tuesday. the latest leaders setting up the campaign against the for current -- the current prime minister. today's top stories, follow me on twitter. on i look at what is going in the trading day. monday. here is heidi. heidi: things are notable winter -- winners on this easter holiday. a truncated session. new zealand, australia and hong day.have another southeast asia, driving the rest of the region early touchdown. jakarta, opening down. said, strong gains from tokyo on account of the weaker

willand on hopes that abe be announcing the consumer stimulus boosting measure. gains, prettyding good data over the weekend suggesting industrial profits going up. we are also getting news that the chinese pension fund will be channeling 600 billion funds. that is also driving sentiment a little when it comes to shanghai. the weakeningy of this is a dollars story. if the number is positive, it is going to build on the revised gp number, painting a more positive

picture of the strength of u.s. recovery and the strength of the u.s. dollar going for it. we are seeing weakness or another have present for the 113.59. yen, trading at we are also seeing weakness in other currencies in asia. the south korean won is down by a 10th of 1%, easing a little bit from previously. the aussie dollar, continuing the losing streak from the past week. data, how well the chinese economy is doing it is now flat,. this is the other reason we are seeing gains in equity markets today, and a genal positive sentiment. oil prices continuing to gain, snapping three sessions of declines. helping wtiling, prices surge.

a quick look at some of the movements we are seeing in the tokyo session. this is the consumer story. hopes that the new measures from shinzo abe will drive domestic consumer demand. seeing the likes of department stores up by 5%. like asahi, up by" -- close to 2%. rishaad: thank you. one of our top stories this morning, and expected new deal from japan. reports that prime minister shinzo abe will report as early as tuesday. david has a look at what we might expect. before i begin, perhaps

the reason why you see some of the stocks on the way up. tomorrow is when japan's current budget, with a budget is expected to get passed into law. alongside that, shinzo abe is expected to outline some details of the new package during a press conference, including this plan, our announcement, that japan will be frontloading spending from this current budget, which was approved a few weeks ago. ift that does, in effect, you frontload and execute the -- it sooner, is it creates space for new projects for the next calendar year, possibly funded by supplementary budget that may be put forward through the end of the summer. that basically covers .1. point two and three, 4% increase

in salaries for nursery school cash handouts and shopping balusters for things -- shopping vouchers for childcare and service. the package will likely be announced in may, which would be around the same time when we get to see the latest gdp reports for quarter 2015. may 18 is the first quarter for 2016, and the same time the g7 meet their -- there. on this issue, we can have a look at the retail sales. more important make on this issue of the upcoming sales tax, scheduled for april of next year. a report says there's a real possibility that that gets pushed back for a second time depending on the state of the economy.

rishaad: we will take a look at mark -- that story in more detail. @rise tweet your thoughts shaadtv. craig joins us from tokyo. here,s the understanding about these secession plans? the company has a chief executive officer who is 83 years old and in poor health. the plan here, according to is tryinghat the ceo to position his son to become the next ceo. in doing so, he made them out the current president -- he may

demote the current president of 711 japan. 711 japan accounts for a best plurality of the company's profitability. he really struck a harsh tone in the letter, criticizing the company and the board for rather orn promoting our -- praising a manager, but supposedly planning to demote an executive, and grew the ceos son to be the successor. rishaad: two questions. how does this link in with abenomics, and what else is he pushing for here? he actually called out to abenomics in the third arrow of encouraging companies to take approaches that are more shareholder friendly, and talks

about how the goals that they have laid out in the letter for changes at the company fit with the third arrow theme. he also called out in his letter, the idea of shrinking yokado,tructuring ito which is a merchandise unit within seven and i. barneyscalls to divest japan and nissan holdings. he wants the company to focus on bread-and-butter of convenience stores, and focus on the core competency going forward, and divest other units that are extraneous to the main business. rishaad: thank you for that, craig, joining us from tokyo. we are having a look at what else is going on in corporate japan, with one deal seemingly at a standstill. here is shery ahn with that story. shery ahn: sharp and foxconn say

they are pushing to close the deal that has been held up by disagreements for more than a month. company saysgship it will hold a board meeting on for they as scheduled, takeover, and may discussed depending on the state of the talks. sources says sharks the banks are ready to push back the deadline for most of the companies $4.5 billion in loans and credit lines,. beyond march 31 the extension may be as long as a month . the source says sure, along with the banks, is aiming for directors to endorse a final proposal. 2016, not the best so far for japan's ipo market. more than a quarter of debutantes at open below offer prices, and that is being compounded by the stock round at the start of the year. six out of 21 ipo's open below the offer price this year, compared with only eight out of 98 companies for the whole of

2015. the tougher times come as a rout in japanese equities sent the benchmark topics to the worst start to a year on record securities japan says. this weighs on the investor's ability to free up funds to buy new offerings. the ipo's peak at 204 in 2000, during the bubble, and slumped to 19 in 2009 after the global financial crisis, and have been rising steadily ever since. analysts say you cannot blame it all on the stock market round. some companies are simply not that attractive. chinese industrial profits snapped a seven-month losing streak, rising 4.8% in january february. the national bureau of statistics says the gains were led by oil prices and -- oil processing, electrical machinery, and food companies. 28 out of 41 companies posted a profit, but they say the industrial sector still faces

difficulties. the data says companies are deeper in debt, while inventories grew. officials say there was a sharp decline in profits for mining and raw materials. $8.2increased 5.5%, to trillion. rishaad: we are looking at a cricket tournament in a financial league of its own. take a look at that one online. coming up, australia's commodity boom. we find out how other industries are stepping up to the plate. that is just ahead. the return of trending in china kind --, could be a disaster. coming up. ♪

rishaad: chinese the are up 12% this year.

experts say the worst is not over. we had our guest on the program. this is the return in financing. were you a bit puzzled by the move? guest: well, i don't know if i am that puzzled. they obviously clamped down harshly last time. they clearly indicated they think the worst is over, and they want the market going up again, and one more equity financing. let's inflate the bubble again, it does not seem to be a long-term solution. sadly in china, there doesn't seem to be bloomberg markets, only bubble markets. rishaad: the thing is, you are suggesting we are on the verge of another one, a big down leg. what would precipitate that? guest: ultimately, if it is short-term measures like more margin financing, you are still

600 billion incoming from the pension fund. these are great things to get speculators out and retailers to get out and buy the market. ultimately, the reality is harsher. if the fundamentals don't improve, you can be just as volatile downside as upset. rishaad: that thing is, we always have a property market at the moment, that seems to be doing well. again, it was back in 2011 -- are we back in 2011? guest: i don't think we are. property is a funny thing in china. property was meant to be to unaffordable in the first place, too expensive for the man on the street, dominated by speculators. we are running the same script again. -- property market

it seems to be a similar script as we have seen before, and probably similar outcomes. i want to pick up on what is happening there. there has been a lot of talk, especially on the latest meeting, about actual commitment for structural reform in the state owned enterprises. there seems to be a lot of noise coming out. that noise also perhaps creating a cushion for those who may be i'm -- unemployed. you are saying there's no meaningful reform in progress. why these say that? guest: because we have not seen any. it's not just the past two weeks , they have been talking about this for 2-3 years now, and it has been well known, and hope

for that we have seen difficult actions being taken, and we are not seeing that. instead, we are seeing some talk about reform, and few actions on the ground. we sadly have not seen any loosening are selling of state assets. we have seen some private funds coming into state owned enterprises, but fundamentally, management is not changing. there is going to be a lot of difficult decisions to be taken. it is going to be painful. laying off workers as part of that, but even when they find new jobs, they are coming in at substantially lower wages than what they left. very difficult picture. difficult decisions are not what the government wants to take. rishaad: the thing is, a lot of the lifting has been done already by the pboc. does the central bank have an enormous amount of pressure to do even more in terms of loosening monetary policy? guest: i think it does. globally, there are very few governments and politicians who

want to do heavy lifting, and they look to the central banks to provide more stimulus, whether it is loosening or whatever you call it. it would seem that central banks are deemed to be the only people who can do anything. hasink central-bank still the ability to provide more stimulus. ultimately, that will not solve the problem. it hasn't sold the problems in europe or elsewhere. moore to facilitate growth for the economy. on top of that, we had the yuan. he's promising he will not evaluate it and let it depreciate substantially. does that promise ring true to you? don't actually know. i don't know whether that you want to be getting stronger or weaker, but i have been focused on what the market is the setting. if you have the number two politician in china saying it is not going to devalue, that does not sound like a market-driven

currency. one of your previous guests talk a pure- talked about case for devaluation. but clearly, central-bank and , are highlyin china wanting depreciation because they still continue to interfere in the market and put restrictions on people whether onshore or offshore, and make it much tougher. therefore, it is not market-driven. whether it is up or down, not many can decide, but i'm looking for it to be market-driven as real reform. rishaad: but it's as though the authorities trust the market, until they don't come every time. trust yes, ndp or they the market until they get an answer they don't want to hear, which is a good authoritarian government for you. they look at the market, and when it goes their way, they like it. and one there's a message they don't want to hear, they clapped down just like politics. ,rishaad: always a pleasure,

from singapore. we have to take a break. facebook's safety feature causing worries. details, coming your way. ♪

rishaad: let's have a look at stories making headlines around the world. malaysia's former prime minister up its campaign against the current leader. the financial scandal surrounding -- surrounding them means the country cannot wait for the next election. the prime minister says cash came from political supporters and the gulf and most of it is payback here it hopes of easing tensions over disputed waters near hanoi. this is amid growing arguments amid the oil and gas rich south china sea.

china and vietnam says they are determined to solve their differences in a peaceful way. a breakaway faction of the taliban in pakistan said they carried out the bombing of an easter sunday party. 65 people were killed. the group says it was aimed specifically other christian community. schools and businesses will remain closed.more than 300 were injured. police say the number of debt is likely to rise. ad is likely to rise. this is bloomberg news. facebook's safety check feature has come into criticism, following the deadly bomb attack in lahor. the system appeared to suffer a glitch. ruslan has much more. the disaster response team has apologized and says they have resolved the issue,

and they have posted a message saying that they hope the people in the area find a safe way to let friends and family know they are ok. unfortunately, many people not affected received a notification asking if they were ok. that kind of bug is counter to the intent. facebook software thought people were near the area when they were not. some people use twitter to voice their opinions. they said they were alerted to a danger that they thought were -- was imminent or nearby, like somewhere in the u.s., for example. and some said the only way they were alerted was because they didn't get it from other sources. mark zuckerberg also made a comment on his face the page about this safety check. he didn't actually comment on -- errant message vacations messages. he said he wanted to create more connected world, where

understanding and empathy can spread faster than hate. he says using the safety check measure is a way to make people feel more connected. the feature launched in 2014. this time was the eighth time in pakistan that this teacher was activated this year. -- this feature was activated this year. naturalsed for disasters, now moving towards acts of terror. rishaad: this was originally set up for natural disasters, and then after the terrorist bombings that took pace -- place, they activated it for the terrorist attacks? rosalind: that's right. they decided they would move away from national disasters. in doing so, they have stepped into controversy. how do you decide what to activate it for? of course, there are many attacks going on in many places,

every day, every week. it takes somebody to make that decision. many users are saying, are you only looking at europe or the u.s.? why aren't you activating it for other places like this middle east? rishaad: there are bombings on a regular basis. rosalind: exactly. so facebook is in a difficult area. in the past, they said that the feature is a work in progress, so they are seeing how much progress is made on deciding. rishaad: and how long it is a work in progress for. thank you very much. the safetyok at check feature, which alerted asked if people being they were safe, when they were nowhere near the bombings. people got that as far away as los angeles. things around the chinese slowdown, there are signs things are not as bad as

they seem from 4000 diet -- miles away. nikkei is up by two thirds of 1%. ♪

♪ a look at our top stories, higher in china and , expectations of a fed rate hike. the yen weaker, the longest losing streak since october. the american economy expanding faster than anticipated, chinese industrial profits snapping a losing trend. shinzo of a preparing new stimulus. rises,n may include pay

frontloading spending measures to finance more projects this year. separately, he will delay the next sales tax hike in may. daniel loeb urging seven & i to avoid nepotism. responding to speculation that the current chief executive will name his son's chief executive. the decision should not be based on family, saying the current resident should be a leading candidate. let's have a look at what is moving, japan breaking for lunch. haidi: were looking at fenn volumes, a number of key markets away for easter -- at fenn volumes, a number of key markets away for easter. rest of the markets coming back on line after good friday. , straita mixed picture

times index in singapore giving back earlier gains, markets coming off earlier highs. 1%,ghai up by 7/10 of extending gains. that failing to reach psychological 3000 mark in the session. reports from state media saying the state pension fund, 90% of china's social security, investing 600 billion yuan into equities and riskier assets, indicating 30% allocated this year. it does appear to be driving sentiment, as is the industrial profit number, i beat to the upside. -- a beat to the strong upside. stronger yen start boosting exporters, or rather a

weaker yen story, stronger dollar story, boosting exporters. let's take a look at the fx situation, the yen weaker by half of 1%. straight dayeventh in terms of that losing streak, the longest sense october, on the back of that positive u.s. gdp data. weakness across competitor export countries, the yuan sing a downside. -- seeing a downside. key commodities, driving positive sentiment and asia. gamescontinuing to extend -- gains, the rig count number from the u.s. lower, giving hope the supply glut is seeing light at the end of the tunnel. gainseing brent extending

, 7/10 of 1%. were seeing more of a risk appetite, gold down half a percent in the day session. getting back to one of our top stories, japan's new deal. ofmay see a clear picture shinzo all these latest efforts to get the economy going. david has been tracking this one. arrow,part of a third the nikkei newspaper reporting that when the current budget gets past into law tomorrow, we are expecting shinzo abe to come out with some new details. first would be an announcement that japan is frontloading, pushing forward spending and executing projects ahead of time , so this time next year there would be room for additional projects to come in. the funding for that would get pushed through towards the end

of the summer. i think that covers the first works more public project, infrastructure, improving farm infrastructure. rishaad: and we have the olympics? david: plus wage hikes for nursery school teachers and staff, and the third one, shopping vouchers and cash handouts. money?: helicopter david: the reason they are giving vouchers instead of more cash handouts is because people can deposit the cash, and this one forces them to spend at a premium to the face value of some of these vouchers. has become at political issue, 55% to support the government spending more. more details coming as expected in may when the gdp report comes

out in time for the g7. rishaad: that's when we could see the sales tax, this hugely controversial sales tax, hike rescinded. it has not been formally announced, but it might be put on the back burner. it alson some sense takes it away from becoming a political issue in case snap elections are called. we just heard from a chief cabinet secretary, speaking in tokyo at the moment, basically saying there is no truth in this report that the government has decided to delay the sales tax. at the moment, there is growing speculation, and this is based on the report and the people who have flown into japan to advise shinzo abe on that, that he might turn around and delay this further. rishaad: thank you very much. china's economic rebalancing may be working, according to new

data from australia. let's find out more with paul allen in sydney. the commodities boom is winding down, but i guess we have chinese demand for other austrian products picking up? paul: that's right. it is forcing diversification onto the austrian comedy -- economy. we do have huge rises for demand for beef, milk powder, and vitamins. bloombergues on the print side have been busy putting together a series of charts, and we will look at some of them now. tourism, arrivals from china reached one million into australia for the first time last year, a record. they are not far from closing in on rivals from hong kong as well. large, $5.7 billion in 2014, and if you take a look at another chart for students

studying in australia, chinese students enrolled in austrian universities, hitting 93,000 this year, another all-time high. universities like these students because they pay for fees, and themroperty market likes because often they in-depth buying an apartment to live in while they study. all of this helped greatly along by a weaker australian dollar. rishaad: we have the dollar being weaker here. that must help demand from china? paul: for services in deed, four years ago services were a drag on the economy. if we take a look at services combined in a chart with iron you can see that services is gradually catching up. it's gone from being a drag four years ago to contributing .5% to gdp today. gettingand government

their wish that the austrian economy begin to diversify away from strictly mining, and chinese investment and a change in the dynamic over there is certainly helping the country reach that goal. rishaad: thank you very much. allen in sydney. let's have a look at some other stories. apple saying it may not need the help -- to help the fbi unlock an iphone in new york. it asked the judge to delay the deadline. the company says if a third-party manages to access data from the san bernardino phone, the same can happen in the newer case. if it fails, it will continue its privacy battle. microsoft met possible bidders for yahoo! who may seek its backing. sources telling us the meetings were initiated by the bidders and microsoft is not committed to funding. has a search

partnership with yahoo! and is eager to continue the relationship, whoever owns the company. -- microsoft apologizing for its experiment with artificial intelligence. twitter,uced a bot to supposed to engage in playful and casual conversation, but users found ways to exploit the program. in less than a day, tweeting , backing denials donald trump's views on building a border wall with mexico. dogs were never the mainstream success they hoped for, but a determined few are working to keep them alive. rosalind: one of the hundred 50,000 sony sold from 1999-2006. the robot hedges mated to middle age in dog years before the division was killed off.

later,re than a decade the robot still provides comfort to their devoted followers. love is much greater than when i first met him. he runs to me when he finds me. a former sony engineer provides a lifeline for the pets. asked to fix it in 2013 when an elderly man said he wanted to bring his with him to the nursing home. and will do what it takes to get them fixed. greatnd: the demand is so that his team of seven engineers cap work fast enough to get through the pile of more than 415 ailing robots. they are keen on expanding, hiring more engineers, and seeing the impact, trying

another business idea. he is bringing the robot and elderly homes or therapy. >> it makes me feel happy. i have never seen anything like it. robots help you communicate with the world around you. i think this is the most important factor of robot therapy. japannd: although pioneered robot therapy, the spread has been slow. the repair and rental services could be one step down the line to helping old docs learn new tricks and bringing happiness to a new audience. still to calm, malaysia's former leader steps up his campaign against the current prime minister. were heading to kuala lumpur "trending business"

returns. ♪

>> welcome back it is 10:43 a.m. and hong kong. these of the stories making headlines around the world. arth korea has threatened preemptive nuclear strike on the u.s., releasing a propaganda video entitled "last chance or co- it combines file footage depicting a nuclear missile destroying washington. issued threats and fired missiles into the sea since being hit with you and sanctions -- united nations sanctions. the party of taiwan's outgoing its firstis elected female leader in 104 years. president xi jinping congratulated her, hoping she will continue independence for ty on one. -- for taiwan.

the kmt lost to the pro-independent party, the president in may. momentum inrs sees the race for the democratic presidential nomination after sweeping three caucuses the weekend. sanders scored landslide wins in hawaii, alaska, and washington state, narrowing hillary clinton's lead in the delegate count. is pinning his hopes on the upcoming primaries on the west coast. analysts say his quest to win the nomination outright remains an uphill battle. powered by over 2400 journalists and 150 bureaus around the world, this is bloomberg news. i am shery ahn. theaad: critics of malaysian prime minister have been stepping up to remove him by power by rolling out a campaign called save malaysia.

the country's leaders calling for najib razak to go. what is different about this campaign? this campaign was started earlier this month when mahathir mohamad led opposition leaders calling for najib razak to step down. they had their first rally yesterday. ist they will be doing ringing this message from city to city over the next couple of -- getto get india signatures by the end of this year, presenting it to the rulers to get their help in this quest. rishaad: the group is pretty , therate -- disparate question is how tightly bound are they? >> not tightly bound at all.

strange bedfellows. toir call is for najib razak step down, but after that they have not decided what they can agree on. they aren't talking about who .ill replace najib razak they were just happy if he steps down. rishaad: thank you very much indeed. oust thet attempt to current malaysian prime minister, najib razak. coming up, man versus machine, and man is losing. stock exchanges consider reining in high-frequency traders. ♪

rishaad: you are back with "trending business". some of the stories, after petra china's disasters numbers, results from other oil giants. estimates not looking good. banks to attempt

major hong kong ipos, the slowest start for new listing since 2011. the official take on how the a chinese economy is faring, pmi data on friday. months expect an eighth of contraction. the snap shot of japan hopingent plans, the boj the move to negative interest rates has translated into growing business confidence, despite gains in the yen and the slowdown in china. now officially open for business. the stock exchange entering its first full trading week after a historic first session on friday. not much choice for traders,

right? >> not much choice, just one company listed. the fact that it rose by 19% on friday shows there is a lot of demand and interest in myanmar. has been a long time coming, more than 20 years. the idea of a stock exchange first floated in the 1990's, but the asian financial crisis put an end to that hope of starting it in 2000. we also had the military rule and an underdeveloped financial system. on friday, the debut of the stock exchange, the very first stock, an investment firm owned -- rising 19%. close to 113,000 trades executed. the stock market is still not open to foreign investors, but that could changed by the end

of the year. ,ome other financial firms including myanmar citizens bank, joining them soon. myanmar is inthat high gear when it comes to its economic development. the 1960's, it was the richest southeast asian nation, but then under dictatorship we started to see it fall away. the anon here is the orange -- vietnam is the orange line. capita income, it is in the lead. we are seeing myanmar grow the fastest and closing in on this gap, represented by the white line, closing in on laos represented by the purple line. 5186 -- $5,164 come so growing

at the fastest pace. it is showing some very strong signs of economic growth and economic prosperity in the country, the fact that two thirds of the country is in a likely to shows it is expense more development, but this per capita spent showing people have the money to invest in the stock market. one stock so far on the myanmar exchange. it will continue trading this week, but a strong debut and showing strong demand for a stock market in myanmar. thank you. let's have a look at india. it is the hottest market in the world for high-speed trains. it accounts for 40% of volumes. authorities are considering dampening these things down. what is behind this? market hasan stock

been off to a flying start in march, climbing 6.5% in the first week. have also seen gains across the broader market, and the learned thatnges they are concerned with the use of technology that is cutting down transaction times. this as some of india's largest brokerages are asking for stringent regulation. experts are saying high-frequency transactions now account for 40% of the total volumes, the highest proportion in the developing world. the exchanges encouraged these transactions earlier, now a smaller group are drawing attention from stock brokerages. high-frequency computer trades

have been in focus. market regulator has issued guidelines on computerized traits, but -- trades, but now we expect regulations as part of such trading. rishaad: thank you. the man of steel and the cape crusader giving warner bros. their best domestic opening. $170 million in north american theaters, ahead of the thinking, topping estimates. china was included in the worldwide release, not normally taking part in those, but participation pushed global taking to $420 million. it is the first of 10 d c comics superhero films land like the end of the decade. planned by the end of the decade.

let's have a quick check on the trading day. it is a paltry one, few marks open, shut for the easter holiday. nikkei 225 up, shanghai composite climbing above that psychologically important 3000 level. come onlook at jakarta stream of about an hour ago, off by 8/10 of 1%. for "trending business". "asia edge" is next. shinzo obviously does lands is to be late japan's economy. ♪

rishaad: this is hong kong, the middle of the asian trading day. this is "asia edge." a look at our top stories, the yen pushed down. the prime minister of japan is planning new measures to rejuvenate the slumbering economy. partners in change, how

the economic future of china and australia are intertwined as they both tradition away from traditional industry. the myanmar stock exchange is open for business and it's only company jumped 19% on debut. so far, foreign investors are locked out. >> we have a number of markets closed, of course. new zealand, australia enjoying another day off. we have seen a mixed picture. we had industrial numbers out of china suggesting that might be starting to turn around. we had u.s. gdp being revised upward.