a digital once again trailblazer. what you think about our top stories. let's get a flavor on what is going on market wise. the trading day across the asia-pacific. asian stocks trending higher. they cost be seeing solid gains. seeing solid gains. hands saying also up 2/10 of a percent to but the shanghai composite trending lower. remember, it rose for three consecutive days. april retail sales numbers and industrial production numbers out of china later in the afternoon. down 2/10 of 1%. this is after even current

account data this morning margins opened wider than in 2008. weaker yen attracting more tourists and that is helping increase the surplus. asian stocks rising mostly overall today. that is even after markets globally have seen a slump because of that bond sellout. it has intensified in the past three weeks. the 10-year treasury yield high sinceuched a november, the highest level since november, 2.36%. 2.26%.urrently at it managed to reverse course after a successful auction of three have in your debt. the growing pressure on

ubs in the u.s., the justice department is said to tear up its agreement not to prosecute or. bank for libe this came out of 5:00 a.m., u.s. authorities are said to be ready to revoke this nonprosecution agreement with ubs. that agreement was made back in 2012. the move is so a can seek a guilty plea from the bank and hold it accountable. this was in a ground me -- an exchange for ubs promising not to commit crimes in two years and their cooperation obviously in another investigation. four x -- forex rigging.

what is the bottom line to all of this? ubs will still be shielded from antitrust charges when it comes to the libor investigation. but it is still exposed to fraud charges. ubs is set to enter a guilty plea. we are likely to find out very soon where the settlements are. each bank, we now have a list of five, is expected to cough up at least a billion dollars each for the penalty. be facing the largest among the group. rishaad: more detail for that story during the rest of the show. more upheaval may be in the work said china's massive oil conglomerate.

all part of a sweeping set of reforms for the industry. we have heard talk about this. what do we actually know about what is being considered? bloomberg has learned that perhaps more sweeping reforms are in store for the oil giants, like petro china and sinopec. just a month after we had the removal of some of the top executives at the oil and gas giants in china, we are learning that a spinoff, led by the national development reform commission in china, is being considered for the pipeline businesses of these two oil and gas giants. the oil network in china is vast , the natural gas pipelines starting to rapidly glow. these acidssays could be worth up to $300 billion. if we spun these assets into separate entities from the

state-owned enterprises, which dominate the energy sector, it could spur competition in this field. that would lead to the spinoff .nd separate companies see npc, the parent of petro china, has 77,000 kilometers of pipeline. sinopec, number two, more than 30,000 kilometers of pipeline. let's look at the other stories today. with a roundup. yvonne: we are looking at him saying. they are planning to -- at hand saying -- hang sang. they are trying to boost capital by selling a second [indiscernible] the price represent a discount of nearly 6% from what it was at

last close. seng says the proceeds would support future expansion. it sold another 5% stake in february for around $2 billion. hang seng shares have been up 15% for the year. the big shot gain news, buying aol in a deal valued at $4.4 billion. that works out to be $50 a share. that would give the largest u.s. wireless carrier digital content, intensifying the battle for mobile ads. analysts say it is an ambitious plan. of aol will get two technologies, exclusivity of, and the ability to send targeted ads to mobile devices. technology will help bring verizon another step closer to its mobile streaming service featuring live tv come original shows, and pay-per-view.

not to mention revenue streams at the time when its main business is facing increasing competition, particularly from t-mobile. to armstrong will continue lead operations by the time the deal is done, which is expected to be at the end of the summer. bowing.lk about they are looking -- boeing. they are looking at production. to company is really working convert a record order into hard cash. it competes against the airbus 320. a 60-month setting timeline. gaining more from the factories, a huge focus for the chicago-based boeing.

they collect 60% of the new jet's price before delivery. he remains confident that there is ample demand for boeing's planes. they are also raising the 787 dreamliner's. still some investors are sorting to get worried that order activity may be tapering off after years of growth. the question is, is raising rates making sense here? so far, it has been a slow start, $88 million in the first quarter, the slowest mf of the quarter since 2011. rishaad: how one gold mine in australia is cheaper than a house in sydney. program, taking another hit. efforts taken

aback by a new quake. we look at how the asia-pacific region may see more drought and typhoons thanks to el niño.

david: president obama trade agreement is flushed out. is keen to finalize the 12-nation transpacific partnership, but senate democrats refused to advance the legislation without guarantees. just one democrat voted with republicans to move the bill forward. david cameron has posted his first cabinet since last week's election. the top of the agenda were relations with scotland and the uk's future in europe. the prime minister is reported to breathe bringing forward a

into the toership avoid politically dangerous clashes with french and german elections a year later. he sees no need for a second referendum on scottish independence. el niño is back. australia has declared its return for the first time since 2010 and expects it to be substantial. el niño typically brings drought to eastern australia parts of crops.hreatening it also raises the possibility of more typhoons in the pacific. but mainly the monsoon in india is below normal for a second year. foss cap forecasters expect the effects of el niño to last through 2015. how high is the kospi in asia's agricultural sector as a result? it's all agreed. this time around, it really is el niño.

wayne: it does seem so. this year is going to be moderate-two-strong event. last year, they had similar warnings but they wound up being k.little more modest to wea it seems the arts have risen somewhat that the impact could have some impact this year. rishaad: what does it mean for those in the agricultural side of things. we could have more typhoons, more droughts, right? wayne: let's go through the hotspots to give people a bit of context in what investors should be watching. clearly, the indian monsoon is one hotspot. it could have an impact on vegetable oil production, cotton production, and to some degree sugar production in the year ahead. the other hotspots are indonesia, malaysia, which are key producers in the palm oil industry. and then we go down to australia

where the potential for a dry spring could have an impact on wheat, barley, and other oilseed crops. and then all the way over to the eventas, where an el niño tends to increase rainfall in the central parts of the u.s. and increases rainfall in the central parts of south america. muchu could have some better impact for corn and soybeans in the u.s. on the other side of that, sugar could see lower production because it would be too much rain. means you will have lower sugar content in the cane. so the odds are pretty broad spread. rishaad: on the one hand, some farmers were lose. some will actually went out in this. so the readthrough also has to be, from an investors point of view, what do you do?

point, don't do too much at all. the one thing i have noticed in the last days, we have seen a sharp rally in the palm oil stocks, both in singapore and indonesia. i think this is probably a good selling opportunity. we have to remember that the impacts of el niño 10 to -- protect -- tend to not show up he merely. it takes 12 months for these impacts to be read through. getting on the wagon too early at this point. we need to see the impact. we could have an el niño year but still rainfall at the right times which generally supports crop production. so it's more about putting it on the radar. we take a bit of time in the we look at it on a more serious note as we get into the third quarter this year. rishaad: what is the best way to approach this?

if you want to buy agriculture, physical agricultural commodities, is a better that way or the other way, going to the aggro as mrs. with these big businesses with these big conglomerates. wayne: a could have impact in volume in the spring crops. spring to summer crops in the u.s. as we know, the volume impact on some of these trading companies is very positive. example, like adm, for and so forth. if i do see lower sugar production coming out of brazil as a result of greater rainfall in the back half of the year, what you will find is a positive price impact. through could be muted on a negative volume impact for those guys producing in brazil. so then you look more to your asian sugar names.

people who have exposure to sugar in asia so they get a positive impact on the price and the volumes can still be broadly unaffected, at least in the near term. so those are the options the people concert to look at. rishaad: you mentioned, if we look at asia, what do you expect for el niño in asia in particular? wayne: i think the most obvious impact will be on palm oil production. those impacts can extend not only to the industry itself, but also to food prices more generally. india is one of the largest importers of palm oil, for example. if we were to see a constraint on palm oil, even if it is only in 12 months time, it is a risk we can start to put on the table, that we could start to see an impact on food prices in india heading towards the end of

this year if the event becomes quite severe. we also see potential for a fall in production of indian-produced vegetable oils. so the prices of vegetable oils could pick up significantly. but we need to wait and see what the overall impact is as we go into the third quarter. i think it is a little bit early to be trading this scenario now. but certainly india has struggled with food prices in the past. if we were to have an el niño, it could have an impact in the future. rishaad: great talking to you. next, wide verizon-aol deal is coming in for mockery online.

rishaad: falling mining profits, rising unemployment. how does it respond? mr. hokey: we see a rebalance of the history lien economy from mining construction -- it's getting a look at of

this budget. we see enormous opportunities for new growth in exports into asia. paul: you said the price could drop to $35 per ton. but the forecast in this budget is $48 per ton. to you think the worst is over for the commodity? mr. hawking: we hope you -- mr. hockey: we hope it's over. been conservative in the past. imb reasonably conservative now -- i am being reasonably conservative now. paul: why are you so optimistic? greatckey: we can see potential in on mining areas, particularly in advance manufacturing. see exports improve. we can also see great opportunity for expansion in the services sectors, particularly

demand for education services, tourism services, but of course health and financial services as well out of asia. paul: one of the key factors lacking in australia's economy is confidence. what will this do to what glenn stevens calls the animal spirit, not just the small business but the big business as well? have 2 million employing half the workforce. we are getting small is this -- small businesses tax cuts. it's a big stimulant for small business to get out there and have a go. rates thiso cut week, oil prices on the rise, does that mean that china is coming to the rescue of the alien -- the ailing government

coffers again? think this budget is went to shore up the primus mr.'s leadership and give the government of the clear air it needs into the next election? : this is about doing the best for australia. australia's best days are ahead of it. yvonne lookings at what just running on social media. yvonne: we are talking about deal to buy big aol, $4.4 billion. people are asking why. remember your aol messenger name? people talking about why do they do this. as the ceo of aol says, let's go mobile. they have technologies such as

targeting ads going to your mobile device. people are getting their news entertainment on their phones now. we will all have to switch to aol-verizon dial-up. [laughter] saying verizon is buying aol. aol is actually worth something. so mobile is the magic word here. and speaking of ancient things, going back to school, hartley? -- aren't we? david: we are not that old. i remember when i was in school, we had film projectors. yvonne: and you could write on them with nice markers. : global school rankings are out in asia. this is an authoritative list by the oecd. it shows that asia is really in the lead here in terms of school quality. they take of number of metrics

into consideration, science and math scores, overall achievement. the tope coming in in place. hong kong second. japan and taiwan tied in the fourth-place spot. onne: not too many surprises, right? coming up on the other audi plans to boost production in china. a look at [indiscernible] as audi becomes the world's biggest luxury car manufacturer. ♪

and choose world choose, choose, choose. but at bedtime? ...why settle for this? enter sleep number... don't miss the memorial day special edition mattress with sleepiq technology. sleepiq tells you how well you slept and what adjustments you can make. you like the bed soft. he's more hardcore. so your sleep goes from good to great to wow! now we can all choose amazing sleep, only at a sleep number store. save $500 on the memorial day special edition mattress with sleepiq technology. know better sleep with sleep number.

rishaad: the u.s. justice department said to rip up its agreement not to prosecute usb for reading libor. ubs among five banks poised to settle with u.s. regulators over the manipulative currency markets. the chinese market looking to strip its biggest energy companies of oil pipelines. it would see the assets spun off into independent businesses.

the separation would be a part markets playo have a more decisive role. nepal hit by another powerful when. it killed dozens, brought down the lens and triggered mudslides. more than a thousand people died in the april 28 quake. latest frome kathmandu. can you tell us what the latest on the ground is? sanji: thank you for having me. i think we have been 15 days now in kathmandu, just getting back to normal. everyone was coming back to their houses now. the earthquake yesterday has taken us back a few days.

we see more people outside, moore panic among children -- c among children and the public. we have reports of dozens of people dead. do you have any further information on that? thousands injured, too, once more. figure hashink the been more than a thousand. the death toll has not been officially out yet. but i heard it is more than 50. i think that will continue to rise. some of the rural areas where the epicenter was has not been accounted for fully. rishaad: what is the priority on the ground? what do aid agencies need to do currently and especially two

weeks after the huge earthquake that we had? : i think now we have -- doing relief and looking at early recovery. now the houses that were partly damaged are completely destroyed in the area. has to be economic activities along with relief. rishaad: how are people coping? how are aid agencies coping at the moment as well? : aid agencies are responding. we were going to rural areas. suddenly, we see a lot of landslides and some areas. accessibility will be again an issue because monsoon is

approaching. landslides in the affected areas, access could be a problem. people are in a stage of panic again. a lot of psychosocial trauma issues that need to be addressed with this recovery and activities. rishaad: thank you so much for joining us. let's look at what is going on elsewhere. shery: asian stocks marginally higher today. even after markets worldwide saw the slumping because of the global bond selloff. gains,pi seeing solid

reversing yesterday's losses. the nikkei marginally higher. that is after current account data this morning showed japan's surplus marginally large. seeingnghai composite some losses, down .4%. remember, it has been up for three consecutive days. sengang saying -- hang extending yesterday's losses. we have retail numbers out of china, not to mention production numbers out of china. they are expected to come up at her than the march figures. but let's look at some banks in china. local media have reported that these two banks were hacked on may 9. they reported the case to

police. there has been no impact on client data and accounts. but we are keeping an eye on their stocks. rising 2.5% today. that is after announcing they industrialling bankshares. we are also looking at these stocks today in japan. japan headed for their lunch break. , theyl these companies also loved this morning after a forecast in profits that missed analyst estimates. big names expected to plead guilty in the coming days. : the u.s. department of justice continuing to flex its muscle in terms of trying to get

banks to actually plead guilty to wrongdoing. in a sharp departure from the past where the u.s. government was criticized for being a bit too [indiscernible] there are now five banks set to settle with the government. four global banks, citigroup, j.p. morgan the space chase, barclays, all will plead guilty in the coming days. they would plead guilty to antitrust violations related to manipulating currency rates. some of the pleas will be made by the banks's holding companies. instead of individual units. apparently some of the banks wanted to use the subsidiary to make lovely and justice was pushing for a to be one of the main units, letting it be a holding unit, which is considered somewhat of a

compromise. to behe fifth bank poised making a settlement, will be making a different path. there are some technicalities. had in fact entered into a cooperative agreement several years ago regarding the global probe into libor rigging. and that agreement to enter a plea with some kind of antitrust charge would violate the settlement. it is shaping up to be a big win for the u.s. government if citibank and jpmorgan actually plead guilty. in the past, they got guilty pleas from two international banks. audi's fortunes are increasingly on the rise. no market is more important to audi than china.

things are looking good for audi. but looking great for volkswagen, it's parent company. zeb: you have been to china. you know the audi brand is very popular. audi popular with government officials, also with the elite. if you are picked up at the airport by one of the luxury hotels in beijing, you will likely drive into the city in an audi. they have many years of track record there. the brand enjoys great popularity, even with the slowdown in the chinese economy. audi to power ahead in the month of april, edging out bmw and mercedes as the world's biggest seller of luxury cars. 152,000 units sold and giving mercedes and bmw a run for its money in the china market and elsewhere good the the q5 accu seven model

is doing extremely well. and they suvs and crossovers are doing very well in terms of sales. rishaad: china is critical to audi's success. he do have the slowdown. how is that playing out with this numbers? zeb: the ceo a few hours ago said, while china is becoming a much more mature market, the slowdown is creating greater competition. they are still very bullish on china. they see about a percent growth for the china car market in 2015. that is the fastest pace of auto industry sales growth anywhere in the world. so very bullish indeed. rishaad: thank you for that. let's check in on some of the other stories. mining is suffering a crisis of confidence. of the hot on the heels drop in iron or prices.

they are acting against the best interest of the mining industry, he said, and needs a better understanding of supply and demand. facebook is hoping its latest recruit will help break down is quality barriers. mark zuckerberg has been spending billions to help developing countries. working with governments and regulatory agencies. samsung his producing a new chip. the new arctic component will help connect electronic devices and appliances to the internet of things. all the products will be connected by 2020. the technology will not be limited to samsung products. the software will be open and capable of supporting google, and rolled -- google, android, and ios. >> we believe it is going to

make our lives better by having these things available. i think the bigger opportunity is not the hardware but also the software and services. rishaad: hackers have been described as a security threat as dangerous as terrorism. its disproportionate effects here in asia. ♪

zeb: secretary of state john kerry has held a meeting with vladimir putin. they will work together to shore up a peace deal in ukraine. carrey tweeted that his discussions had been full and frank and thank the president for devoting more than two hours to their meeting. he also warned ukraine of

east.ting the comic in the refugee crisis in east asia is worsening, with malaysia saying that they will send both spec out to see unless they are actually sinking. are of the migrants rohingya muslims from myanmar and bangladesh. . >> the situation now requires a regional solution. it is no longer possible to say that this is anyone countries response ability. thailand, laser, indonesia need to come together. they need to have their navies go out and find these boats and rescue these people and they have to push very hard on the .urmese government : hbo, showtime and the

nearlyrs say they were 4.5 billion by ends, twice as many as the previous record. rishaad: cybercrime is growing in asia. data breaches are increasing by the day. business. big thank you for joining us. i would like to start off by asking you why asia seemingly is more vulnerable to cyber attacks than the rest of the world? jeff: thanks for having me. cybercrime is an ongoing process really of probing for vulnerabilities.

roamars would neighborhoods for houses that had an absence or inefficient burglar alarm. in this world, they can do it digitally. in asia, with the breath of countries represented with institutions and consumer practices, it offers an incredible source of differentiation that cyber criminals can continue to probe and look for vulnerabilities. that is why we have seen independent studies that indicate that asia is twice as likely to be a victim of some of these attempts at cybercrime than other areas of the globe. rishaad: what is the most common type of cyber attack on a person? jeff: it's interesting. , where we would see fraud occurred at the point of application. shifted where there were attempts to take over a consumer's identity and use

that fraudulently. what we are seeing today is that has also shifted to the virtual world and with proliferation of mobile devices and tablets, people are now try to take over digital identities. as a result, they can attempt in much greater numbers and quantities to try to get into financial institutions to transfer money. probably still the greatest area that this occurs is in the area of credit cards. that is where the biggest volume of transactions and purchases occurs. -- we thinkt that that across asia, that represents more than $100 billion of deferred and delayed transactions, tens of billions of dollars of actual fraud losses. and the numbers themselves are higher than that, because many times fraud losses get mixed in with credit losses. the banks are at the

fulcrum of this. what do they need to do now, not just the individual, but also to protect enterprises? any: the key for banks and enterprise -- and it is a growing list of enterprises that can be subject to these attacks -- airlines, e-commerce, many merchants that are operating online. the key is a have to have robust systems for tracking work transactions are coming from. they need to look for patterns in the data that are different from what they have historically looks for. a classic example of the banks having authorization processes for their online banking practices where they would check a consumer coming in. if they tried to enter their password more than three times and failed, that would lock them out of accessing their account. in today's world, what happens

with a data breach, a hacker may get access to a million online identities for an online organization. as as much guidance consumers have gotten about the importance of creating strong passwords, we still find that many consumers are lax in establishing those passwords. so the classic hacker pattern can be to try to just identify one or two common passwords and try entering that password across a hundred thousand different accounts for an organization. to lock somectice of the out after three attempts would not catch that type of transaction. but in today's world, we can track the devices that are cementing those requests and see if an institution is getting a disproportionate number of login attempts coming from a single device. then we can logout that device. important for the organization is to make sure that they've got very robust systems for

capturing data on who is interacting with them. and then that they are applying a lot of analytics to understanding where those transactions are coming from and looking for anomalies in the data. rishaad: great to talk to you. thank you so much for coming on the program. at the, we are looking may jinx. we will head to mumbai. ♪

rishaad: we are counting down to the start of the trading day in mumbai. look at the indian rupee in particular. it has been the worst performer amongst asian currencies in the last month. it seems to be getting worse in may as well. may is historically a bad month for the ruby.

10 best -- the rupee. investors are seeing more and more reasons to sell assets. is this signifying the end of the modi honeymoon, as a w ere? reporter: one of the worst months for the rupee. may is typically a month when you sell and go away. the rupee retreating in may in the last five years. we saw a lot of data yesterday, inflation risks continue for the rupee. in march, experts slumped nearly 24%, the most since 2009. this is what foreign investors

are increasingly saying. modiuphoria around the government fading. and the opposition party hampers its ability to push through key changes. battlingt is perception and foreign investors who have started pulling money out of the indian markets. investors are weighing the impact of a potential increase in u.s. interest rates. all of that lending negativity as far as the rupee trade. rishaad: thank you. have a great day. is here.- yvonne : verizon dialing up on aol. the big question is why?

we have plenty on social media commenting. verizon has two technologies which is -- one of which is targeting ads to your mobile phone. donald trump weighing in. people poking jokes. remember those back then? let's talk about the global school rankings. asia getting an a plus and reaching the top five. singapore making number one. hong kong, south korea, japan, and taiwan, really good data in asia, ranking up in math and science. rishaad: thank you for that.

that is it for this edition of "trending business." coming up, it's "asia edge." .

john: i am john heilemann. mark: and i'm mark halperin in chicago. "with all due respect" to gotham city, it takes big shoulders to support a presidential library. ♪ mark: on the show tonight, first, the deal that was blocked, or is it? the trade measure that has been washington's main focus this week is in big trouble. president obama wants it on his desk but senators in his own party but the kibosh on it this afternoon when the closure monster struck again. john, can fast-track get back on track? john: i think the answer to