plus... lunar new year travel picks up... booking—dot—com tells us where chinese travellers are headed during the festive season. hello and welcome to asia business report. i'm mariko oi. we begin on wall street where a rally has continued overnight, with the s&p 500 briefly crossing the psychologically important 5,000 mark, before ending the session just below. investors brushed off comments from the chair of america's central bank, jerome powell, who's ruled out an interest rate cut next month. isaac poole, the global chief investment officer at 0reana financial services gave us his outlook on the interest rates and the markets earlier. what we're seeing is a market

continued to expect continuing to read cuts from the fed, which is held jack forward returns. as you say, this target is what we were expected to hit at the end of the year but we have seen a bit better—than—expected economic data that is hope and optimism that things might pick up in the next few months. is that things might pick up in the next few months. is this all about _ the next few months. is this all about expectation - the next few months. is this all about expectation for - the next few months. is this | all about expectation for rate cuts was to mark as their optimism because of strong earnings? it optimism because of strong earnings?— optimism because of strong earninus? . , ., . earnings? it reflects rate cut exnectations _ earnings? it reflects rate cut expectations undergoing - earnings? it reflects rate cut l expectations undergoing belief that the us can have a soft landing, when you look at earnings growth, actually earnings growth, actually earnings growth, actually earnings growth has been slow and negative for some companies. the growth is slowing and cast a bit of a doubt on the possibility of a re—acceleration in earnings from here, so it leaves that rally it is a vulnerable to any failure to reach earnings expectations.—

failure to reach earnings expectations. failure to reach earnings exectations. ., ., ., expectations. you mention a soft landing _ expectations. you mention a soft landing and _ expectations. you mention a soft landing and there - expectations. you mention a soft landing and there was . expectations. you mention a soft landing and there was a| soft landing and there was a lot of talk about hard versus soft landing, we even heard the r word, recession, but do you think the economy is really resilient as investors believe? we are not out of the woods yet, monetary policy is restrictive, we are seeing slowing in key areas in a bit below trend, that said, the recent economic data suggests we are further away from recession and people felt last year, and that is hurting through the positive sentiment in the us. my colleagues get on with me about the nicu, what is driving that but also want to ask about china because that is ask about china because that is a different picture? two different markets, you see in japan the structural tailwind, with reforms and market infrastructure and the economy, is helping growth, also is

cyclical tail going from monetary policy which is very accommodative, so there is still some scope forjapan to continue to outperform. it is quite different in china not because the structural side of the economy is slowing. we see slower growth and demographics which will continue and cyclically we are seeing deflation and growth really struggling to pick up meaningfully without further policy support. . so that is putting downward pressure on china economies and could persist. it is now trading above 37,000 trading higher byjust over a half a percent. i will continue to geek out about this and share this for you. let's turn briefly to energy markets because oil prices have jumped over 3% overnight.

brent crude rose to more than $81—per barrel. that's after israel's rejection of a ceasefire offerfrom hamas, sparked concerns of a broadening conflict in the middle east. google has announced a major rebranding of its ai chatbot — bard. its answer to 0penai's chatgpt will now go by gemini, which is the same name as the host of ai models that power it. the refresh also includes new accessibility and subscription options. for android users, they can now use gemini on a dedicated app, while iphone users can access it on the google app on i0s. the changes are already available to users in over 150 countries, but only in the english language for now. shares of the british chip designer arm soared nearly 50% on the strength of the company's latest quarterly earnings report — and the demand for artificial intelligence. our business correspondent

erin delmore filed this report from new york. when the chip designer arm ipo'd on wall street last fall, it marked the biggest initial public offering of the year. it priced at 51 usd a share, giving the company a $54.5 billion dollar valuation. but now get this. the company closed thursday's trading day on wall street at nearly $114 a share, giving the company a valuation well over $100 billion and giving arm its best ever day on wall street by far. the company is riding high on wednesday's earnings report, which flaunted higher than expected quarterly sales and a higher than estimated forecast for the current quarter. and you guessed it, a higher than expected sales estimate for the full year. now, even if you're not familiar with arm, you're probably very familiar with its work. the company powers chips by apple, amazon, google and others. and in fact, their technology is in nearly every smartphone.

and amid the fervor and investment frenzy over ai technology, arm is making bank. it's particularly true for the japanese investment firm softbank, which owns a whopping 90% of arm. and it's a miss for the uk. arm is a british chip designer and ruffled feathers when it chose to list on the us based nasdaq and not on its home turf. meanwhile arm owner softbank also reported its results yesterday.. posting its first quarterly profit in over a year, thanks in part to the chip designers's strong numbers. softbank also saw a big recovery in its vision fund, with investment gains of $4 billion. the stronger result follows four straight quarters of losses, and shows that ceo masayoshi son's shift towards artificial intelligence is paying off.

travel demand in china is picking up ahead of the lunar new year.... and notjust trips made by those heading home to spend time with family during the festive season. chinese travellers are increasingly keen on destinations in asia and beyond, according to online travel agency booking—dot—com, which has observed a jump in searches from mainland china. nuno guerreiro, a regional director at booking—dot—com, has been watching this closely. it's exciting when we see traveler numbers, we see consumers looking more and more, particularly even from china, to travel. with the holiday traffic during the lunar new year, we see our buyer numbers supported by the visa free arrangement that have been on to china, and other countries. in southeast asia has particularly benefit, singapore, thailand, and other

countries in europe would benefit as well. france and germany and italy and the netherlands. that has led to an increase of chinese tourists that are stepping out, not only traveling domestically but certainly compared to last year, now exploring interregional in asia—pacific destinations, but also in europe. destinations, but also in emma-— destinations, but also in euroe. �* , , ., europe. i'm sure is a sigh of relief for — europe. i'm sure is a sigh of relief for many _ europe. i'm sure is a sigh of relief for many countries - europe. i'm sure is a sigh of i relief for many countries which rely heavily economically on those training stories, interesting because we are speaking to another guess about the slowdown in the chinese economy, has it not affected their appetite to travel? we see the their appetite to travel? - see the softness in some countries like china, but there is the support of the visa free arrangements which enable people to travel, the capacity is not of the levels of 2019. domestically the capacity was up domestically the capacity was up from 2019 levels last year,

so with lower airfares, it supports the increase in search of searches and consumers wanted to travel to different destinations, particularly outside of china.- destinations, particularly outside of china. are you worried _ outside of china. are you worried the _ outside of china. are you worried the slowdown . outside of china. are you worried the slowdown in | outside of china. are you i worried the slowdown in the economy could affect travel demand in the future? we have not seen anything _ demand in the future? we have not seen anything if _ demand in the future? we have not seen anything if i _ demand in the future? we have not seen anything if i can - not seen anything if i can travel as yet, if anything, the prices from hotels, we see certain adjustments in some countries around the world, airfares —— airfares are lowing, and that allows more trouble to go to different destinations. forthe trouble to go to different destinations. for the lunar new year, we are seeing 11.5 times increase versus last year in terms of searches for international destinations, that goes from paris, france to other countries where we see you chinese travelers want to return. �* , you chinese travelers want to return. 3 u, , you chinese travelers want to return. �*, , ., ~ return. let's recap the market before we _ return. let's recap the market before we go- _

return. let's recap the market before we go. the _ return. let's recap the market before we go. the s&p - return. let's recap the market before we go. the s&p 500 i before we go. the s&p 500 crossing the psychologically important 5000 mark before ending just below. if the highest level ever and as we are talking about it earlier in the programme, it's a level investors were expecting at the end of this year, so lots of optimism because of expectations of rate cuts, multiple rate cuts from the federal deserve, despite there has been a ruler not of that. here comes another and i kk ei alert, japan's also certain with its all—time high that it managed to reach 30 years ago, currently trading above 37,000, so that is how it is trading at the moment. and that's it for this edition of asia business report. thanks for watching. bbc news bringing you different

stories from across the uk. - music therapy at the nottingham wellbeing hub. it's all about tackling the demons of addiction. there's a wide range of support here for people at their lowest ebb. lee created the garden. he's a paid recovery connector with first—hand experience. lee spent decades addicted to alcohol that got him into serious trouble. when i got released from prison, iwas effectively street homeless. that was a massive shock. you can't live a normal life on the streets. you will fall into some sort of alcohol or drug abuse. they want your curtains drawn on your own hate in the world and you just go to sleep. 130 men and women are currently being supported by the rough sleepers drug and alcohol treatment team here. paul's 35 years old. i spoke with my partner. i ended up staying homeless for 12 months, and when i was on the streets, i ended up with pneumonia. how much have they helped you here? i didn't get the help that i got i'd probably be dead or be in prison. i've been in there and i've

screamed my head off and no one has to deal with me. you know what i mean? they're using all sorts of techniques to help people change their lives. everything from acupuncture to addiction treatments and debt and housing advice all under one roof. for more stories from across the uk, head l to the bbc news website. hey, i'm zoff with the catch up. we start with climate change, then, as for the first time ever, global warming went up by more than 1.5 degrees across last year. that's the target experts reckon we need to stay below to stop the worst effects of climate change. so what effect could this actually have on us then? well, we'd be at increased risk of things like heatwaves, floods and wildfires and crops that are important for food would fail. but researchers are keen to emphasise, though, that we can still make a difference. and we have made some progress with renewables and electric vehicles becoming really popular in many parts of the world.

all right. to the mob0 awards, then, celebrating black music and culture. it was a huge night for this guy. music. yeah. central c won best male act and song of the year with sprinter, which also features dave and a huge night for ray as well as she won best female act and best hip hop act went to little simz and video of the year, went to stormzy for his iconic mel made me do it track. and we've been hearing from harry kane about how to look after your mental health. the england captain's given a zoom lesson to kids at a school in northamptonshire about building resilience and emotional wellbeing. the full interview is on the bbc sport website. and now we're going to leave you with ten seconds of an eiffel tower made out of matchsticks. i mean, look how

impressive this is. it took the guy eight years to build. 0nly get this, the guy who built it couldn't beat the world record because he used the wrong type of matchsticks. i mean, i'm lost for words. you're all caught up now. see you later.

hello and welcome to sportsday — i'm gavin ramjaun. tha nations league draw has been made — we'll have all the details — and which groups to look out for. super bowl 58 is just around the corner — we're in las vegas for all the build up, as the chiefs take on the 49ers. and we hear from harry kane on his great start at bayern munich — and the work his foundation is doing for children's mental health hello welcome to the programme — plenty to come but we start with football and the draw for the european nations league has taken place in paris. for the first time, scotland are in the top tier and they have matches against croatia, portugal and poland to look forward to in group a1. england were relegated

from group a last year, they are in b2