♪ haidi: welcome to "daybreak:

australia." i am haidi stroud-watts in sydney where markets have just come online. annabelle: i am annabelle droulers in hong kong and we are counting down to asia major trading opens. the top stories this hour, because just start in store for asia. treasuries are mixed, and another: the session of bond sales. new zealand's central bank is set to keep rates on hold today. annabelle: plus, bloomberg reveals apple is canceling its decade-long effort to develop an electric car. haidi: let's get you straight to this mid-week session and how we are setting up. staggered start to trading. pretty muted, the report 1% higher. they muted to positive open here in asia. a reasonable handover from u.s. stocks. the s&p 500 just nudging higher, the disinflation -- it is

inflation in focus for aussie traders today. we did see u.s. stocks advancing even after consumer confidence fell for the first time in 4 months. we will be watching the golden dragon index, jumping in the fifth day of gains. we will say there is any pass-through in the asian session today. we saw treasuries pretty mixed after $42 billion in an auction of 7-year notes. the aussie dollar is trading at 65.4 six cents. the dollar gauge is trading steadily. but it is diane we are watching for, the best day in nearly two years after the storm of that expected inflation data supporting the bats that the bank of japan potentially has an earlier date for exiting its monetary policy settings. the dollar gauge erasing the decline. pretty rangebound session ahead

of the inflation numbers on thursday. a slate of fed speakers as well expected. new zealand is in focus, it is about the rbnz today. there are outliers when it comes to expectations potentially of a move, but broadly they are seen holding rates but potentially maintaining the bias that something one is to be done. nikkei futures are up 0.1%, belle. annabelle: breaking news, o.e.c.d. headline, -- ocbc net income. the fourth-quarter net income coming in at 1.6 2 billion singapore dollars. that is a bit softer than what analysts had been expecting. so a miss for ocbc. they are expected to maintain their 50% dividend payout ratio target for 2024.

. there was a lot of focus on dividends given expectations of a strong 2023 performance. what else we are tracking, the net interest -- rather, the focus, they expect the range to be 2.2% to 2.25% over 2024. they also see low single-digit loan growth next year, that was another focus of these earnings given that the prophets were looking to be driven more by the non-landing income, things like wealth fees and insurance as well. when you break it down, their net interest income for the fourth quarter was $811 million, roughly half of the overall income for the fourth-quarter period. their final dividend as share is at $.42. that is the last of the single port major banks to report. we had the arrivals dbs group

and uov reporting full-year earnings at all-time highs. but ocbc's fourth-quarter net income was a bit of a miss, coming in at 1.6 2 billion singapore dollars. less shift now and look at how u.s. futures have come online. fairly flat. it has been the trend over the course of this week because a lot of that focus really is looking down to that preferred inflation gauge from the fed, what that will signal about this fight to get inflation back to the 2% range. so it has really been wait-and-see over the course of the past few days. we didn't see much direction in the prior session. actually a lot of focus on bond sales, but still, a little movement otherwise is what we're seeing so far. haidi: that bit of movement when you look at volatility for the q. week -- volatility for the

quantitative easing, suggesting we could see some fireworks. many are expected new zealand's central bank to keep rates on hold, but still maintaining a hawkish tone on inflation. let's bring in bloomberg economics' james mcintyre here in sydney. so they are not expecting a boring meeting. james: that's right. there is a 25% chance for a hike. two economists are predicting a rate hike out of the 25 surveyed. the rbnz has not met since november of last year. it has been a three month break. but we have seen communications from official sounding pre-hawkish so the stage is set for potentially an interesting meeting. we think ultimately they will remain on hold. where the focus might be or where there might be signs of potential fireworks, it will be more in their projections, where

they project inflation will be and their rate track as well. they had been suggesting at the november meeting that there was a chance that further moves would be required. we don't think there is nothing app in the data to suggest they would deliver that today, but they might continue to suggested at future meetings. april and may could be live action. annabelle: give us a bit more context, because your view is at rbnz will start its easing cycle a bit earlier than what the bank is projecting itself? james: that's. the bank is projecting the rates cycle beginning sometime towards the end of this year. i think around the middle of the year is probably more likely. and that dataflow we have had in the last couple of months since the rbnz's last projections, we have seen gdp under shoot, we have seen cpi under shoot their projections, not the first time

it has happened. and unemployment has been a bit stronger. in last week's data we had a very, very direct real estate sales outcome -- retail sales outcome showing that the rate hikes, quite aggressive, starting to flow real economy. we will continue to see that evidence billed, in my view, and that will render this exercise today or the communications we are likely to see in being hawkish, as being more of a jawboning activity rather than anything that suggests further hikes are coming soon. that data is likely to unwind the ability to make those moves. haidi: how well shielded is the new zealand economy and i supposed an extent, the australian economy, from the global risks playing out potentially over the next year or two? james: one of the key risks is concerns about inflation and war, potentially continuing this

geopolitical tensions. further slowing global trade and maybe, some of that goods disinflation we have been seeing and that has been flattering inflation over the last few months, kind of stopping for a little wild and potentially reversing. new zealand is obviously vulnerable to that with heavy reliance on china. on the other side, deflation out of china's's factories is helping to offset that risk slightly. i guess one of the surprises for the rbnz has been the superstrong surge in migration. much, much faster than the rbnz was expecting. that has driven both in australia and new zealand, a bit of a demand surprise and hence some of the hawkish tone we might be seeing. my view is that, that catch-up migration we are seeing as students came in, it's a bit of a sugar rush and once we get

back to normal we could see the move away very quickly. so on the demand side, there is a risk that the strand in the economy, that the rbnz might be concerned about and is worried might be continuing to put fire under those domestic inflation pressures that remain a problem, i think that could actually peter out and see the rbnz having to do an about-face on rates quickly. annabelle: bloomberg james mcintyre there. apple shares reversed their losses after bloomberg revealed it is canceling a decade-long effort to build an electric car. abandoning one of the tech giant's most ambitious projects. let's bring in our senior executive editor for technology, tom giles, in san francisco. tom, billions of dollars, thousands of employees, years of work. why did they pull away from this project now? tom: it is a decade-long project

and you are right, they spend a lot of money. apple doesn't just walk away from big projects like this? what happened here? it is the realization that electronic nickels really difficult. you also have to recognize that -- electric vehicles difficult. other people like tesla are having a rough go of things, clearing earlier this year that demand is going to decelerate in 2024 from torrid growth rates in past years. it is hard. there is a lot of things that are working against the ev industry right now, including supply chain. getting the supplies that you need from where you need them at the time you need them. that is challenging, being able to manufacture it, at a price point that the average consumer, or even a somewhat well-to-do consumer can afford. the number of people able to do

that is also decreasing. lastly, you have another big challenge which is charging infrastructure. there are still people who were worried about, would i be able to get home from where i am driving, will or even be able to get to where i am driving to without the right infrastructure in place? will there be a charging station when i need it? will be able to access it at the time i need it? those are all questions that all of these easy makers are asking right now and that is the calculus that apple needed to make. haidi: tom, as you have just been speaking about it's not as though the competitors are having an easy time of it either. we did see a pretty sassy response from musk. the we have any leaders in this area, or is it likely a consolidation, do, going forward? tom: tesla took an early lead in this area and have the advantage, the early mover advantage in this regard. this is -- they built their

business on evs. for apple, it would be a major pivot. this is not -- they are great at supply chain and at consumer electronics. they have talked about the idea of a car being kind of this mobile phone, this big mobile phone, but this is not an area they are strong in. they are strong and handheld devices, not in terms of making these big vehicles and putting other infrastructure behind that. detroit automakers have also struggled to get the right balance when it comes to electronic vehicles. your seeing them for a bit more in the direction of hybrids, for example, giving consumers a bit more choice and flexibility, coming in at the right price point and coming in with all the justifications lined up in a way that enables you to produce these on a mass scale.

that is just not something that apple had quite figured out also remember, they have pivoted a lot with this particular product , making changes in personnel, missing deadlines pushing back the time of launch until a few years from now. they had hoped to be much, much further along than the work. i think they made their realization that it's time to cut bait. annabelle: it is such a great scoop, because we got a lot of details of this disclosure internally and we understand those resources are now being shifted to generative ai aye. so what sort of projects are we expecting? from a market perspective, seems like this is being interpreted as a good move. tom: a positive move, right, any time to get a sense that is making the hard choices it needs to make in order to put resources in areas where it can make a big difference artificial intelligence generative artificial intelligence.

remember we talk about the advances being made by openai, by microsoft, google, meta. the owner of facebook and getting a lot of credit for its approach to building that large language model, making it open source. all of these big-tech companies that apple competes with. there is a sense that apple hasn't made as many inroads, is not as far along. it is a bit of a laggard when it comes to generative ai. we are not talking about any chatgpt coming from apple. so what kind of difference are they going to make how clearly we, this into their consumer-electronics -- -- candidate we -- how can they weave this into their consumer-electronics area. also remember, vision for, they just introduced a new ar vr headset, $3500 price point. who have used it generally are

liking it, but that is not a price point that will let the general public about en masse. so they have to really make good on generative ai, vision pro, and keep the demand for their existing product line food that is where apple needs to concentrate its efforts. haidi: tom giles in san francisco on the story of winding down its electric our effort. also getting news when it comes to the antitrust problems for the company, with visitors from apple met with the justice department in the final bid to persuade the agency not to file an antitrust suit against the company, according to people familiar with the matter. they have been probing apple since 2019. we are hearing that they met with the assistant attorney general. he will be making the final call on whether or not to file, these meetings are one of the last steps before a lawsuit is filed.

they are alleging that apple imposed software and hardware limitations on their devices to impede rivals from effectively competing. coming up next, we will be talking more about tech stocks, as well as the broader market strategy with global x. why they think the outlook for equities remains positive. this is bloomberg. ♪

annabelle: you're watching "daybreak: australia." thinking of with a big milestone that came through for hong kong and chinese stocks yesterday. we saw the hang seng erasing its year-to-date losses. this chart taking a look at the momentum both on the price gains basis, but also momentum basis. this is the biggest rally that

we have seen second to the reopening one. still quite significant in that context because we have not seen these votive gains for several months. take a look at the other chart here and you can see that hang seng china enterprises index in more detail, closing up 1.5% yesterday. that takes out the year-to-date losses and we are back now levels of november last year. let's get more analysis with rohan reddy, vice president and director of research at global x. let's kick it off with china stocks. i know you are a bit cautious here, but would you be joining any investors in that interest we are now seeing more in mainland equities. ? rohan: there is able case for chinese stocks in the short term because of the data we saw from the lunar new year, and consumer spending which was previously a cause for concern because of challenges in where consumers

were actually spending some of their capital. we do think that in the short-term, there could be a real case on the bull side for chinese mainland equities because of that regulatory reforms the government has starting to introduce. and also the fact that they can effectively implement the stimulus, which they have spoken about but not been super clear on some of the details on, that might alleviate the fears right now in the market. right now a lot of chinese mainland equities, it feels like they are heavily discounted from a multiples perspective. that might introduce more of a price appreciation. annabelle: are there any sectors or areas that you would be looking to invest in in particular? rohan: we still really like the chinese consumer a lot because there is this long-term secular bull case that we believe even beyond what is going on in the short-term, the middle class is driving a lot of what i gave in the economy are starting to

feel. moving away from that old economy sectors and moving towards more of the newer economy sectors, those are some of the areas that we are guiding clients to words. if you look at the manufacturing and pmi data, for example, that has been contracting. we feel that moving away from some of those very cyclical segments of the market and more towards where a lot of the economy is moving in china, that is where investors can really capitalize on. you have started to see that in the beauty sector and also in some of the lunar new year pending. we think part of what needs to materialize is already occurring for the consumer. haidi: geopolitics is the overlay that looms large and will get ever more significant as we get into the end of the year do you think that is an added risk for china assets? rohan: yes, this is the looming overhang that we see for a lot

of chinese stocks not just on the mainland, but even overseas. this is part of the reason why a lot of investors have remained cautious. if you look at etf fund flows, a lot of chinese funds are experiencing outflows, whereas e.m. ex-china funds are experiencing inflows. it is sending a signal that regulatory overhang is part of the concern and that is also part of what explains some of the discounts and multiples we are seeing within some of those mainland equities. we think right now that you should be at least somewhat cautious about chinese stocks overall. but in the short-term as we have seen with the rally, there could be a bit of a profit-taking case to be had, that for the foreseeable future, really unless the chinese government starts to implement some clear reforms and also be able to effectively implement stimulus measures, that is why you are seeing some of the discounted multiples.

haidi: let's talk about the rest of asia. japan has been such a popular trade. do you see that being replicated in terms of finding value in south korea as well? rohan: yes. we really like for as many of the challenges that we have seen in china recently, we have seen a lot of investors migrate towards japan on the international side, just because it feels like a much more stable market. it hit 34 year highs on the nikkei index. and there is this long-term structural days occurring with the japanese market where you're starting to see a lot of corporate reforms lead to market gains. there is a similar story in korea that could occur. you see these ownership issues, a lot of value that could be unlocked. you could see even additional ipos in the korean market. we think a lot of the playbook that has actually been implemented in the japanese market, if it starts to filter towards the korean market which has some overlap in the width of that market is structured, that

could actually lead to more premium multiples for some of those stocks, but also a lot of value that could be unlocked. so that is an area that we see as more of a bull case for the rest of 2024 for international investors. haidi: great to have you with us, rohan reddy vice president and director of research at global x. much more to come here on "daybreak: australia." this is bloomberg. ♪

>> in our financial system, pretty much everybody followed the same set of rules. i am talking banks and credit unions and credit card companies , gold traders and stockbrokers, private equity now has to follow the rules. precious metal dealers, venmo, western union. but not crypto. my view of the world is the same kind of activity, the same kind

of risk, should have the same kind of regulation. annabelle: that was a u.s. senator elizabeth warren there are, someone we know has been quite a critic of the crypto industry overall and has been calling for regulation. bitcoin prices are trading above 57 thousand dollars. quite a big move high we have seen over the course of this week, back at more than two year highs at this point. the overall value of the cryptocurrency market has now jumped to around $2 trillion, the first time in almost two years. so there is that focus on the

>> had a u.s. recession come into a u.s. recession come in 2023 like many predicted, global

growth would have been thrown off-track. while there are risks to our outlook, america's growth has consistently exceeded projections. in short, america's path to a soft landing has underpinned global growth. ♪ annabelle: that was the u.s. treasury secretary janet yellen in brazil ahead of meetings with her counterparts from g20 countries. a draft of the closing statement by the g20 seeded by bloomberg news says the growing economy -- global economy also has a softer chance of pulling of a globe landing. really those views from janet yellen underscore what has been the big focus point for markets this week. last week we were all about earnings. this week, we are all about the numbers and what we will get out of economic data. . we have been speaking throughout the course of this week, we got the fed's's preferred inflation

gauge that is due out later. is that going to show inflationary pressures still? we have definitely seen that repricing from investors. that expectation that we will see 75 basis points of cuts over the course of 2024 permit brings us back in line with the projection from the fed instead. that sets the tone of the course of this week is that focus on the economy. it is really back to being about central bank here. haidi: it is, especially ahead of the inflation numbers we are expecting out of the u.s. and australia the fedspeak about repricing of expectations. an that bank is expecting a rate hike from the rbnz in their decision that is out in the next few hours. most economists surveyed overwhelmingly expect a hold. let's bring in our next guest, sharon zollner, one of our top french economists and certainly

one of the most accurate when it comes to the rv and said. always great to have you with us. why do you think the rbnz will go today? i suppose the question is if they feel that there is a necessity potentially could do more, should they just do it today? sharon: that is what it boils down to. we can see that overs and wonders in the data. there is no one smoking gun. monetary policy is clearly working and that is what most people expect a hold. but if you look at what the reserve bank said in november, they showed a forecast, 19 basis points of tightening, practically a full hike. so our take was that they need to give us a nudge, rather than a big shove. unemployment did not rise as much as they thought. inflation didn't fall as nearly as nearly as much as they expected, migration is a bit

stronger. so overall picture is still things are going there way, just to fish slowly. they also -- the overall picture is that still, things are going their way, just not too slowly. sort of the story of the wheels slipping a little bit on the risk of inflation staying too high for too long. so you can run with it a while and hope for the best, but our take is that the reserve bank's patient is running thin and if not today, that as soon as the data changes quickly. haidi: there is something counterintuitive on the face of restarting hikes when gdp is down, particularly to the growth slowing that we see in new zealand permitted do you think that is still a worthwhile cost-benefit here? sharon: essentially the reserve bank doesn't have a growth target. they are interested in growth in

terms of how it is running relative to potential. so what is the output get basically. our things stretched? things are obviously absurdly stretched. we can bring in workers because the border was closed, couldn't go on holiday. same thing as globally. it has changed a lot. but what we have seen in the last three months, the direct indicators of capacity have been really mixed, unemployment be one of them. it's not the slamdunk the reserve bank had expected in terms of showing their capacity is opening up and that therefore, inflation is going to fall in a reasonable timeframe. there are question marks around it, surprisingly. annabelle: you mention immigration or migration. how significant a risk is that disinflation? and we get updated projections so what are we expecting on how fast inflation should be receding? sharon: it's a two-sided coin.

there was a surge of workers, we have imported a massive number of people for the size of our economy. population growth is at 3%, that is a lot more workers. questions like is it easy to find workers, that had just turned around on a dime. but of course, all of these people need somewhere to live, they need health care and education. the reserve bank estimates that that is a net positive for inflation, so we would view those two positive surprises we have had on migration as likely to add to the reserve bank's view that the job facing them is a bit bigger rather than smaller. what was your second question? annabelle: they inflation projections and i think as well how quickly we are going t see inflation started to recede, for instance, our team at bloomberg economics say they expected to start to reseed faster than what the rbnz says.

sharon: yes, our forecast is slower because of the stickiness of domestic inflation. we need to put aside the noisy ness. the reserve bank focuses on domestic inflation and capacity pressures, that information that is stickier and also where they have the most control over. that is where the stickiness has been. since may last year, domestic inflation has fallen at half the pace that the reserve bank had expected. if you extrapolate that out, we will be back at target sometime in 2030 or something. [laughs] [laughs] it is a question of incremental -- is incremental progress sufficient? is inflation making itself at home in the meantime? data suggests that is the case. how homebuilders are tainting to raise their prices. all of these things are flattening out at levels that

are not consistent with the inflation target. it could just be a lag that we just wait and let the things run. but the central bank is already two quarters of the way through -- three quarters of the way through where they think that tightening should happen. so if you push things off, he might cause more pain. hiking would be risky, but not hiking is a risky option too. there are no non-risk options at this point. you annabelle: don't think if they hike in april, but if they hike today do you think that's the last one for the current cycle? sharon: i think maybe april or may. the thing in april is we don't get anymore cpi data after that meeting. if you think you are 25 points from where you need to be, you just hold. but we suspect the reserve bank

past that point some time ago. to go through all the rigmarole of restarting a hiking cycle particularly into a weakening economy, it's a big deal, and you are not going to do it unless you think you are two mikes away from where you need to be. three times, the reserve bank went ever longer each time and we started hiking. in 2007 the rbnz delivered four hikes, as the global financial crisis came along and that with the end of that. annabelle: sharon, thank you so much for your time this morning sharon zollner, one of the two economist that are seeing a hike for the rbnz decision that is due in about two hours permitted chief economist at anz bank you can also turn to bloomberg for more on this decision. you can go to tliv to get commentary and analysis from bloomberg expert editors. it is 9:00 a.m. hong kong time,,

so just under one hour and 20 minutes from now. this is bloomberg. ♪

annabelle: here are watching "daybreak: australia."

." here are some of the geopolitical headlines. lezz been on -- hezbollah militants will reportedly stop firing on israel if hamas agrees to a proposal for a truce in israel. but if israel continues to attack government, has below will continue fighting. the militant group has been attacking since november, stoking fears of a wider conflict. a pentagon official says the u.s. has hit 230 targets in yemen since last month, the most detailed account so far as washington seeks to deter poutine attacks on commercial ships in the red sea. the deputy defense secretary also said u.s. forces intercepted ships carrying lethal aid from iran to the houthis. . g-7 nations to use for that ration assets to aid ukraine.

speaking in brazil, she said there is a strong moral case to unlock the value of the assets worth billions of dollars. . g7 members are exploring the way forward as ukraine's funding needs grow and the war with russia grinds to a third. year ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy has pitched his formula for ending russia's invasion in a meeting with saudi crown prince mohammad bin salman. kyiv is looking for support for its plan, which requires russian forces to withdraw from all ukrainian territory, something roscoe is refusing to do. ukraine is running short of ammunition as a u.s. aid remained called in congress -- remains stalled in congress. haidi: the conflict with russia continues, ukraine's allies are starting to think of the consequences of a russian victory. let's discuss the endgame scenario with bloomberg's russia economist, and our chief geoeconomics analyst, let's

start with you, jennifer. there is various gaming going on in terms of these alternative scenarios given how much has changed in the past year. as we entered this third year of the conflict, how do you assess this state of the war? jennifer: as we are entering the third year of the war, russia appears to have gained the initiative with ukraine facing weapons and ammunition shortfall. meetings are being held in the white house to try to break the deadlock on u.s. aid but he does not fear that they will reach a solution anytime soon. partners are concerned that russia's boards of security even a personal victory might be the highest since the early days of the invasion. to be clear, ukraine remains clear it will maintain the fight against russia, but if there are continued delays in western aid and momentum remains unrest

aside, ukraine could face the impossible choice of either fighting against the odds or approaching the unfavorable negotiation over some sort of settlement. annabelle: and alex, as jennifer said there, this is perhaps since the start of the invasion, the most we have seen that russia possibly could have some sort of win here. what could that mean for moscow? alexander: further scenario of russia's partial victory, we see that russia would actually feel to achieve its regional maximalist objectives, but it'll also see some of the sanctions. you don't see a world where russia is free from technological or export control sections, that it will remain starved of new technology.

still, we see that russia will likely see more exports to europe, some of the energy exports removed from the country. we see that some of their losses suffered will be permanent, we don't see a world where russia continues to organize back to supplying almost half of europe's natural gas. so that is probably a permanent hit to russia. haidi: alex, what are the implications for ukraine in the case of the feet, and what are the security implications for that region? alexander: i think for ukraine it is actually pretty hard to gauge the cost of even -- those ukrainians who live outside the russia controlled territories, they will find it is hard to rebuild the country. we see that in this scenario, the capital inflows into the country will grow increasingly scarce and ukraine's allies and

donors will see financial fatigue and will probably gradually decrease the amount of financial aid to the country. so the largest costs probably will, ultimately, be in that some of the 6 million people who fled ukraine in the last two years will see less incentives to return to the country that sees limited economic growth and a high risk of another conflict. annabelle: jen, as the war goes into her third year, we are seeing become increasingly politicized, perhaps in the u.s., how much is the outcome of the invasion likely to affect washington? jennifer: it's important to remind viewers hear that even though this is a conflict that in terms of its geography, is largely regional, the

implications of it are truly global, including for u.s. interests and including for how u.s. allies and partners around the world as well as rivals are going to take lessons away from the ultimate outcome. particularly if we are envisioning a scenario in which russia achieves even a partial victory in the lack of u.s. support, and the shortfall of u.s. support is seen as a potential reason behind that, allies around the world will think twice about whether the u.s. is a reliable partner and that could lead to some of them to head towards u.s. rivals. . it could lead them to be less attentive to washington's interests when it comes to other policy priorities. especially when you're thinking about u.s. rivals -- china, iran, north korea -- they are likely to interpret this as a sign of declining western, in particular declining u.s. power. . it could lead them to be emboldened to think that they, too, could use military force to pursue their interests to

resolve some of the conflicts they have around the world. paradoxically, we could be looking at a situation in which the end of this war, however and balanced or impermanent it might be, could actually open up the door to more international conflict. haidi: that potential emboldened meant of beijing when it comes to taiwan is a scenario you have been looking closely at but i do wonder, if there is a change in the u.s. leadership have you been war gaming the scenarios under which we have another presidency for donald trump and what that means not just for this conflict, but also the father war in gaza how he deals with the stretched bandwidth of security commitments that the u.s. has going on right now. jennifer: that is certainly a key question for us here and also on a lot of countries' minds, and particularly being discussed in europe including most recently at the munich security conference, where leaders were talking about what

europe's future looks like if they can't rely on the united states if former president trump is reelected and follows through on some of the things he said in the past in terms of withdrawing from nader or not upholding tomato commitments. that is leading partners in europe to think more about how to increased defense spending and become self-sufficient. it is leading partners not just in europe about, around the world to figure out what our president trump's interests going to be and how might they align with that, for example, working more with china to show that there is alignment there. it would be a looming question leading up to the election. many partners in the world to see significant differences in these two candidates' approaches to the rest of the world. annabelle: that was bloomberg russia economist alexander isakov and overachieve geoeconomics analyst jennifer welch talking about the scenario

what if trump wins. be sure to tune into bloomberg radio to hear more from the day newsmakers, and get more analysis from our team broadcasting live from hong kong, you can listen live on radio+, or on bloomberg.com. plenty more ahead. this is bloomberg. ♪ when you automate sales tax with avalara, you don't have to worry about things like changing tax rates or filing returns. avalarahhh ahhh

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annabelle: shares of ocbc will be in focus when trading opens in singapore one hour from now. that is after it reported fourth quarter net income but missed the average analyst estimate. for more, let's bring in our analyst in singapore. sarah, kicked us off, it was a bit of a miss at the headline level, but what were some of the highlights from the report? sarah: thank you. the ocbc did report a strong set of results for 2023 despite missing consensus estimates on weaker than expected he income and total income actually reached a record high in 2023, chief lee off the back of strong net interest income growth due to the fed rate hikes over the past couple of years. the strong performance is

reflected in a higher dividend for 2023, reflecting a 53% payout ratio. haidi: what do we expect that when it comes to any kind of guidance or forecast for 2024? sarah: i think 2024 will have its own challenges, and with the growth in wealth management in both greater china and in the poor, ocbc is very well-positioned to gain from tailwinds and growth in both of these regions, that it is likely to see an uptick in fee income flowing through the course of this year. loan growth is likely to stay at relatively low particularly in singapore and we are likely to see some margin compression. quite modest in the first half of this year on the rising cost of funds of annette in the second half of the year with the expected rate cuts. annabelle: what about the m&a outlook, that is something that has helped dbs, and oub, ocbc's

tears in singapore. is that something else we are acting? sarah: ocbc has been engaging in m&a, perhaps less high-profile than that of uob and dbs. it is in the process of acquiring the commonwealth bank of australia's business unit in indonesia and also metlife in malaysia. this goes to its strategic priorities of gathering growth in asean and in greater china and hoping to capitalize on growth and wealth income and growth in trade flows between asean and greater china over the next two to three years. i think both of, ocbc has a much stronger capital position that than its peers and that puts it in great position to engage in further emanates over the mid to long-term should the right opportunity arise.

haidi: our bloomberg intelligence senior analyst for southeast asia banks, sarah jane mahmud there in singapore. some of the stocks to watch when trading begins in korea and in four minutes -- rakuten --. it announced plans to issue corporate bond shares to strengthen its financial position. sony may move on the news that it is laying off 900 people across its videogame division worldwide. it is also close it division in london. autos are in focus. japan's transport ministry lifting a shipment ban on three models. the market opens our next. this is bloomberg. ♪ high taxes can erode returns quickly, so you need a tax-optimized portfolio. at creative planning, our money managers and specialists work together to make sure your portfolio and wealth are managed in a tax-efficient manner. it's what you keep that really matters. why not give your wealth a second look?

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>> this is daybreak: asia counting down to asia's major market opens. the start of trading for japan and south korea just a few moments away. i think the focus for us is heading into the next hour because it is all about the rbnz decision, are we going to be getting some sort of surprise from that? haidi: focus is shifting back after the nvidia frenzy to the bread-and-butter of central banks. we have outlier calls in terms of whether the rbnz might move but also watching fed speak, watching inflation out of australia. repricing around boj expectations as well. annabelle: that's right. we have been forced to recalibrate expectations for a number of different central banks. but here this morning we've got japan just coming online. the japanese yen you can see unchanged. still at that 150 mark. a week level.