♪ it is wednesday, the 25th of may. this is "trending business". i am rishaad salamat. ♪ we will be taking to singapore, tokyo, and beijing this hour. sony rising more than 6% as investors take a long-term view. profit forecast missed estimates . of swisscutive merchant bank quit with six executives facing prosecution in

singapore. singapore sang it is the worst case of gross misconduct it has ever seen. hong kong: the worst sales downturn in 20 years. 2016 are being described as "icy winter." do follow me on twitter @rishaadtv, and use #trendingbusiness. well, getting to these markets at the moment china and hong kong getting underway. singapore with gdp figure stronger than anticipated, reaction as the market opens along with taipei and kuala lumpur. we are seeing a broadly up day when it comes to the asian markets, tracking the gains in the u.s. session. it is a confluence of a positive

, oil gaining, yen weaker, risk off the table. the prospect of a u.s. recovery looking brighter giving the surgeon home sales overnight. -- given the search in home sales overnight. sydney getting a lift from a rally driven by energy stocks, some refiners and basic minors. -- miners. with gains, up eight tens of 1%, a very good week. has settled down after selling automatically, a mass accidents out of the korean bond market, putting downward pressure on the currency. the kospi is up.

but more or less in line. the straight times index up for tens of 1%. we will be watching the laser in terms of the ringgit and the equity situation there. the impact of the 1mbd scandal. we are off seven-week lows. the region as up by 1% today. is led by basic materials, up by 1.5%, and a recovery in the basic resources sector. industrials, and consumer names having a strong day. some movers in the early session, energy sector doing well. in sydney, origin energy up by

4%. willie parsons up by 7.8 percent, having its investor day today. they are in or minors, fortis q leading those gains. rio tinto doing quite well. rishaad: thank you very much that. , all of this on .he back of the overnight jump investors shrugging off a week profit outlook and taking a long-term view on it. let's get over to tokyo. investors ignoring the profit forecasts? what are they looking at instead? yvonne: there seems to be a more resilient company we use to know coming from sony. they continue to see this g secular story from

sony pretty strong despite it has ruined the hopes they will have the most profitable year into decades. when he came to the restructuring of the tv and handset is this, analysts say sony is over the hump. net income forecast dropping 46% million dollars, two thirds of what analysts were expecting. $2.7ting profit rising to billion, but also a miss. sales on track to fall 4%. you can see the quick impact could cost sony $1 billion when it comes to damages, repairs and facilities, as well as lost sales, when it did have to shut down its facility in kumamoto. analysts say there is less urgent certainty -- less uncertainty despite the slowdown in the smartphone business. sony smartphone business expected to turn around after a

loss of the previous year. there are still some questions these camera components for other handset makers, and so the devices unit expected to book a loss of $360 million, but gains in services continue to be strong after anticipation of ps4, and there is a lot of buzz about this vr handset expected to launch. they already have 36 million users with a ps4. acre cost about three and a $99. there is an excitement investors have about sony's ability to create new and exciting products when it comes to entertainment, sensors for driverless cars, you name it. the cfo speaking about this, saying the company's earnings power has strengthened considerably in the last couple

of months, and the underlying business continues to be strong. rishaad: thanks very much indeed for that. a look at criminal proceedings launched in thezerland, and indeed with singapore unit of a swiss bank effectively being shut down. igation into 1mbd claiming its first victims. singapore shuts bsi unit down. the cfo resigned on tuesday as the attorney general announced the seizing of $96 million and take relation -- action related to money flows from 1mbd. there are still questions swirling around this fund. our kuala lumpur bureau chief joins us now to connect the dots. what is ds eyes involvement with bsi involvement with

1mbd? they became the latest casualty in this. yesterday there was serious misconduct at bsi when it , leaving the authorities to pull its license for bsi. recommended a cayman islands fun for 1mbd to put its money in. well, bsiight, to the caymand island fund. what is this all about? >> there was this fund managed -- and bsi had recommended 1mbd to put $2.3 billion worth

of units. said that those funds -- still $900 million. right, well, what do we know about malaysian authorities? how active have they been into this investigation. have we had any reaction from 1mbd? i think when it comes to malaysian investigations, they were investigating the company itself and some of the financial transactions. the involvement of the esi was on the singapore side. was on the singapore side. into are no investigations

bsi into malaysia. were sayingities they have yet to be contacted by any legal authorities when it comes to investigations into it. rishaad: thank you very much indeed for that. will keep youy we up to speed with. the moment,ter perhaps a bit of resolution, a deal struck between athens and brussels. her having a look at that and some other stories. euro area finance ministers will release aid to greece in june and september. they have been working on a compromise, which has had a hard line on greek debt relief. are focusing on a roadmap for possible future debt relief agrees. the agreement is above all a

show of confidence in greece today. hp enterprises taking steps to narrow its focus, merging its technology services division with computer sciences and a stock for stock exchange with an expected value of $8.5 billion. add hp's existing consumers to its own. hp enterprise was to concentrate on selling hardware and software to large businesses. they got rid of the personal computer and printer business last year. shares jumped in after hours trading. samsung, samsung infringing on as many as 11 patents related to 4g mobile devices. .t wants cash compensation offered to charge

a fair and reasonable rate for use of networking technology, but samsung refuses to pay. s receivedha e-mail comments from samsung that it will take appropriate action and defend its business. rishaad: were looking at the chinese company searching for billion-dollar oil deals in texas. it's on bloomberg.com/asia. latestup, why the data out of china suggest things may not the bad. oasisics and ideas from capital management. this is "trending business". ♪

rishaad: you are back with 2000ding business", the

attack on lehman brothers by david einhorn have something in common. they were both launched at a conference. the event is returning to hong kong. our next guest is one of its star speakers. we will come to the conference at the end, but it's about coming up with one big idea and whatever, so you can share your big idea with us, but give us a general theme you have. >> i'm going to speak about japan again. rishaad: you talked about it a year ago. >> i have been constructive on proactivedoing activities to help their return on investments. they started for the first time ever back in march and i think they will continue very aggressively. we have the largest gains just announced today, the largest

gains last year of ¥1.2 trillion. that is a large gain for japanese companies. the companies will continue getting better. creating shareholder value is what you are suggesting here. that's the point. are we moving in the direction of good corporate governance? everyone rushed ahead with abenomics thinking it will fix it, but these things take time. >> i agree. these things take a long time. the u.s. is in the 32nd inning of this game. japan is in the bottom of the second. leasing companies doing buybacks, increasing their entire governance in terms of board, adding external directors. you have seen the amount of scandals, takata,

suzuki, now is that a product of corporate governance or they are getting more investigative. >> these are generally the companies, not journalist. governanceroactive look, it's reveal -- good for japan in the long run to help clean up the companies. we have had five corporate scandals in the last year, and yes, i do think we will have some more. that makes a better investable market. rishaad: right, so that's one aspect of economics which may be working -- of abenomics which may be working. but is abenomics as an entity working at all? >> no, not at all. i think the expectations -- it's

know, 1950'syou dating in the tinder era. corporate governance takes a long time, and i think we are in the long, hard stretch. people helpeasing companies to unlock the value. we are actively engaged with our companies we are invested in to help them focus on -- rishaad: this is nascent shareholder activity is what you are alluding to? it is known as engagement, not shared activism. we are actively engaged with management.

it takes a long time. you will see more aggressive activity in the next couple of years. rishaad: which companies are you looking at that are doing the right thing. what about nintendo? it was only a year and a half ago that people were saying why don't they have their games in the mobile app store, and they are doing that to some extent, although in a limited way. >> i agree. i spoke about nintendo, asking them to be in mobile. rishaad: it seemed like a no-brainer, didn't it? >> it did, and now we have it. now we have them on mobile. they just announced they will --nch a division to increase make movies and tv shows. that is great for nintendo shareholders, and my kids come also. ,ishaad: tell me something

let's end on the conference taking place. what do you get out of it? what is the conference about? >> we are trying to raise money for a great charity. a colleague and friend of mine passed away from cervical cancer four and half years ago, raising money for that is our main fundraiser of the year. people will hear individual, great investment ideas from 13 different managers, actionable ideas. this year, both the long shortsighted hong kong. rishaad: have a good conference. getting that conference started on june 1 in hong kong. the reference rate, 6.56 against the dollar.

that's what we have at the moment. fixing toens the yuan lowest since march 2011. >> the investigation into the air crash of egyptair eight 04 is no closer to knowing what happened. clues indicate smoke in a compartment housing the computers and avionics equipment, but give no idea why. other alerts show unspecified problems with flight control and the windows on the copilot side of the cockpit. all 66 people on board died in the disaster. in alberta is set to resume as cooler, humid weather contains wildfires. alloweds of workers are to return. fires broke out at the start of the month and severely damaged the town of fort mcmurray and cut oil production by more than one billion barrels a day.

phillips,cor, conoco and another unit were affected. the daughter of a hong kong publisher believed to be abducted by china has asked the u.s. to help win his release. he is one of five people involved in what is seen as beijing's clampdown on freedom of speech. his doctor told a congressional committee that she spoke to him on the phone a month ago and still had no idea where he went. he went missing in october and appeared on chinese state tv confessing to a hit and run accident 10 years ago. powered by over 2400 journalists and 150 bureaus around the world, this is bloomberg news. rishaad: right, coming up, hong kong gold retailers facing a slump. an icyeing termed winter. we will take you why, next. ♪

rishaad: golden jewelry retailers in hong kong warned to expect worst sales for 15 years, the latest negative indicator for the city's economy, slowing quickly. bad are things out there? >> good morning. we are seeing retail sales and tourism numbers in hong kong falling. it has deteriorated in the first three months of this year. toll on retailers , and it looks like it may be a little well before things bottom. having a big impact on retail rents, i'm assuming, too. >> yes, there's a lot of pressure.

of street level shop rents coming down as much as 30% to 50%. in fact, jewelers and watch closing down stores over the last 6-9 months. if we continue to see retail sales falling and negotiations with landlords breaking down, we may see shop closures in hong kong and fewer jewelry stores and watch stores out there on the street. >> what about singapore, similar story here. very quickly. as a slightly different story. we are only sing 25% of visitors here coming from china. it is a more diverse tourist group we are seeing. vacancy of retail properties here in singapore has also reached a high since 2009.

it is hitting the same way that hong kong has seen. rishaad: thank you very much. up next, were telling you why oyota is teaming up with uber.

of the current top stories, asia-pacific stocks rebounding after a surge in u.s. homes sales at it to the likelihood of higher interest rates. the chance of a june rate hike at 34%, boosting financials and japanese exports. gains, u.s.g inventory shrinking. surrounding 1mbd claims its first victim, bsi.

bsi will be dissolved and integrated. worstore says bsi is the case of gross misconduct it has never seen. greece has one new loans following agreement among the 19 ,uropean finance ministers approving reform efforts and dispersing $11.5 billion to see athens to the next few months. sayingo group president the greek bailout program is fully back on track. we have the open in hong kong, shanghai, starting off the trading day, looking pretty green. this sense of stability returning to greece has been on the back burner for investors in asia, but this is only adding to the positive sentiment in the asian session.

session coming off lows. iron ore and copper ticking up. this is what we're seeing, the nikkei 225 up by one and 7/10 of 1%. upalso have our straight 1.5%, being driven by a the energy-oil refiners and basic miners. by one andpening up nine tens of 1%, strong gains coming through. shanghai also looking positive despite the pboc setting that daily yuan fix. that is something for janet to think about as the dollars upward trajectory is aim to continue if we get that rate hike.

watching we are bsi beingscandal and kicked out of the singapore market as well. were not seeing much of a contagious effect when it comes to the financial sector. report withonline 1.8% growth gdp. the kospi recovering from yesterday, bondholders had been getting out of korean bonds on expectations of a sooner than expected move out of the fed. inns across the energy space australia led by willie parsons -- willie parsons. where seeing gains when it comes to sony, investors brushing off

that report and looking to the long-term. very muchhank you indeed. one of our top stories, the latest step in this 1mbd socko with the swiss bank ordered close in singapore. not uniqueare if step by the monetary authority of singapore. >> yes, indeed. it is very rare. the last time something like this happened was in 1984 when the monetary authority ask a local merchant bank to shut down. is rare for singapore to ask a bank to shut down. even if it is a small private tok like bsi, but we have look at their reason cited for asking bsi to close shop. misconduct byss some of his officers, poor

management oversight, but most importantly, anti-money laundering requirements -- three in requirements not being met. bsi the capital punishment for banks as it were, they have sent a signal that for crimes like this that a fine may not be the most appropriate punishment, because the cost of that is ultimately borne by shareholders. closure, where the cost is borne with jobnk themselves losses might be something that banks in singapore or any financial institution for that matter will have to bear in mind as a potential cost of not sticking to the regulations. actuallycould this

pave the way for singapore's rise is a wealth management center, and why would it? on the contrary, my view is that this might actually be medium to long-term positive l. look, in the post-panama papers impossible for any jurisdiction, any economy that wants to lay claim on being a sears banking center, to cloak ifelf in secrecy, especially it gets to a point where anti-money laundering concerns that regulators all around the world have are not met.

therefore, by giving a very strong signal that singapore is not going to tolerate money laundering or potential money laundering type situations to city, i thinkthis they have actually gone up the reputation latter. dder. singapore has been the first to act, and the first direct very decisively, so i think there are brownie points for the regulator which will bolster singapore's case as the world's fastest-growing major wealth management center. rishaad: thanks for a much indeed. some next messages out of china.

stability index saying the chances of an imminent financial crisis retreated in the first quarter, but trade data from hong kong is not encouraging. tom mackenzie is running through the numbers. who knew. >> it's a case of reading the tea leaves. this index basically pulls together data points from housing prices to inflation and shadow banking and nonperforming loans. for the first quarter, it is up slightly, the fourth consecutive quarter showing improved financial stability and china. it seems to be showing that capital outflows have slowed, hire property prices and firmer inflation are offsetting concerns around the higher debt to gdp stock selloff. the flip side is the port data from hong kong. rishaad: that tells you about some of the exports. china doldrums of manufacturing, down 9.3% for april. rishaad: only out of hong kong. >> only out of hong kong. rishaad: right, ok, but what

about the other ports? is building up ports, so that's taking market share away from hong kong. more data through the month of may that points to another time span of slower growth. consumer sentiment was up slightly, then we had things from the private sector, the sales managers they're showing a bit more confidence, also an index that looks at satellite imagery. all sorts of things, by do as and medium-size enterprises, how many people are looking to set up smaller businesses. that is showing slight positivity as well, but overall, data pointing to more sluggish growth for china after that positive data in march and negative data in april,

continued negativity coinciding with this message from leaders in beijing that seem to suggest they are happy to keep a cap on debt levels, even if that means slower growth. rishaad: right, taking a look at toyota. it's looking positive, 1.9% higher. it is making a strategic investment in uber. our asia car editor is in tokyo. what is in this for a company like toyota? as you mention, this is a burgeoning space in the car industry. there is a real appeal for ,oyota to get a front row seat if you will, as to how people are using these right hailing mobile apps. it is a bit of an extension of what are your has been doing --toyota has been

doing prior to this, offering special deals to uber drivers and trying to make sure that a prius or other vehicle that toyota wants to make a showcase for these younger consumers are on the radarrt of of the users of these mobile apps and the drivers themselves. this is an extension of that interest that toyota has shown previously, but also the investment is something that follows what gm has done with yft and what you seen out of volkswagen investing in gett. rishaad: what is in it for uber? certainlyer, there

nothing missing for interest and investors. of investorsumber who have been stumping for their the process of this company seen around, and you gradually the valuation of this company soaring. for uber, they now have a established is very , a big establishment company to lyft, g.m.,th apple, big companies with a lot of resources, to back them and contestsy competitive they are in and markets throughout the world. they are trying to compete for users when you talk about all the different ridesharing companies. rishaad: are there any parallels here with partnerships that

toyota has done previously? to me, this smacks a lot of the investment that toyota did in tesla a few years back, were you saw a small investment in the company and a strategic partnership, where they wanted to get a close look at a company that was generating a lot of hype and interest. it was sort of on the up and up in the space that toyota was not playing in. in the case of tesla, was battery-electric vehicles, where tesla has been concentrating -- toyota is concentrating on hybrid vehicles and electric feel so vehicles, and they wanted a close-up look at what tesla was up to a few years ago. they made a small investment in the company and a deal for a vehicle. that is no longer a vehicle and production, but they still do own a small stake in tesla, said

this does smack of some similarities. the one big difference is that for your invested -- is that toyota invested early in tesla's lifetime, where as uber, toyota is late here. rishaad: thank you indeed. joining us from tokyo. toyota makes an investment into uber. right, morgan stanley chief u.s. equities analyst coming up shortly on "trending business". stick around. ♪

>> it is 9:45 a.m. in hong kong comedies of the stories making headlines around the world. ban onfter lifting a arms sales to vietnam, president obama has criticized annoyed for making only modest progress on human rights. he's met a group of campaigners,

but others were denied permission by the government. secretary of state john kerry said the fact that the meeting happened at all is remarkably significant. haveh police prosecutors rated google's offices in paris as part of a tax fraud investigation and whether they failed to declare revenue. the french government has called for google to pay back taxes of $1.8 billion. google released a statement saying it complies with french law and is cooperating with investigators. a pennsylvania judge has ordered bill cosby to face criminal trial on allegations of aggravated indecent assault. he faces up to 10 years in .rison if convicted t activity wasexual consensual. dozens of women have accused bill cosby of sexual assault,

but most of the allegations are too old to be prosecuted. powered by over 2400 journalists and 150 bureaus around the world, this is bloomberg news. mmg says it has $5 billion to spend on acquisitions. at copper and zinc opportunities. we asked the chief executive what he is looking at. of suppose its opportunities out there, and we look at all of them. what we have to do is find one that adds value to the company. for freeportat out 's coppermine. have you feel about getting beat out? >> we never comment on whether

we are in a competition or not, but when we look at the businesses that have been sold, none of them are cheap. ,he metal prices might be down the equities prices might be down, but if a project or is sold, the copper price is up here. there is nothing cheap out there. >> is the industry outlook for copper prices to be up here? yes, at this stage if you go back a couple of years when dollars,s four everyone was looking at new projects. with all those projects, it was anticipated that the surplus was going to be about 800,000 tons. it's not going to be anything like that. delays in financing, delays and projects, projects canceled, disruptions in the industry, the market is much tighter.

>> and circling back to you, how important is it to get it up and running? be in the top four or five in the world, a 20 plus year life, the lowest quartile of the cost curve, key for us and transforms the company. ceo speaking to angie lau. how twitter's latest changes are being received on social media. that is coming up next. ♪

rishaad: you are back with "trending business" as we check other stories. new autumn and winter

collections, hoping it can lure customers with its low price pledge. sales due with global to the strength of the yen and slowdown in china. forecast $1.1 billion, down by one third from earlier estimates. canada prime minister of has think japanese automakers for their investment and urge them to do more. justin trudeau is in japan for the summit and he talked with executives from honda, toyota, and others. but hedeals announced, is confident jobs will flow from the relationship that he is building in japan. afterstic about earnings reporting a profit for a second straight quarter, eight consecutive losing quarters, but the stronger ringgit and lower fuel costs offered a boost, air

asia x. it has new routes from malaysia and thailand. its pursuitstic in of monsanto, bear saying they will six is seed. saying they will succeed. bid does not address execution risks of the deal. monsanto shares up more than 3% in new york. bayer shares taking a severe beating. it would create the world's biggest supplier of farm chemicals and seeds. apple's plan to capitalize on india smartphone market a have hit a setback following tim cook's recent visit. reportedly to have told apple that if it wants to open doors, it must source 30% of

components locally. apple does not currently meet that criteria, but the final decision could be overruled by prime minister modi's government. reached aas milestone, more monthly mobile app users than twitter, the first time it has happened. this is coming as twitter changes some rules designed to make tweaking easier. eting easier. how many users did snapchat ad? inmore than 15 million april. companyaccording to a that looks a consumers, brands, and the interaction between audiences and social media. snapchat thethis, twitter for the first time. it seems like snapchat's fortunes are tearing ahead well

twiddle is possibly fizzling. snapchat is now the ninth most popular mobile app in the u.s., increasing users 49% in april. fast, 10t is growing billion videos viewed daily on its platform versus 2 million in may. twitter is the second most promise -- prominent social network. behind and is struggling to add and extend its base of users. rishaad: they are making these changes designed to make it easier, but the critics come out saying that it is actually going back on some of its principles. it sees a need to tweet the way it works, engage more people the way it works,

engage more people. if you include user names, that counts against the 140 characters, but that will start going away. it will also give people the ability to read tweet themselves. weet themselves. among the changes that twitter is hoping will engage more users to try and boost the number of people that are using it in the first place. it has been around for 10 years, whereas snapchat started in 2011.

twitter may be reaching saturation with the number of users. rishaad: coming up, why one of asia's most accurate currency shows china's bank less willing to intervene. ♪

♪ >> from our studios in new york city, this is "charlie rose." charlie: we begin this evening with a look at president obama's foreign policy. the president made history today and hanoi where he announced the u.s. would lift a decades-long arms embargo on vietnam. pres. obama: this change will ensure that vietnam has access to the equipment and needs to defend itself, and remove the lingering vestige of the cold war. it also underscores the commitment of the united states to a fully normalized relationship with vietnam, including strong defense ties