plus, lunar new year travel picks up — booking.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 are seeing here is the market really continuing to expect significant rate cuts from the fed and that has

helped drive forward returns, as you say. this target was what we were expecting to hit at the end of the year, but we have seen a little bit of better than expected economic data also helping optimism that earnings growth might pick up a bit in the next few months. so is this all about expectation for rate cuts? is the optimism because of strong earnings? i the optimism because of strong earninus? ~ ., , earnings? i think it really does reflect _ earnings? i think it really does reflect rate - earnings? i think it really does reflect rate cut - does reflect rate cut expectations and the growing belief that the us can have a soft landing, because when you look at earnings growth, actual earnings growth has been slow and negative for some companies. growth is slowing, it does cast doubt on the possibility of a re—acceleration in the interim here. so it leaves that rally a little vulnerable to any failure to reach those expectations.

japan's nikkei has crossed the 37,000—mark for the first time in more than three decades. it is currently just it is currentlyjust below that, but of course, it is still doing quite well so we will continue to monitor that. 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 $5a.i billion valuation. a $54.5 billion 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 fervour 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 — after all, 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. shares in arm owner softbank are trading more than 10% higher after it posted 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. sticking with al, this week

the head of the united nations added its voice to those warning about the unchecked rise of artificial intelligence. as its use continues to grow, governments around the world are racing to put new laws in place. the european union is leading the way with all 27 members having now backed its artificial intelligence act. but complying with those new laws will likely be very expensive for businesses. my colleague aaron heslehurst asked the woman regarded as the mastermind behind it if that gave bigger companies an advantage over smaller rivals who have less money. we sort of have an asymmetrical approach. if you are the big guy, if you have market power, if you can have systemic implications, you also have big responsibility. if you are the small player, just trying to make it in the marketplace, we will enable you, we will make sure that the marketplace is open for you, we will make sure you don't

have to do the same due diligence as the big guy, who might have systemic implication. i think that is really important, because there are so many small players in this field, and what you must not underestimate is the innovative power that comes from smaller players. we know what the french president emmanuel macron thinks, so i have to ask you, how do you get the balance right, to make sure you don't over regulate al or other tech in such a way that european consumers and businesses, and the economy as a whole, are not left at a disadvantage to other parts of the world, because companies in asia and the united states, for example, have innovations that you don't allow? this is the question that has been with us from the very first day. the amazing thing with artificial intelligence is what you can do once you trust it. so the regulations should produce the necessary trusts,

if there is a risk to ai. so you're willing to go ahead and use it as much as possible. the first step in doing that is that you can innovate, you can do your research and you will not be touched by the ai act. if your use case is one which says there is no risk, you just go ahead. when you then have some risk use cases, that you're actually really careful to make sure that businesses have a fair chance of meeting the requirements, and those are the balances that we have been pushing. 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.com,

which has observed a jump in searches from mainland china. i spoke with nuno guerreiro, a regional director at booking.com earlier and asked him if china's slowdown was a cause of concern. it is exciting when we see the travel numbers stop we definitely see consumers looking more and more, even from china to travel, holiday traffic during the lunar new year, we see higher numbers, particularly supported by the visa free arrangement that has been done to china and some of them via multi channels with other countries. so southeast asia particularly benefiting. singapore, thailand, malaysia. but we also look at countries in europe but opted to benefit, france, germany, italy and the netherlands. so that light is much to an increase of chinese tourists that are stepping out, not only travelling domestically but certainly compared to last year, now exploring interregional in asia

pacific destinations but also in europe. pacific destinations but also in eur0pe-_ in europe. i'm sure it is a siuh in europe. i'm sure it is a sigh of— in europe. i'm sure it is a sigh of relief _ in europe. i'm sure it is a sigh of relief for - in europe. i'm sure it is a sigh of relief for many i sigh of relief for many countries which rely heavily economically on those chinese tourists. but it's interesting because we were speaking to another guest about the slowdown in the chinese economy, has it not affected their appetite to travel? indeed, we see the softness in some other countries, some other countries like china but the fact is that there is also supported with the visa free arrangements which enable people to start to travel, the air capacity is not at the levels of 2019, particularly for international travel, it was already up last year from 2019 levels. so with lower airfares, that supports the increase of searches and the consumers wanting to travel to different destinations, particularly outside china. pare particularly outside china. are ou particularly outside china. are you worried — particularly outside china. are you worried the _ particularly outside china. are you worried the slowdown could start to affect travel demand in the future? we start to affect travel demand in the future?— start to affect travel demand in the future? we haven't seen that softness _ in the future? we haven't seen that softness in _ in the future? we haven't seen that softness in terms - in the future? we haven't seen that softness in terms of - in the future? we haven't seen

that softness in terms of the l that softness in terms of the economy affecting travel. if anything, again, prices from hotels, we see certain adjustments in other countries around the world, airfares lowering, therefore allowing more travellers to go to different destinations. if anything, for the lunar new year, we have seen a 11.5 teams increase versus last year —— mac forehand five times. that goes from paris in france to other countries where we see that the chinese travels delaware travellers want to return. and that's it for this edition of asia business report. happy lunar new year to all be celebrating this weekend. we will be back on monday, join us if you can. bbc news — bringing you different stories from across the uk. at 102, there aren't many firsts left forjack hemmings, but today he's about to pilot a spitfire, a dream unrealised until now.

jack was a squadron leader in the royal air force during the war and has long been an admirer of the aircraft. if the spirfire and the hurricane had not succeeded in overcoming the luftwaffe, if there had been an invasion, then britain might have become german. jack is still working hard for the charity he loves. today's flight is all about raising awareness and vital funding. after plenty of waiting, the weather was right and it was time to take to the skies. after taking the controls for a time, jack then relaxes as the pilot performs victory rolls. not one... ..not two... ..but three. and when you've waited this long

to fly in a spitfire, it would be rude not to make the most of it. for more stories from across the uk, head to the bbc news website. hey, i'm zof — with the catch up. let's 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, now to the mobo awards then — celebrating black music and culture. it was a huge night for this guy. yeah, central cee won best male act and song of the year with sprinter, which also features dave. a huge night for raye 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 well—being. the full interview is on the bbc sport website. and we're going to leave you with ten seconds of an eiffel tower... ..made out of matchsticks. impressive, right? it took eight years to build, only the guy who built it couldn't beat the world

record because he used the wrong kind of matches. imean, i'm i mean, i'm lost for words for once. you would just despair! you're all caught up now — see you later! hello there, and welcome along to sportsday. i'm gavin ramjaun.

the nations league draw has been made — we'll have all the details on 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 there and welcome along to the programme. plenty to come, but we start with football, and the draw for the european nations league has been taking 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're in b2 and they'll play the republic of ireland, greece and finland. wales are also

in the second tier and have iceland, montenegro and turkey in b4.