustice and other parts of the law enforcement apparatus in the U.S.and turn those against Donald Trump for political gain.He will certainly be making that argument going forward, whether he canmake it successfully in the fund raising aspect as well.And with donors, it's another question. Well, Jodi so far does actually sayingthat there has been perhaps there or.
Well, yes, perhaps already.But also there could be further donations that come from from Trump'smost ardent supporters. Do you think, though, given the way thatthat Trump is, is shaping this conviction or verdict as something thatthat was rigged or a conspiracy against him?Do you think that that turns off any voters in this, particularly those onesthat are undecided at this point in time, as you said, the ones in thoseswing states that could also really determine the outcome of that vote inNovember? That's right.Yeah, And that's the real question for.
November, because, again, the base boththey are Joe Biden's base and Donald Trump's base are probably not going tobe affected by the outcome of a case like this.Historic, though it may be that those independent voters, swing state voters,those who haven't made up their minds and there still are plenty, a lot ofpeople, even though this election seems to have been going on forever, won'tmake up their minds until the fall, until just the months before they vote.And by then, the question is, will this have an impact on those voters, andparticularly voters who, you know, who have who are not part of the base, whodon't necessarily agree with a lot of.
The kinds of things Donald Trump hasdone in the past? Will this swing them to Joe Biden?There's not a lot of you know, we haven't seen a lot of enthusiasm foreither candidate. And the question is, does this propelsome into Biden's camp who say they just can't vote for a convicted criminal?That was Bloomberg's political news director, Jodi Schneider, there inWashington. And let's shift our attention now aswell to any sort of possible market to possible market and market implicationshere, bringing out Bloomberg executive editor for Asia Markets, Paul Dobson.And Paul, we've been speaking about this.
Already, thatusually markets sort of tune out what's going on in Washington.Is this the case here or do you think that this sort of injects possiblegreater volatility over the next few months?Yes. So it's certainly something thatinvestors are going to have to pay attention to, I think, at a very microlevel. Stocks that are related to Trump are hismedia arm, for example, did take a knock in after hours trading before thebroader market. What we would typically look at may bewould be Mexican peso is a good.
Barometer of future election risk.That didn't really move all that much. The commentary that we've got frommarket watchers seems to be so far it's a long way ahead still.So when we get closer, maybe those considerations that Jodi was talkingabout will come closer to the mind and pay more into the volatility.And also, when we get the sentencing, maybe people will be able to get aclearer view of exactly what it might mean for markets.But right now, probably steady as she goes.Just keep watching those headlines. And in the meantime, of course, as dodown to us, echo data, the inflation.
Expectations, what we're hearing fromFed speakers now.Exactly. It's going to be a big day today withthe data in the US session. And that's what everybody's been waitingfor all week, really. If I had to go back to our Sun Sundayand Monday stories to remind myself what we're looking for, which is particularlyon a month on month basis, ex energy, housing, looking for a slowing down ofthe inflation in the US. So that would give market someencouragement that the Fed can get closer to cutting interest rates laterin the year.
On the other hand, an upside surpriseand we could just have another period of volatility in stocks and higher bondyields this month. Again, we've been through that cycle.We've seen it several times already this year.Where was the start of the month? We had some hope.The Fed gave us some signals. We're still looking to cut interestrates. The bond market had to rally and sincethen we kind of had another pull back. We've got two year yields go close to 5%again in the past couple of days. So still those worries and cloudshanging over us.
So people watching in the Fed commentaryfor any mentions of the possibility of hikes but hasn't become a bigger themefor us yet. But people are a little bit on edge andparticularly going into this number, which is going to be really crucialtoday. Bloomberg executive editor for AsiaMarkets, Paul Dobson there. And you can get a roundup of the storiesyou need to know to get today going in today's edition of DAYBREAK.Subscribers can find that at Go and Your Terminals is also on the mobile in theBloomberg Anywhere app. You can always play around with thosesettings so you just get the news on the.
Industries and assets that you careabout. This is Bloomberg. Well, defence ties between the US andChina are set to take center stage at this year's Shangri-La Dialogue inSingapore, which brings together global defense ministers hundreds of delegatesto address regional and international security challenges.Let's cross over to the summit where Bloomberg Markets Asia anchor HaslindaAmin is standing by with our next guest. And those challenges has myriad.Well, that's right. How do you talks about tensions withinthe US and China?.
They say when the elephants fight.Small nations like Singapore, like New Zealand do suffer for it.Well, speaking of New Zealand, I have New Zealand's Defence Minister, JudithCollins, with me. Minister, good to have you with us.Thank you for having us. We know that New Zealand is inching evercloser to its traditional partners, the likes of the US, UK, Australia.Why is that? How much of that has to do with thefight between the US and China? Well, no one should be surprised.We have been part of the Five Eyes agreement for over 70 years.I mean, we are we have had longstanding.
And very real relationships securitywise with the UK, Australia, US and Canada.So no one should be surprised us have good strong relationships with Singaporeand Malaysia as part of the Five Powers relationship so that no one should besurprised. And just like Singapore, we are alwaysvery aware of tensions in the world and that we need to get on and trade aswell. So we're just having to walk that line,which Singapore does. But it is a China that wants to spreadits influence, including in the Pacific. How worried are you about that?I think we need to be very aware that.
New Zealand has a role, as doesAustralia and other countries in the South Pacific in particular, and weobviously want to be able to have regional security.So in terms of China, there are opportunities for China to work withnations that have already got longstanding commitments in the Pacificrather than to not do that. So we think it's very important that werespect those Pacific nations, that we ask them what they need, that we helpthem where we can, and that we respect them as sovereign nations.And it does not do anyone any good if they are not absolutely sovereign.But how challenging is it, given that.
China.It is, you know, New Zealand's largest trading partner?We've seen how China clamped down on its beef exports to China, to the country.I'm just wondering, how are you assessing that kind of balancing act?Well, of course, financial security is something that has top of mind for manyNew Zealanders. But of course, there is no financialsecurity without actual security, and we certainly know that.I mean, I think we are doing a very good job of working with China and and withour traditional security partners as well.It's just simply one of those things.
That as a small nation we have to bedexterous, but we should never be naive. And in terms of security, strategicarrangements, we know New Zealand has made a bid to join orcas.Where are you with that negotiation? Actually made a bid.What we have said is that we're interested in seeing what role we couldplay if we were invited to join. It would be Orcas pillar two, which isthe non-nuclear and tech area and mostly centred on defence.We have something, some some areas that we could contribute to.We obviously have quite a lot of expertise in the space area, advancedaviation.
And in terms of how how about our owntech side, So. So there are some things we could dothere, but whether or not it's in our discussions And when do you when willyou decide? Look, there.No, they're nowhere really other than, you know, discussions that we'd beinterested to see what opportunities there might be.This is not it hasn't been formalized into any particular negotiations oranything like that. We just say we're interested if there'ssomething that's enough for us. But these are discussions that theCabinet would need to come to, not.
Something that a minister by themselvesdoes. If you do join orcas, is there a reasonto think that you may need to increase your defence budget, which some say isjust too little? Well, we're really clear is that sinceabout 1990, our defence budget as a percentage of GDP has been dropping, asmany other countries did in the 1990s when the Berlin Wall had fallen and theworld peace had broken out. So it is important though, that we lookat that. So we've got a plan that's coming to myoffice in the next few weeks, a defence capability plan to look forward until2040 on capital items and also other.
Expenditure.So we do we're very aware that we need to increase our defence spending.Rather than just increase it. We need to make sure that we're doing itin a way where we can actually add value to our security patterns.But increasing your budget, what does that necessarily mean?Are you looking at perhaps 2% as recommended by Natal, for instance?Just what the Prime Minister has been very clear that we need to move towardsthat. But again, it's not just thinking thatwe can, you know, as a small nation we have to be quite a nation what we do andwe have to be interoperable with our.
Closest partner, Australia.So whichever we are, we're going to be looking at how we can be moreinteroperable, whether it is buying the same equipment, whether it's us buyingsomething, buying something else, but working in together.I mean, that's we have the expertise that goes back to World War One days andwe still work very closely together. But the thing is, Minister, people pointto your ageing assets. For instance, the A4 is 75 sevens whichbroke down and could not transport your Prime Minister.I mean, what kind of replacements are we anticipated?What kind of plans do you have?.
I mean, they are very old aircraft is 85years old, so they've done great service.But no one's believing that that's going to last for much longer.So that is part of that capability plan. And so we are looking towards, say, whatare our needs? And also point out that occasionallyother people's aircrafts also break down.But look, we we're just not going to say we're going to put this amount of moneyand we need to say what it is. We're going to spend it on, how we'regoing to pay for it. And we are going to, though, you know,we're living in a very difficult.
Geopolitical time.We are very aware that things are changing the world.We just have to look at Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine and the terribledevastation wrought on that country and just know that things are not.We're not living in a benign strategic environment.We live in a very challenging geopolitical world.Yes, we are going to be looking to increase our defence spend as we can,but also with a plan rather than just throw something as a minister.Trump in the news today found guilty of all 34 felony counts, but it doesn'thinder his prospects of becoming.
A president of the United States.So how would a Trump presidency impact relations between the US and NewZealand? Well, I think that it hasn't occurredyet, so that's hypothetical. But whoever is president of the UnitedStates will be a matter for the US people.New Zealand is not responsible for the voting in the United States.We will work with whoever is there that our relationship with the United Statesgoes back to about the 1870s and scientific work.I just think we just leave it to the US people.All right, Minister, thank you so much.
For being here today.There you have it. New Zealand's Defence Minister JudithCollins, joining us here at the Shangri-La Dialogue and we're sending itback to you, Heidi. BELLthanks. Yeah, That was Bloomberg's chiefinternational correspondent for South East Asia Haslinda Amin with, as shesaid, Judith Collins, the New Zealand Minister of Defence.And we're going to have a lot more from the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singaporelater today. You can catch our interviews with theexecutive chairman of International.
Institute for Strategic Studies and theLithuanian Prime Minister at the time that you can see him on the screen.More ahead on DAYBREAK. Asia as well.This is Bloomberg. All right.We're about 20 minutes into the session or just over for trading in Sydney,Seoul in Tokyo this morning. And we've got a few different moversthat we're tracking here. The likes of High, for instance, you cansee here that's dropping on on a report that a court has barred the the newjeans producers removal here. That's that's the head of one of itsmusic labels a door as well.
So the sole district court saying lateThursday that hive's evidence and rationale and not sufficient to back thethe case or the company's case of means dismissal.So you are just seeing that stock reaction coming through the INC.Another name we're tracking here, we actually have reports of a ruling on thechairman of the the chairman of the company's divorce actually, and thatincludes around a $1 billion settlement possibly to his wife.So we're hearing details of that. Stock has actually been jumping there asmuch as 10%. And other names we're tracking KansaiPaint, Fuji Media.
These are interesting because we'reseeing signals of Japan's corporate governance reform in action here.So Kansai paint, for instance, a buyback has been announced.So you are seeing again, that big market reaction there.And Fuji Media as well reports that there's a push for an MBO to take place,and that's really coming through from some of its core investors there.Some of the latest stories are tracking as well.On the corporate front, an tick tock is actually pushing back in a Reutersreport that says the social media platform is working on a clone of theapp's recommendation algorithm for US.
Users.The article says the end result may be a version that operates independently ofChinese parent bytedance. In March, the US Congress passed a billrequiring a sale or ban of tiktok's US operations, calling the reportmisleading. TikTok says the divestment required byWashington is not commercially nor legally possible.Apple is said to be planning to overhaul its Siri virtual assistant with moreadvanced artificial intelligence. Sources say the new system will allowSiri to take Siri to take command of all the features within apps for the firsttime.
With a revamp using large languagemodels, Apple is set to unveil its A.I. strategy next month at its developersconference. Bloomberg sources say developer ChinaBanker is in talks advanced talks with major banks for a $6.9 billion loan.We're told discussions that are being led by ICBC.ICBC started a few months ago after financial regulators instructed lendersto offer funding support to banker. If signed, it would be the largest bankloan issued in the Asia-Pacific outside Japan going back to 2022 Heidi.According to he and how futures in Europe open up for this Friday session,we are seeing a little bit of upside.
When it comes to Asian stocks.Not much of that is being carried through though.Some weakness across the euro stoxx 50 futures at the moment.German dax futures also in the back four.We did see a broadly higher session figure in equities on Thursday was arebound off that three week low though. And just to read those weekly declines,it does look like those broad based gains might be given up a little bitgiven we're still seeing that pressure from the recent surge in bond yieldsdespite some cooling there when it comes to the big move in those yields.In the previous session, we did see real.
Estate, telecoms stocks seeing the sortof gains there. But of course the Stoxx 600 seeing itsbiggest one day slide in just over a month.Taking a look at how US risk assets are trading in this as of course we continueto look for market reaction to the historic news that Donald trump hasbecome the first former US president to be found guilty of these criminalcharges related to the hush money payment to a porn star.This, of course, muddles the outlook as we get into, what, just five monthsuntil Election Day in the United States and the implications of when thatsentencing will happen, what it will.
Look like and how that sort ofcomplicates his path to try and return to the White House.We're seeing US futures, S&P futures looking a little bit softer ahead of theinflation data. This is Bloomberg. Let's get back to today's top story.Donald Trump being found guilty on all 34 counts in his hush money trial.Now, the first former US president to become a convicted felon.Let's talk about this verdict with the US legal reporter David Berry, ofcourse, who joins us in New York. And David, really great to have you withus.
So talk talk us through, you know, thisobviously uncharted territory when it comes to where we go from here.But was this a surprise and where do we go from here in terms of the expectedsentencing? Well, I would say it was not aparticularly surprising verdict for those who sat through the trial.The evidence was very powerful that Trump engaged in a hush money scheme tohide, you know, the story of Stormy Daniels,who said that she had an affair with Trump.Trump will be sentenced on June or July 11 in the same courtroom in Manhattan,where he was convicted by the judge who.
Oversaw the trial.One machine. It's unclear whether he'll get sentencedto prison or not. He faces up to four years and he canstill run for office as a convicted felon.He's expected to appeal and it's unclear whether he'll be successfulon that appeal. I would say thathe still faces three other criminal trials.Two of them relate to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, and one ofthem relates to his handling of classified documents after he leftoffice.
So he's a long way from being out of thewoods legally here. So, David, how is this likely to playout then? Because we're also coming up againstthat US election deadline for early November.Is this something that's going to be really center stage, you think, andreally detract from from the presidential campaign or electioncampaign? That's the big question.No one can figure out whether this is going to really hurt his campaign ornot. He has a very devoted base of tens ofmillions of followers who seem to love.
Him no matter what he does and no matterwhat happens to him in court. You know, he's lost two previous civiltrials in the last year and he's been able to turn this this type of setbackinto a fundraising opportunity. He's continued to say that he is thevictim of a Democratic witch hunt and that he is being persecuted for who heis. But this trial also showed that theAmerican legal system works as it's designed to work, and that the trialwent off essentially without a hitch. He had his day in court.He had an opportunity to testify and he did not take it.So we'll see how the American public,.
The American public reacts to thisverdict. And of course, perhaps I'm completelypredictably from Donald Trump. We've heard these grumblings that it wasrigged, that he's an innocent man. There's also plenty of his supporterswho would share that same view. Right.In fact, even prominent investors like Bill Ackman saying that he agreespotentially with Ron DeSantis view that this is a culmination of a legal processthat's been bent to the political will of the actors involved.Is there any evidence or any kind of objective view that there could be truthor reason to this?.
I was in the trial every day, and so thewitnesses saw how the judge handled it. His lawyers were able to confront hisaccusers and conduct vigorous cross-examinations.They filed legal motions to advance their position, just like any otherdefendant would do in that courthouse. So I don't think the jury was rigged.I don't think the outcome was predetermined.He had his opportunity to defend himself.Now, the defense objected to some of thejudge's rulings, both during the trial and in the jury instructions before thedue deliberations began.
So it's possible that he may have achance on appeal, but in his other cases and in this case, he's lost a number oflegal rulings. So there's not he hasn't had a lot oftraction in these claims that the process is rigged against him.I should also add that because this happened in state court and not federalcourt, if he were to be elected again in November, he's not able to pardonhimself as he could in the two federal cases that are pending against him.Right. Hmm.That was a US legal reporter there, David Boreanaz in New York.Thanks very much for those insights.
There.Let's get more on this now. I'm bring in Alexis Crowe.She's global head of geopolitical investing at see Today from Tokyo.And Alexis, as we were just hearing that with David, it really seems like from avoter's perspective, the a lot of the decisions are already cast except forperhaps some swing states. But do you think that the countries inthis region within Asia are really preparing enough for the odds that we dosee Trump returning to the White House? Okay, Heidi, thanks so much for havingme on. You know, what's interesting is there'sa forecast that we made when the.
Incoming Biden team came into the WhiteHouse was that you'd really see a change in tone but not in stance with regard tosome of the protectionist measures that we've seen emanate from Washington goingback even to 2016 onwards, in 2017 onwards.And certainly I would say that there is an element of the French phrase of peaceassurance that if actually Trump comes in and Biden comes in, you're going tocontinue to see rising protectionist measures come out of Washington, notonly to Asia Pacific, but also potentially looking to Europe.And we've seen some of those instances actually overnight as well, because wehad a Bloomberg scoop talking about.
Possibly restrictions being placed on onexports of chips and chip making equipment or supplies to the Middle Eastwith the likes of Nvidia. Do you see perhaps that thatprotectionism also applying not only to China, but also friends of China?Certainly, I think one of the key phrases, of course, is the return ofindustrial policy. And we're seeing that pop up not onlyfrom Washington, we're seeing that pop up within Europe as well.We're coming out of the the economic shutdowns of of the pandemic and theassociated economic stops. Many countries are stopping to assesswhat sectors are deemed to be of the.
Utmost economic and national security.Now, the irony is, of course, that when we think about multinationalcorporations, when we think about investment pools of capital, that theknow how the human capital, the process and the skills that are necessary todrive growth in some of these critical sectors, of course, don't just come fromone jurisdiction. So actually, it's interesting as wethink about some of the most, you know, front running and foresighted economiesare actually those that are courting investment from different types ofcompanies and from different types of countries in order to grow sustainablyin these in these high, high tech.
Patterns of demand.Alex, as you talk about this sort of post-pandemic emergence of a shuttleeconomic diplomacy, which is really quite interesting, do you think as wesee more of these charm offensives, that means that some of these alliances thatwe're seeing, particularly from a trade supply chain and an economic sense, arebecoming more nuanced? You know, it's interesting, Heidi,because you could say that as we kick off the Shangri la dialogue inSingapore, that America has really retained a defence first stance acrossthe Asia-Pacific. China has retained very much an economicand trade oriented stance across the.
Asia Pacific.And there are other countries I'm sitting in, one in Japan, that havereally taken a growth and investment lens.And so as we note, Kishi, The Sun has really pursued this shuttle economicdiplomacy across the globe. And it's fascinating, right?Well, a lot of headlines are dominated by rising protectionist measures.Meanwhile, other political leaders and political leaders in waiting continue toconduct this shuttle diplomacy, creating significant opportunities in new and oldeconomy sectors alike. Alexis, we've been talking a little bitin depth about what next post.
And of course, that convergence, when weget to the point where is then being kind of supersized by the powers ofquantum computing. A lot of this conversation has beenpreparedness by corporations. Geographically, where do you see thecountries and the policies that are sort of best placed to take advantage ofthis? Obviously, here in Australia,particularly the Queensland Government, are making enormous investments.Well, it's fascinating, right? Because I is definitely, you know, thethe investor theme du jour and the corporate allocation theme du jour.As we note, of course, quantum computing.
Is potentially we always have to look atwhere the next theme is Down the horizon in Quantum is certainly one of thosefascinating to note. In economies such as Japan, you have hada lot of government policies shaped at garnering pools of capital and knowhowinto these industries of the future. So the LDP, having had a working groupon semicolon, which far predated the semicolon crunch Chip, also sitting herein Japan, you have a concerted effort to significantly build out data centres.We're seeing Singapore position itself to do that within the Asia-Pacific aswell, undersea cables. When we think about the rise of datasovereignty, so Japan and Singapore also.
Positioning themselves to be data hubsin this rising land of data protectionism.And also we have to ask about the skills to match.What's fascinating to note is some of the US large tech companies havepromised to upskill 3 billion people or 3 million people in Japan to be able tofoster and generate the digital skills required to make this transition inLEAP. So we're seeing it happen across theboard and I would always just keep my eye on where the next theme is isgrowing from. Alexis, always great to chat with you.Alexis Carr, global head of political.
Investing at P.W.See. More to come here on DAYBREAK.Asia. This is Bloomberg. The new CEO of top Japanese oil refinerINEOS says he wants to take initiatives to improve diversity within the companythat made it. Miyata also spoke to us exclusivelyabout the company's future amid the continued weakness in the yen.I know you know some of those the do weekend has positive effects on ourearnings. However, if the volatility is too large,it will impact the earnings and affects.
Actual operations, which is not a goodthing. Also, we get materials from overseas.The yen's depreciation has a certain effect in this area.The 200 billion share buyback announced earlier this month was very received bythe markets. What priority do you place on improvingcapital efficiency? Is there a possibility of further sharebuybacks if profits are better than expected?I saw this now in terms of capital efficiency.Since last year we have been presenting a certain vision for both E on ROIC.We have been working on better returns.
For a long time and have decided toincrease priority further with a buyback of ¥200 billion.As we would like our shareholders to continue supporting us.We want to respond to them as much as possible.And of course we will continue to discuss further steps and meet our set agoal of increasing the number of nominated managers from current 58 tomore than 100. This is hardly an ambitious target.What initiatives will be taken to improve the situation?Is there a risk that sexual misconduct by the executives in recent years reallydelayed the achievement of the targets?.
As of April 1st, we made some personnelchanges. The president of Anil's Power, one ofour major operating companies, is now a woman, as is the chief human resourcesofficer. We also decided to appoint four of awoman at the managerial level, including at the head office in Japan.There has never been a female refinery manager.The director of Kashima Petroleum's Kashima refinery is now a woman, and Iexpect that she will lead the way in diversity in the future.I feel we need to focus more on training and development regardless of whetherpeople are male or female.
I myself would like to make a biggerpush in diversity, which is very important in the future.We need to change our company, especially as we're talking about carbonneutrality. We are also talking about our AWI in thecontext of our desire to take another step forward in the global arena withoutdiversity. I don't see a future for this company.The use of hydrogen is not expanding as fast as expected.What are the issues in April to raise the price of hydrogen by 55 out of 550into 20 2100 per kilogram? At this price, the fuel cost of a fuelsabeco is going to be higher than that.
Of hybrid vehicles.Has any only given up on the idea of promoting hydrogenalone? Guilty or whatever?Basically, we started building hydrogen stations in 2014.We were thinking they will focus on heavy duty trucks and buses.The situation is different in Europe. The CO2 price is totally differentwithin their regulations. I spoke with the CEO of Air Liquide inParis and he told me they have 1000 cups which are Toyota's hydrogen model.Tomorrow, the price of gasoline and the price of hydrogen will be similar.The reason for this is our CO2 prices.
And other factors will all come intoplay if Japan goes this way in the future.Carbon pricing will bring a little more green and blue energy into the country.I believe that hydrogen will naturally be a part of that.We would like to promote the overseas supply chain and local production forlocal hydrogen consumption in the future.So there is no talk of any of us pushing back on hydrogen. That was the CEO of Heyday Miata.Speaking exclusively with Bloomberg, Kiyoshi and a gamer.And now let's stick with Japan because.
We actually saw inflation in the capitalTokyo accelerating this month, potentially keeping the BOJ on track toconsider another rate hike in the coming months.For more, let's bring in our Asia economy and government safety editorBrian Fowler in Tokyo. And and Brian.Yeah just taking a look here at the at the figures and it and it was a littlebit mixed because you saw. Yes a pick up and and the headline thecore reading in line with estimates here but that core core reading a little bitof softening. So what was your sort of read through onthat?.
Yeah, well, we had a whole storm of datathis morning and yeah, as you say, on the surface, at least, a lot of it doeslook mixed. But if you dig into the details, I thinkit's actually a very robust package of statistics on the Tokyo CPI.The key gauge we look at, at 1.9% is just below the BOJ's target.And as you said, the core core actually slowed a little bit more than wethought. On the other hand, those statistics weredistorted somewhat by the roll out of education subsidies in the previousmonth. You can see that looking at the serviceprices, the service price growth in the.
Capital was only about 0.7%.That's quite weak from what we've been looking at in previous months.But again, that's all related to the education subsidies.If you think about the nationwide CPI, Bloomberg Economics estimates that basedon what we saw for Tokyo, the nationwide CPI figure would come out at about 3%and we'll get those data in a couple of weeks.3%, of course, is well above the BOJ's target and definitely keeps it on trackfor another rate hike in coming months. Yeah, and we did hear from Governor Wadeearlier this week saying that there's scope for gradual tightening.Right.
So what's the sort of latest gauge ofwhat this trajectory could look like? Yes, we are right now conducting asurvey of economists to get their their latest feelings about it.But the main consensus is a hike in October with another fairly sizableportion of economists looking at July. They all cited the risk of a possiblehike in June, although very few actually expect that to happen.So I think we're continuing to look at how wage gains will affect prices.We also have tax cuts coming in June that could give a push to both spendingand prices. And then we'll also see utilitysubsidies rolled, ended, phased out from.
This month.That could push up the utility cost component in price gauges and be onemore factor that gives the BOJ a green light to go ahead and hike interestrates. In Asia, our economy and governmentsenior editor Brian Fowler there in Tokyo.And you can watch us live and see our past interviews on our interactive TVfunction at that TV go. You can also dive into any of thesecurities or the Bloomberg functions that we talk about.Join in on the conversation. You can send us instant messages duringour shows.
This is for Bloomberg subscribers onlyto check it out. It is at TV.Go. This is going back. Well, Heidi, the point's just beingmade. This is actually the end of an era ofsorts, perhaps today, because we're actually in the last ever block ofdaybreak Asia. And starting Monday, there's actually anew show in store, Cherie, on she's she's in Tokyo.She's moved across from New York and. And you guys areteaming up for a real look at the.
Trading action.What's in store? Yeah.And as you and I have been talking about, though, there's been so muchfocus, renewed focus really now with the Bank of Japan, well on track to policytightening. And, of course, just the historicweakness that we continue to see in the yen.No better time than for Sherri to be on the ground in Tokyo.Bloomberg TV will be there to cover really all of the details, speaking tosome of the top corporate newsmakers there as well.And see and really be there as we see.
This economic transition and how that'sgoing to sort of impact Japan, particularly in light of the complexgeopolitical environment that we continue to be in.And even the headline news on Donald Trump today really kind of just doessuggest that what happens in November, some of the trade policies and thesecurity policies is really going to have a big impact on this part of theworld. For allies, for U.S.allies like Japan, unlike Australia, will be there every minute of the wayBill. Yeah, Heidi, is certainly, as you said,that countdown to the U.S.
Election and what that means for theseparts of these countries in this part of the world as well.You've got that BOJ policy shift, as you said, and also changes perhaps underfood with Australia and this sort of focus not only on the mining sector butthe the new economy sectors that are likewise a big watch there.Yeah, very, very exciting. But yes, of course, a little bit sad tosay goodbye to DAYBREAK, which has been our flagship show since we launched herein Sydney. But we'll be back on Monday morning.Hong Kong time 7 a.m. with the very first episode of the AsiaTrade.
In the meantime, the markets keepmarching on. So let's take a look at how US futuresare reacting. We've been kind of looking prettyclosely at US markets just in terms of if there's sort of any kind of sentimentchange from what we've seen with that historic news of Donald Trump and hislegal woes, of course. But at this point, this is a market thatcontinues to look through domestic political color, if you will.And, of course, we have inflation data and some of the other Fed speak thatwe're watching out for as well in terms of where the trajectory for monetarypolicy goes from here.
Futures are looking a little bit mixedthroughout Asia, though. We are seeing Taiwan looking like a bitof a pop at the open, a D China futures also seeing some upside of about 6/10 of1%. Their dollar china one to watch givenjust the big sort of a drag of weakness that we've seen when it comes to tradingfor the yuan, how that's played out for the weakness in the yen as well,momentum very much firmly to the upside for this Friday session here in Asia.That is it from the last edition of DAYBREAK.Asia markets coverage continues. We look ahead to the start of trade inHong Kong, Shanghai and Shenzhen.
The China show is next.This is Bloomberg.
