we find out why, and why now? and the british high street shop that has found a new lease of life after covid. hello and welcome to asia business report. our top story this hour begins in the us, where the stock market has continued its rally on monday. the s&p 500 and the dowjones industrial average both notched new record highs, building off friday's massive gains. from new york, erin delmore has the latest. for the dow, a new benchmark — the index traded above 38,000. that's a first. the tech heavy nasdaq, for its part, ended the day up more than 3/10 of a percent. this is what they call a bull run. the market's been on the upswing since october 2022, and it's thanks to a few tailwinds.

among them, an outperforming tech sector and a resilient labour market. the federal reserve has a role too. so far it's been able to cool inflation without tipping the economy into a recession. that's called a soft landing and it's buoying wall street. stocks are rallying in anticipation of interest rate cuts that the fed has signalled this year, which would let interest rates fall from a 22—year high. when interest rates go down, it makes it cheaper for businesses and individuals to borrow money. so spending increases and usually that makes stock prices go up. meanwhile, it's a different story for the chinese stock markets, which have been struggling in the new year. chinese premier li qiang pledged to take forceful and effective action to support market confidence. shares in mainland china and in hong kong have been hovering at their lowest points in as many years. this comes despite somewhat upbeat signals at the end of last year. for more on what we can expect from china, let's speak

to moody's analytics economist, harry murphy cruise. he explains the market reaction. 2023, it wasn't the year that officials had hoped for. it's been shaky. it's been uneven, that recovery. and so really, we're now seeing that flow through into equity markets. we've seen those big sell offs across china stocks. ultimately, investors are hoping to see the economic recovery pick up through this year, with officials still reluctant to put that stimulus in, we're seeing them pull out from those markets. and harry, what's expected to happen going forward? i mean, the leadership says that they'll do what they can to prop up the market. yeah, definitely. i think officials are kind of being pulled in two directions here. so on the one hand, you've got this economy that, as i say, is pretty desperate for some extra support and some stimulus. but then on the other hand, you've got officials who are very conscious and, you know, very keen to avoid the mistakes that they've made in the past.

so, you know, if you look at previous downturns in china — officials, they've spent massively to support the economy — you know, the global financial crisis, a great example. they spent massively on infrastructure and through the real estate market. china was very successful in that. china really pulled the rest of the global economy up through that crisis. but it comes with those consequences, you know, very, very costly. we've seen that in the blow out in local government debt. it can inflate markets, particularly in real estate, which obviously we're living with the consequences of that now. it can also lead to this big investment in quite unproductive assets and overcapacity, which ultimately pulls down growth in the future, and it's just unsustainable. so those are the two dynamics that officials are having to navigate. ultimately, we think it'll probably land somewhere in between. it's not going to be the big bazooka spending of the global financial crisis. but ultimately we will need to see officials step in to try to support the economy this year,

and we'll likely see that coming out of the two sessions in march. checks are being carried out in a second boeing aircraft model following the medicare blower of a door panel on one of its plans earlier this month. us regulators granted more than 170 boeing 737 max nine�*s after the incident on sunday. the agency said older models with the same door design should also be inspected. united airlines says it expects a first—quarter loss due to the grounding. a planned merger between sony and wanted india's biggest entertainment groups, the entertainer, has been scrapped. the $10 billion merger would have combined more than 75 television channels, film assets and its two streaming platforms. sony says conditions of the merger had not been met but they have been reports of a disagreement over

leadership. we will bring you more and that story in the next edition of asia business report. in the coming hours, japan's central bank will move to decide on whether or not to raise interest rates something it hasn't done for two decades. the easy monetary policy has led to a weak yen, which is great for exports but bad for consumers, especially as inflation is going up. kelvin wong, a senior market analyst at 0anda has been watching this closely. he told me why japan expects to keep rates on hold. if you look at the current situation right now injapan in the last two decades, we are facing this persistent deflationary spiral. but however, if you look at the couple of months of inflation, especially demand fresh food and energy, started to stabilise in the last 1a months with the december cpi, ex energy holding close

to a a1—year high at 3.7%. so actually, we think fundamentally that the bank ofjapan to keep on maintaining its short term interest rate. but however, they are very likely that they will still maintain the status quo. terra and luna tokens has filed for bankruptcy in the us. terraform labs' tokens collapsed in may, losing a0 billion of their value and contributing to the so called "cryptocrash" of 2022. us regulators have laid fraud charges on the company co—founder, which is currently — who is currently awaiting extradition in a prison cell in montenegro. our business reporter katie silver has more on the story. terraform labs is based in singapore in its collapse has been a long time coming. the company had the terra stable coin called stable because it

was maintaining a constant $1 price but it along with its sister token luna collapsed almost two years ago when it failed to maintain that $1 peg. those two crypto currencies lost around a0 billion dollars and the fallout hit the wider crypto market. some investors lost their life savings. it has found that the originally from south korean was arrested in montenegrin after interval issued a warrant for his arrest and a report in the us has recently delayed the trial against him while it waits for him to be extradited. in the latest twist in turn according to these court filings from the company has between 100 and 500 million assets and liabilities and terraform labs says it will meet all financial to employees and vendors but despite filing for the bankruptcy protection it says it is not over yet. terraform labs wants to continue to expand its offerings and web 3. something being dubbed the future of the internet.

h&m has pulled an advertisement for school uniforms in australia following accusations it encourages sexualisation is of young children. the ad has shown its two primary school age goes under a slogan that said make those heads turn in back to school fashion. the clothing retailer apologised, saying it would look at how it presents campaigns moving forward. many shops on the uk's high streets, which have struggled with fewer vistors since the pandemic, have shuttered their doors. now, many empty units are being filled by businesses which started online, known as pop up shops. dougal shaw reports. a morning pep talk before they meet the customers. these entrepreneurs all run successful online businesses. now they're getting their first taste of high street retail on london's world famous carnaby street. for clothes, it's so important to try things on and see them in real life. so being in store is an amazing experience to give to our loyal customers.

i work with discarded balloons, turning them into fashion, accessories and homeware. meeting customers in a space like this has been great. the feedback is amazing. totally boosting my confidence. more and more pop up shops like these are filling retail spaces that fell vacant during covid as lockdowns accelerated the trend towards online shopping. this shop was empty six weeks ago. it's now full of brilliant creatives from across london who are learning how to do their own shops, re—energizing our high streets and making them better for everyone. this project is supported by the mayor of london's office, but some entrepreneurs have seen a business opportunity in satisfying this demand for a pop—up spaces. pop—up club has run more than 25 shops like this one across the uk since 2017. this latest one in victoria, central london, took over a space left vacant by a chain of tea retailers. we go into empty spaces, we share out collaboratively, and they have 30 to a0 different artists or makers in one space and make it affordable and accessible

for them. we call this trend online to offline or 020. and what we're finding is that a lot of these retailers that started their lives purely online are now actually benefitting the high street by opening physical shops. such as the demand for pop up spaces. there is even a kind of airbnb platform for them run by another business called appear here. it offers space in all kinds of places, from shopping centres and outdoor markets to warehouses. the hope with all of these pop—ups is that online entrepreneurs will get a taste for face to face retail and so become the next generation of high street shop owners. from seeing the way a pop—up works, i definitely think i'll have my own shop in the future. dougal shaw, bbc news. that is often now. stay with bbc news. voiceover: bbc news - bringing you different stories from across the uk. closed for business — just some of the 650 trailers

operated by gwynedd shipping laid up at its headquarters this afternoon. the company also has sites in deeside, ellesmere port, and dublin. its last set of public accounts show that in the year up to from may 2022, it made a profit of over £1 million. but yesterday morning at 10:30, staff were called to the office for a meeting and told the company would be going into administration. today, there's been almost nobody in work, and calls have gone unanswered. information remains scarce about what happens next. the administrators were on site this afternoon but weren't able to confirm how many staff in anglesey would be losing theirjobs. for the council, it's another piece of bad news on the island after the recent closure of the 2 sisters chicken factory in llangefni. it's devastating news. we are waiting for confirmation. devastating news for the families and the workers that are affected — january after christmas. we all know the cost—of—living crisis, the effects of that, and we need clarity so that we can support these families. it's too early to say whether the administrators will be able to get any part

of the business moving again. this evening, we spoke to a number of gwynedd shipping staff. none wanted to talk on camera but they did say they were hoping to find other jobs in the haulage industry. for more stories from across the uk, head to the bbc news website. hey, i'm zoph with the catch up. tonight — storm isha causes chaos, reese witherspoon gets icy and a rough landing. we start with storm isha, which is causing chaos across the uk. thousands of people are still without power after heavy rain and winds of up to 99 miles per hour. scotland, northern ireland, north—west england and wales have been hit and some in remote areas have been warned they might not have power until tuesday. it's also caused travel disruption for lots of people, including toby, who was in scotland for his stag—do. i'm in edinburgh waverley

station outside the caledonian sleeper, which was supposed to be taken back down. so we're ready for an extended stag—do on the sleeper itself tonight. you can keep up with the latest on this on the bbc news website or app. and reese witherspoon has defended her choice to eat snow. yeah, you did hear that right. she tried to make what she called a choco—ccino. no idea either. fans warned her it isn't safe to eat, but she insisted it was fine. i'm going to be honest, though, i have eaten snow before and i do find it crunchy and fresh, i think it's fine, butjust don't eat it if it's yellow. time now to leave you with 10 seconds of relieved passengers landing at gatwick. as they had to land in crazy winds on the way back from ibiza. and yet i fully would have clapped when that plane landed. let's just normalise it now. i don't think it's that cringe. i think it's fine. you're all caught up now. see you later.

hello and welcome to sportsday. coming up on the program: liverpool score four at bournemouth to extend their lead at the top

of the english premier league. forfeit matches when fans are racist. fifa's president calls for harsher punishments in the fight to tackle racism. and 10 shots off the lead going into the weekend — rory mcilroy pulls off a remarkable comeback at the dubai desert classic. welcome along. thankyou forjoining us. we start then at the top the english premier league, with liverpool extending their lead to 5 points after a a—0 win away at bournemouth. after a goal—less first half, amidst high winds on the english south coast, jorgen klopp�*s side pushed on, with two goals from darwin nunes and a couple too from diogojota.

the win moves them five clear of manchester city,