has been wiped out in one stage. >> i am shery ahn. also coming up this hour is the changes in the works in macau. how china's drive against corruption has altered high-end games. plus, the raffles is his canvas. the singapore billionaire who hated his way to the top. and we need the father of snowboarding. all that and more in "asia edge." >> top stories, mainland shares in china plunging after three of the nation's biggest brokerages were stopped from adding margin trading accounts. stephen engle's on top of this. >> we've seen with market checks that these brokerages are taking -- taking. >> down 3%. >> the biggest. keep in mind citic and hai tong

had planned a share sale. the business had been booming prior to today's fall. what happened today, the securities regulator suspending three of these top brokerages from adding margin on it and securities lending. so basically, they cannot borrow money to buy into what had been a huge rally. a lot of people have been borrowing on margin. basically suspended from doing that three months. another nine brokerages punished for various reasons as well. there is speculation as to why they did this. did they want to cool down the rally? or are they just trying to make sure they're playing by the rules? the securities regulator in this statement right eight, when they announced punitive measures basically said that the firms let customers delay re--- repaying refinancing longer than they were supposed to. >> so we have a margin call on

these companies to make a margin call, in effect. >> and these are companies that have been having problems before this rally as well. they had been more bullish as of late. so now the question is, what is going to happen to these plans share sales? how long will these ramifications last? three months right now, but are they being punished, or are the regulators going to try and establish a better groundwork for brokerages going forward? >> indeed. of course, these were the best performers last year in that massive rally. >> absolutely. they were capitalizing on this huge share rally. again, i come back to the point. our authorities worried about this market going too fast and beyond fundamentals? >> this is what david has been looking at. these chinese stocks. they got rocked today.

sharp turns right at the start. >> 31 95. we are down over 5%. we are talking to 25 billion u.s. dollars of market capital that has been wiped off the shanghai composite this morning. this term is margin trading in mandarin. a lot of these brokers were seeing limits. let's take a look at some of the stocks. hai tong, citic, down double digits. shanghai composite, where are we? things really sold up indiscriminately. health care and technology are the only ones that are higher. financials down over 8%. you look at what is really moving their.

you have the banks, the brokerages, insurers down 10%. 65 out of 70 cities still closing with declines there. the shanghai poverty index down 3.6% at this point in time. one last group of stocks i will point out, railways. china cr chr csr -- what is the story here? securities regulation saying the shanghai exchange is examining share training -- trading for executives of these companies. you are talking 11 employees, including the chairman of cnr. that they did trade securities in six months leading to the time when shares were suspended pending the merger. according to filing, we did see trading take place by cnr.

but they are investigating whether or not there were violations found. we are following that story. shery ahn, back to you. >> today, we had the launch of the asia financial forum in hong kong. you have been there live all morning in the company of john dawson and a string of guests. john, is the swiss franc top in your conversations? >> without a doubt. it has been the center point of conversations. in davos a lot of people are going to be talking about that as well. it was a significant you turn -- u turn. of concern, will denmark do it next? we also have the ecb deciding on

quantitative easing. based on what we've seen here swiss action is kind of a preemptive strike against thursday, which could be as much as $600 billion in quantitative easing if not more. the davos situation could be bad. given that it is swiss, it will be 20% more expensive than last week. that is also a concern. we talked to luxembourg's finance minister. about the crucial concerns and reactions to the swiss franc u turn. >> we have to keep an online on falling central utility. there were no signals that easing is having a major impact on banking. >> i am pretty sure they will do

what is right for them. in addition to that, we cannot pass judgment because we are far removed from switzerland. >> they have done with the british do, when you cannot beat the club, join the club. when you cannot defend the peg and the ceiling, why spend lots of research to do it? it is a surprising move, because it comes in one move. but at least it's a them lots of reserves. >> again, if you can't beat them, join them. the real question is, will denmark follow suit? this is another talking point three days on from this disastrous u turn. >> what else can we expect out of their? -- there?

>> on the next panel starting right now, it is about banking stability. for example, luxembourg's finance minister, the aba banking authority they will be on this panel to discuss banking stress tests. should a stress tests include a currency revaluation like we saw last week? the big question is the stability of the situation. i talked to liam frank, a business leader in hong kong. you will be chairing a panel on the global economy. after that will be a discussion on the chinese economy. is 7% enough? how bad is the debt situation? a very busy day, lots to be talked about. as we mentioned before, they are heading towards davos. to

discuss the crucial talking points. and the swiss franc is on top of the agenda. >> john dawson at the asian financial forum. >> bringing you some gridiron. we have a matchup for super bowl 49. it is the new england patriots going to meet the returning championships, seattle seahawks. beating green bay in overtime, much to the delight of stephen engle's. new england just advanced with a thrashing of the indianapolis colts, 49-7. taking place in arizona. other news in a moment, president obama will give his state of the union address to propose taxes on the wealthiest americans. it would increase tax on capital gains to 23%. it will certainly raise billions of dollars over 10 years.

the president will lay out the agenda in his final years in office. >> asia's richest man is said to be going shopping in europe. he is exploring a buyout of telefonica in the u.k. sunday times claiming hutchinson's could pay billions of dollars, having bought an irish business last year. british telecom sold that division ii telefonica about 10 years ago. and the pope is leaving the philippines after a visit marked high a record crowd. 6 million people packed manila's parks to celebrate mass on sunday. throughout his trip he has been preaching compassion and justice. and upholding the church's conservative doctrine and respect for all religions. >> looking ahead on the show

how singapore's iconic hotel is key to the wealth of the nation's. richest men. we will have backgrounds in numbers. we will be discussing the plunge and china. when you look past the declines the market is changed. ♪

>> let's check it back in with the markets. our next guest is uwe papart from reorient group. china obviously tanking in the equity market. worst day in five years. all about this margin call with these brokerages who had a fantastic year last year. >> they had too much of a good year. the amount of sort of new accounts opened and margin accounts opened simply was over

the top. this entire -- i want it actually, because it gives people an opportunity to step back and look at what is really real as opposed to what is totally 100% liquidity. >> unlike liquidity not prevalent in the rest of the system. >> right. but the point is if you are in china right now, for a margin call, you can get money. four put margins, you can get money. if you are small enterprise, you cannot get money to invest in the real economy. this is fine. they should be doing the. >> the obvious question is, will this go back to the divine opportunity -- buying opportunity? >> i am not sure it is an opportunity for the firm's. >> it is not good for them because they're trying to raise capital while their share prices

are at these wonderful levels. >> why shouldn't they? i think taking a little money off the table for them make sense cents. >> and of the share price continues to decline like this -- >> absolutely. basically, chinese stocks remain sheep. that is the main message. >> people say they are not cheap but are not screamingly expensive by any stretch. >> compared to 16 in the u.s., come on. >> that is a discount, isn't it? >> of course it is a discount. you could say the same thing about korea. we all know why that is the case. that is basically the situation. if there is any buying opportunity, it is the banks. they suffered a little with the security firms. they are solid. >> one place which has been

really concentrating people's mines has been the housing market. we have seen some tentative signs of recovery. >> december -- november was a lousy month. december was a lot better. in terms of actual sales, sales volume, it was up by nearly 10%. that is pretty impressive. prices are still going down on average. but major cities are not. it has stabilized. i think this is where people think china can do more. >> indeed. there is a lack of liquidity when it comes to what is going on with mortgage financing. and we had this financial system awash with liquidity. so the state taking with one hand and giving with the other. >> it is scrambling. >> i would not ever say that.

let's have a look at what we also have on our mind. what did they do this year? it is a diverse economy. you want to try to lift up the housing market to keep people happy, but do not want to end up with is to -- this debt increasing. >> is a difficult rope walk. on the whole right now, as long as they keep pushing reforms, they can also reflate. that is the theme. as opposed to your, where they are relating to warm -- relating without reform. >> coming up, there is a little matter of a swiss country with a massive aftershock we are still going at the moment. and what did mario draghi do this week? uwe papart, thanks a lot. the changing face of gambling in

macau. china's anticorruption drive is forcing one player to look elsewhere. ♪

>> macau in the headlines again. last week, it was a string of prostitution-related arrests. now it is a high-end junket operator closing casino rooms. tim is here. what do we know so far? >> it seems like we continue to

see an extension of anticorruption to what we have been talking about. anti-extravagance. now anti-morality. it has had a big impact on the business. the vip business has been reported in the fourth quarter down 29%. all the way back to 2011 levels. clearly i think this announcement with the david group closing bip rooms is a reflection of how much a contraction the ip business is seen. you are mentioned -- >> is it also affecting the bigger casino market? >> it is definitely extending. it is happening in a couple different ways. if you look at the mainstream business, which has been a bastion of consistency, growing 30 to 40% for the last several

years, it actually dropped in the fourth quarter. down 17% year on year. the first time it has ever contracted. a big chunk of that are premium mass guys who were really vip -like clientele, and they have been impacted with this anti-extravagance. maybe your -- they were affected by the smoking ban. >> a lot of bands -- bans in china right now. so how are operators dealing with this? i hear they are moving overseas? >> i think we are going to hear more of this in fourth quarter analyst calls, certainly. a recalibration of the business is clearly in order with many of them. they have expanded their floors, expanded their staff. everything from catering to card dealing. in the current environment, clearly the business is a lot

less than it was a quarter or two ago. they're looking forward to these new resorts. >> because it is sort of a supply furthering demand. do you think that will help? >> we believe that over the longer term, there is a supply constraint in this market. there is an opportunity for these markets to tap into the mass market of china. a lot of this anticorruption anti-extravagance activity really does longer-term shift casino operators back to focusing on mainstream business. that is most profitable. has the longest legs to it. a lot of this policy action drives it that way. >> greg, thank you. >> a look at stories making headlines around the world. one of the china gunman has been -- charlie hebdo gunman has been

buried in an anonymous grave outside of paris. the funeral was carried out discreetly. the mosque feared demonstrations. it also has one of the oldest muslim communities and france. taking a look at what has been happening with attempts to recover the fuselage of the crashed air asia plane resuming this morning after being halted by bad weather to the course of the weekend. the company says the main section is some -- in some 28 meters of water. rough seas prevented divers from reaching it. most of the passengers thought to be in that part of the aircraft. remains of some 53 people have been recovered so far. 45 have been identified. the united states and north korea are holding unofficial talks in singapore being led by the former north korean envoy and pyongjang's current chief.

relations are more strained than usual followed -- following a hack on sony pictures. >> let's also take a look at some big events we will be following this week. tomorrow, we find out if 2014 was a hit or miss for china. we get those all-important gdp numbers for the full year. the government predicted that it would hit 7.5%. we will find out on tuesday. on thursday, we will be watching hundai as they report earnings after their long-running dispute ended with a court order ordering it to pay bonuses as base pay for some workers. industry analysts say that will increase their labor costs. we may get an impeachment decision on the former thai prime minister at the end of the week. the military-backed legislature has been considering her government's rice subsidy

scheme. she says it was designed to help the rural poor, but critics say it was riddled with corruption. >> but check in on the trading day in sydney. this is what we have at the moment. a move to the upside. they were getting a left from the commodities complex. seoul looks like this. and hong kong, more severe declines. 1.3% down after that massive selloff in shanghai. we are looking forward to the afternoon business in tokyo. they have had lunch at our back at their desks. ♪

>> in shanghai stocks see steepest tumble in more than five years. the raffles is his canvas. the singapore billionaire who painted his way to the top. and the one contractor that will not be going public this let's get the latest in the markets now. chinese stocks have been the top story now. >> let's take a look across asset classes. u.s. markets are closed today.

the aussie 10-year come up a little bit, 261. we continue to see concerns for falling inflation, a big decline. 1.5%. investor money here, that is where you get a lot of change. gold prices capping their best week. more or less to the highest levels of october last year. euro swiss, basically at parity right now. we will be at these levels for the most part for the next three to six months. this is more or less where we will be trading. ecb comes out this week.

will they pull the bazooka? swiss national bank said they are indirectly of hours. these have been sold off recently with concerns of weakening because of oil prices. we are seeing a rally of a lot of the stocks. let me quickly wrap things up with tokyo. sharp shot up about 7%. the company confirmed midmorning that they will not meet their forecast. full year earnings will come in

below that with a drop of the japanese yen not good for domestic business. what they are saying about komatsu a good time to buy. further gains in stock well likely depend largely on whether we see dollar-yen spike up further. >> investors looking for the next eggs saying, chinese internet stocks, they will probably have to be patient. 2015 will not be there year. last year was epic. >> it was a wave. now it is a low tide. >> the storm and now the calm.

>> yes. we saw 60 internet chinese companies go public in the u.s., including last year with a record 14 companies raising $29 billion. but a huge stock was because of one company, which surprise, was alibaba. but when you talk about e-commerce, travel, as well as social media online platforms and whatnot, a lot of those companies in china have already been listed. so we are going to see a smaller pool of mature startups and new ipos this year. >> if they are interesting, they will be interesting for those big boys. that's the whole idea. >> of course. this year, we are only supposed to see six ipos in new york. we saw they companies with big pockets willing to pay a lot of

money to invest in these small rivals and buy them out. so alibaba, you see webb, 2012, you can scrap that. db stream is a video streaming site. dianping is a reviewer website. we are starting to see this kind of trend because these companies have grown so much in the last 15 years. >> sherry was talking to us earlier about the runs that may well come on the market. >> what did you call them again bricks-to-clicks? we will see more mobile-based companies, wearable devices, those companies stepping into this next wave of the stock market. these companies are still relatively new. it could take two to three years possibly to fully mature.

some reacher's say it may not be just the supply of ipos by just the poor market conditions. we may not see this kind of appetite for many more but u.s. companies like deals that are connected to the consumer. >> let's take a look at some other stories making headlines. >> shares are surging today. australia's largest investment bank raised its outlook net income is seen climbing 10 to 20%. at the higher end, that would mean that mccoury's highest earnings since it's record dropped a year ago. net sales to they hit with the biggest of klein in more than five years. asia's richest man is said to be

going shopping again in europe. he is exploring a buyout of telefonica's wire unit in the u.k. he could pay more than $13 billion for 02. that is the check of the top corporate headlines at this hour. >> singapore requires buildings be repainted every five years. and they contract has driven a paint mogul to the top of the singapore rich list. who are we talking about and how much are we talking about? >> we are talking about goh cheng leing. he founded his first paint shop in singapore in 1955 and then he began a joint venture with

nippon paint from japan and nippon southeast asia which is in 15 asian countries. he is worth about $4 billion. in the past year, he has also become the largest shareholder in nippon paint. that is worth about $4 billion as well. >> so let's go down the list a little bit. who is number two? >>goh's net worth but some ahead of wi cho yao. he has a fortune of about $6.9 billion. next is the family members of [indiscernible] worth $4.9 billion. the suns are worth 4.6 billion

dollars and $4.5 billion respectively. >> what else can you tell us about the newest richest men in singapore? >> not much unfortunately. he maintains a pretty low profile. all we know is that he hasn't been involved in the active running of his company for decades. his son has led the company since the 1980's. and we also know that goh is a big fan of luxury boats. he has a yacht that is six he one meters long called the white rabbit echo and it is worth a cool $31 million. >> that's not petty cash. thank you. >> the big names in business and politics for the world economic forum a good time for high-end hotels. it is one -- is one week a year

enough to sustain it? probably not. >> the dev us -- the dow posts -- the davos known as the golden age, the likes of richard branson and bono stayed here last year. every january it's guarded by swiss soldiers. but it mean a be enough to protect it from bankruptcy. so where did it all go wrong? other than the week of the world economic forum, 216 room hotel struggles to fill its space. hard to believe it could fail. one of just a few five-star hotels, credits respond $152

million into the site. the hotel has lost 6% in value. bankruptcy proceedings are ongoing. while the inter-con is once again fully booked for the week of the forum. >> coming up, crude prices have halved but it could fall further to $40 a barrel pretty soon. our group discussion next. ♪

♪ >> welcome back. of course, today, the big news china omitting because the

government cracks down on speculation investment. is that the big move right now? >> absolutely. there was an enormous amount of liquidity pumped into the securities firms and they turned it around and did not always do it the way it is supposed to be done. so margin calls at certain points are necessary and instead of to do it somehow preemptively then actually backing into one. i think that is the important lesson. >> what is the effect long-term? i have been looking at the numbers, as a generous 13, 1 .0 8 trillion yuan. six months prior, it was $64 billion u.s. if all of a sudden, you have the three biggest brokerages banned from opening new accounts and margin lending for three months, will we see a float downwards

for three months? >> know, we are not. -- no, we are not. the actual number of these security firms that are affected, some of the big three. under those circumstances, there will be a hit. but there is a lot of opportunities for people to buy. we like banks. we still at property. we think the property sector is making a recovery. i think the actual ability on the part of retail investors to make a comeback without huge margins is quite significant. wax but how much of the city 3% gain be to -- before today's gain was fueled by margin lending? >> you look at the united states , the same thing -- >> that is what i am trying to get at. >> in the u.s., we had a tripling over a longer period a time, about a year.

but that was the goal of a lot of the markets last year, at times when the market was otherwise ready to tank. this is not unique. it is not just the chinese who are gamblers. [laughter] >> they acted preemptively in order to not have to deal with this major problem when it arises. is that why the us and be acted as well -- the smb acted as well? making them making it -- making it really expensive oand difficult. >> most people seem to feel that it was understandable. >> if you look at the actual situation that the swiss bank

was dropping against the dollar it was not as much reason for that as much. >> but was it responsible for reserve currencies for that to happen? >> i think you want to protect yourself against the risk. >> protect yourself. >> against quantitative easing. >> some people are saying shouldn't have the central governor called the other governors as well? >> there is no question that there was communication and there was also flagging of this. there was a big article a week ahead of it. >> two days before, it said there was no way. >> that is what you have to do. if you ask a stupid question -- [laughter] >> what happens to these hedge

funds? >> they go bankrupt. >> that's it. >> a hedge fund going bankrupt is not a disaster. [laughter] actually, nothing hangs on it. it is better for a hedge fund to go bust than a bank. >> thistle from goldman sachs he was walking through the hall with his head in his hands. >> the big thing is qe this week. >> so the question is how it's going to be done. it's a done deal. >> the question is how big. >> if they really want to make an impact, they have to do what kuroda did in japan. they have to do a massive thing and sort of knock peoples socks off. >> 600 billion euro? >> 600 billion is not the big number. that is the, number everybody assumes because they have said

one trillion balance sheet. you the duct what you call cldro -- >> and other acronyms. >> but if they want to make an impact, they have to go a trillion. >> and you have to get angela merkel alongside here. i'm sure she has already given acquiescence without actually doing that. >> germany pay for the italian debt, that kind of thing. in this case, there was an article in one of germany's magazines over the weekend saying actually the german bundesbank bought german bonds. the italian bank will buy italian bonds. if the italian bank it's in

trouble with its purchases the ecb will have to jump in any way. that is sort of a little crumb that is thrown in the direction of berlin to make it a little more palatable. >> the seahawks and the patriots. >> you had to bring that in. >> it is a glorious day for a seattle native. >> you hear that slumping on my desk. [laughter] >> if you can support the patriots, you will likely incur the wrath. thank you so much for joining us. >> still to come, the race for the 2022 winter roll up x. >> -- winter olympics. >> and the father of snowboarding. ♪

>> the 2022 winter olympics is down to just two bidders, beijing and the kazakh capital. >> many expecting beijing to prevail. >> the man known as the father of snowboarding says china is poised to become a winter sports powerhouse. >> they have world-class athletes already. guys are competing in the olympics. girls are making the finals. and there are already some incredible role models for the sport here. japan doesn't have as many people either. >> how many -- >> it would be great. it would be a huge opportunity.

i know it is very important to people, especially in this town. >> for your business, a beijing olympics would be more beneficial than a kazakhstan olympics. >> yes, but i have no control over that. >> there is a bone dry days here in beijing. there is very little moisture. is that a concern? >> it would be great if it was colorado or something along those lines. but with what is happening with technology and grooming. in vermont, we had rain over christmas and then it got freezing cold good but they are on top of it in terms of the technology and making snow and grooming it. >> there is uncertainty in europe in places where have shown some weakness. yes, there is global warming and whether that is having an effect

good but with economic patterns in the world, will that make developing new markets like china all that more important? >> yes, it does. but also like the u.s. market, which is really strong now, a terrific market for us -- >> what kind of increase are you looking at in the u.s.? >> single digits but mid to high digits for next year. >> your kind of like the hewitt packard of the snowboarding injure -- snowboarding industry. do you see this happening back in the late 1970's? >> no clue. i had a vision that snowboarding could be a sport. it was sort of an alternative that you would go hike in the backfield. skiing was so expensive back then. kids were working for me. you know, we were driving up as far as you could get and

snowboarding down trails and driving cat operators to get a ride out there. next thing you know, we are getting onto resorts and that was so much fun just watching the sport. >> how often do people come to your door into by you? >> a lot. and i stopped taking those calls a long time ago. >> wife -- why? >> i think i'm pretty lazy. i'm afraid, if i did not have this job, i would be sitting on the couch. >> counting your money? >> watching sports all day. >> you are kind of a lazy guy that rules out an ipo down the road. >> i also have a hard time being told what to do. i haven't worked for anybody else ever. >> the father of snowboarding. he does get around a bit. we have more sports news now. >> the australian open gets underway today with a salute to last year's women's champion. >> it is a new wax statue of

china's li na at the rob labor and rehab -- rob laver arena in australia. it's meant to be a good likeness. >> the statue includes her usual strap on the right knee. she retired from tennis last year because of an injury. >> "american sniper" has topped the american box office. it has set a record for >> nominated for six oscars, it collected more than $90 million in ticket sales. >> you usually see that kind of number in summer months. not the winter. the previous record, do you know what that was? >> "avatar ] -- "avatar?"

that was all from us here to

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