with the daily limit for a second straight day. policy makers are digesting the news that australia's trade deficit was wider than expected in may. glenn stevens is expected to hold the record cash rate. coming up this hour, millions of people in china make money by live streaming their lives. ande are doing stuff live, i'm watching the markets. we are led by australia and japan. this comes the day after brexit levels, a correction which had already climbed a few days ago. equities intot of bonds and yen. let's show you where we are -- bonds getting picked up. we're looking at a 10 year in

australia, 1.95%, a record low. the yields coming down further, market fear driving this lower, according to the senior strategists. it moved back into safety, really more pronounced when you look at the currency markets. if you had to pick dollar or yen, it would be the yen. if you had to pick the dollar and yen against anything else, you would pick both. past 102 thised morning. what a difference. before i go, have a look at this, pushing up. we are looking at more weakness in the renminbi.

just a key data point at want to mention. we saw the private survey in services, improvement in june. in other words, more optimists than pessimists. yvonne: david, thank you. australia's trade deficit was that it had expected it may, coming in at 2.2 billion aud, the equivalent of 1.7 billion usd. rba sets the the cash rate later today with no change expected. for more, let's get to paul allen in sydney. paul, the economists were pretty much unanimous on no cut, but it's a different story for august, right? paul: that's right. it is 100% in favor of the rba staying today, but fast to august and those positions reversed.

reason for this, aside from the political turmoil, it's all about the cpi in australia. it was back in may that we had our first deflationary fall in seven years, quarterly data due out on july 27. the rba meets again a week after that. they're going to do it then. he did have interesting piece of data, the trade balance blowing up. $2.2 billion deficit, up 2%. the aussie dollar was down. this is all part of a trend in australia of ever widening structural deficits, and it looks like we are set for a hung parliament, so don't expect policymakers to do anything about it. the onus will be firmly on the reserve bank to continue doing what they can to stimulate growth. yvonne: talk about that hung

parliament, paul. the counting resumes today in australia, and this really code -- is there any indication of when we could expect a clear picture? well, it's possible a clearer picture will begin to emerge this evening, and if not this evening, then later in the week. 1.1they have a big job, million and before they can be counted they need to be sorted into the appropriate electorate. don'tc saying today expect us to get through one million votes in a day. in the meantime, the postelection positioning continues, an opposition leader calling on the prime minister to resign, and even one of his own senators saying that there needs to be a debate on the leadership. malcolm turnbull is vowing to push on. yvonne: all right. thank you so much. let's check in on some other stories making headlines.

is sent to be in exclusive talks with the french carrier, iliad. aswould increase competition a tally of tribes to combine. they are hoping to win approval for the merger. largestn china's a lo property developer have slumped in changeup for a second straight day. they resumed trade for the first time this year monday following a six-month halt as its biggest shareholders fought for control. of the company has announced a near $7 billion share sale in a bid to end the battle. uk's ruling conservative party will ballot its mp on the five contenders to replace david cameron. theresa may has the most thersements, and meanwhile

decision to leave the eu may not be final after all. thousand people want a second referendum, and there are indications that the remain campaign would win. a senior official in brussels says the u.k. could stay in the bloc if it changes its mind. the recent rally in precious metals has push the price of gold and silver back to levels not seen for two years. are,s a look at where we prices have softened just a bit from their peaks we saw this tuesday. let's go to david standing by the terminal to break it all down. what's going on? david: obviously, we are looking at softening. silver is just below $20, but we are still looking at gains. i was looking through some of the rally inand commodities looks to the overheated at the moment, but if you had to pick a group, its precious metals. are we overheated?

the biggest a two day pop and silver prices since, what, 2011? inevitably you will get a lot of momentum indicators. it's showing that we might be a little bit overbought. anything about 70, this redline right here, most people would say, yeah, too hi to quickly. way into thisy, area that indicates, yes, overbought. it traces all the way back five years, the most overbought level since 2011. which is perhaps why you were looking at the correction. that being said, do you buy gold or do you buy silver? there is one metric we like to use. gold,es the price of divided by the price of silver, and it gives you a number -- in this case 66. that tells you is how much

silver can you buy with an ounce of gold, just in case you go back 500 years to the barter system. this is a good metric to use. it shows you what has rallied more than the other. keep in mind, both these precious metals are positively correlated; in other words, one tends to move for the other goes. that said, silver has seen a massive pop, gold a little bit. and has pushed this ratio to the lowest level going back two years ago. when we pushed over to these extreme levels, some people use it as an indication to use it, t o add on gold. back to this note. they're looking at commodities, a little overdone, maybe stay away from base metals. they recommend getting into precious metals. average price for silver, third $19rter, looking at 19 bal

announce. a lot of things worth noting here. silver is a little more precious this week. yvonne: all right. dave, thank you. our guest have given their opinions on brexit related plays. one says that gold could rise another 7% to 10%. >> low interest rates are pushing people back into i equities, but low interest rates are the safe haven. it really does look like this is a situation which could persist for some months. unless we have pullbacks. i've got to say, looking at gold, for example, i think we have a real chance of getting back up to the next major technical resistance, about $1500, 7% to 10%. the alliance says its

rally isn't over yet. >> while we still have those shorts in the market, we will see people move toward silver, which has implications as an industrial metal as well as inflation hedge. why we have got those dovish tones, you still get the precious metals being the flavor for people, but people will look to silver because that is the one that has been underperforming, but i still think it has more legs. ubs wealth management says the powerful trade around current levels for some time to come. invokesand if the u.k. article 50, we will see a return to the market, and we approach out our forecast against the u.s. dollar and we think it will be to midpoint of the trading range. there has been talk about more stimulus coming in from the bank

of england and the u.k. government, and i think what's really -- yvonne: that was the word from asia. coming up later on, how millions of chinese are turning themselves into online stars. believesour next guest asian companies will stay on skate if the u.k. exits the eu. this is bloomberg. ♪

>> -- hit by three suicide bombings on monday, the worst near medina, one of the holiest shrines in islam. the third explosion happened near the u.s. consulate, extending a wave of attacks across the middle east.

and china has jailed a former top aide with ties to presidency shintaro. he was convicted in a closed-door trial on monday of taking bribes and illegally obtaining funds and abusing power. he's the latest target of the anticorruption campaign that has extended to more than 100,000 officials. and three former barclays traders have been convicted of butl between 2005 and 2007, the jury could not read the verdict. four years ago, he paid an $850 million fine in the scandal which led to an overhaul of the banking industry. job and ceo lost his got around $9 billion in penalties imposed on the financial sector. global news, 24 hours a day, powered by our 2400 journalists in more than 150 news bureaus around the world. i'm rosalind chin; this is

bloomberg. back in on the markets with matthew sutherland at fidelity international. great to have you. the optimism has edged a little bit. these v-shaped recoveries and most of asia, but we only hit the ceiling. highly breakthrough that? >> it's going to be a big challenge. we are in a world of great uncertainty. we don't know how brexit is going to pan out; there is a full spectrum of possibilities of what exit will look like for the u.k. the world is really like uncertainty. volatility rises, and when volatility rises, the world goes risk off. we will stay in a world which is volatile and moving sideways until we get greater clarity. yvonne: if we need to adjust for the second half, how do you do so? can we get even more defensive

than where it is now, when everyone else seems to be pouring in on bonds and commodities? >> that can do. therey of looking at it, have been going slightly sidewa ys at the margin. a little more utility, telecoms, cyclical names, just to take a bit of risk out of the portfolio. but basically, if you are picking good quality companies that have good business models, good management, and attractive valuations, that should see you in good stead. yvonne: if you take a look at bonds and stocks, these different pictures, inflation expectations derived from pictures, it's falling. and we see that stocks have jumped. do you see this as a dangerous disconnect? >> is an interesting question. i don't think it's a dangerous disconnect, no. i think there are all sorts of influences at play. yvonne: ok.

so how do you hedge from the post brexit follow? is it that you focus on the domestic story, particularly in southeast asia? >> that's exactly what we are doing. the fact that asia has fared very well over the past week, when it was extremely risk off in general, asia did quite well, india was up every day, philippines were up. this is because asia is a much more domestic the focused continent now than it used to be. used to be the place that made cheap stuff for the rest of the world, but now it is a continent making stuff for its own consumers, it overs growing -- its own growing middle class. that is why we like asian equities. even though asian equities are arguably a risky asset class, they should perform quite well in the current environment. yvonne: central banks could possibly call markets a little bit. could they actually stop the volatility bill?

>> i think monetary policy seems to be increasingly discredited and seems to not be working anymore, at least in isolation. that's where the imf is saying there's no point in doing just monetary, you need a combination of monetary and fiscal reform. if you have those pillars that maybe you have a chance. i think it's a little depressing that even though central-bank activities almost got us to where we are today, all your hearing around the place is further easing, further easing, further easing in response to this crisis. it's good for markets, that is a good for the global situation? yvonne: jpmorgan -- if you take a look at where yields are going, it suggests that you need to raise the chance of a global recession. is that priced in? >> no, global recession is not priced in, and we don't see that happening, to be fair. a consensus might say the u.k. might go into a recession, but not the whole of europe, and

certainly not the world. most people have taken them about half a percent off the global growth targets, but nothing like recession. the u.s. is growing pretty consistently, and we have got some inflation coming through, which is a positive. yvonne: the one point we haven't mentioned is china. that's where we see, in terms of the domestic story, there is still a lot of unknowns, headways into the second half with l flows, weakening yen. where are you on that story now? has it changed? >> generally, it's a mixed story. the that part is not particularly positive, and we would like to see further action to control the growth, but there are number of really positive things that we are hoping will get less attention, and those things are the change in the economy from a cheap manufacturing place to something much more sophisticated in terms

of manufacturing. they have moved up the manufacturing value curve and also the shift from manufacturing to services, which is not always captured and statistics or gdp data. china is now a place where services are a bigger part of the economy the manufacturing. yvonne: yeah. in terms of asia, we see bull markets already at the heart of it. indonesia turning into a bull market as well. you mentioned the tax amnesty last week. what kind of impact to that have on gdp? could that really reflect in stocks? >> i think it is already reflecting and stocks. one reason indonesia performed well was undoubtedly because of that. it helps the government's finances and should help the consumer. a lot of the stocks we like our consumption stories, which is true across the region, because of this growth in the middle class in asia. that's the real story for us, and indonesia is definitely a country which would give it. yvonne: thank you so much.

stick with us. betty sutherland, joining us from fidelity. coming up, tensions escalate in the south china sea as there are formal protests launched against china. this is bloomberg. ♪

yvonne: welcome back. a formal protest after a chinese frigate entered waters around islands claimed by tokyo and beijing. it's the first time a warship has joined the game of cat and mouse around the chain. last month, tokyo made another formal protest on what it saw as chinese incursion on territorial waters, calling the ambassador on june 9. this is the latest evidence of heightened tensions between starting sixan,

days of naval exercises in waters claimed by vietnam. let's get our southeast asian correspondent, has haslinda amin. hais china flexing its muscles again? haslinda: well, call it defiance, college provocative. china is turning a deaf ear to the complaints from vietnam, conducting exercises just days before the hague. the naval drills will be around the islands, set to involve about 100,000 square kilometers, an area that is controlled by china, but claimed by vietnam as well. this is where you will find woody island, where china is said to have about 1000 personnel, also surface-to-air missile systems. as you can imagine, tensions are rising. vietnam is insisting that china stops the exercises, that it should stop threatening regional securities. it also says china is infringing

its sovereignty it again,but china is clearly not listening. in fact, it issued its own warning, saying that no other ships will be allowed in the area while the drills are running. here we go again. yvonne: this cat and mouse game just continuing. is the south china sea becoming a flash point? haslinda: the risk is there, if tensions escalate even more. there could be global consequences. there were competing claims of the south china sea. it's only in recent years that tensions have been rising. the situation is made a bit more complicated with the involvement of the u.s., supporting asian allies to counter china's expanding claims. it says it is upholding freedom of navigation, that lawful trade should not be hindered. here lies what's at stake -- $5 trillion in ship bound trade

passing through the south china sea every year. strategic waters, no resolution in sight. yvonne: intentions -- and tensions remain high. let's take a look at how markets are trading here today in sydney, where we are about an hour away from the rba decision. say that glenn stevens will keep the cash rate at 1.75%, but of course, we also did get that trade deficit that came out higher than expected for the month of may. australia shares down close to 1% in sydney. we're seeing asian stocks for the first time in a week as we continue to see the concerns after brexit continuing. shares are down 4/10 of 1% let's go to hong kong. we're seeing the msci asia-pacific index retreating from a three-week high, energy stocks leading the losses, hang

seng mostly down about 8/10 of 1%. we are also looking forward to the afternoon business in tokyo and we will get the latest after the break. this is bloomberg. ♪

>> asian stocks are down, bringing a four-day rally to an end.energy stocks are among the top losers , with brent crude dropping below $50 per barrel. precious metals were in demand as investors continued to see caven following the uk's decision to leave the eu. silver and gold have now retreated from two-year highs as the dollar steadied following five days of losses. shares in china's largest property developer slums by 10% for a second straight day. its hong kong traded stock remains in positive territory. the company resumed trading for the first time this year on monday following a six-month halt at its to big its

shareholders fighting for control. we are an hour away from the rba's latest rate decision; most see governor glenn stevens maintaining the record low of 1.75%, but are betting policymakers will ease next month. this comes as counting resumes in the weekend election and in the nature a deficit widens more than expected to the equivalent of $1.7 billion usd. global news, 24 hours a day, powered by our 2400 journalists in more than 150 news bureaus around the world. this is bloomberg. let's get the latest on the markets; here's david ingles. david: thanks. we're about an hour away from the rate decision from the rba. we don't expect any fireworks, but the element of surprise is certainly there. pocket of the market we had been watching is the mining stock, especially those exposed to the precious metal space. we are seeing the big chinese and silver prices

coming off a little bit. we are still seeing gains, so when you look at some of these miners, new crest giving back western areas at an explosive high on monday. that being said we are also seeing prices of nickel coming up. let me get you an update of these prices; gold, silver, and nickel, july and august, off session highs. still seeing special gains of 2%. there are supply concerns out of the philippines, the new president coming out and issuing his morning on miners in the country, comply with the rules are it will shut you down. normally that shouldn't rattle markets, but this is of course the world's biggest producer of

nickel. 1%,t of weakness, 6/10 of ahead of the rea decision an hour from now, and across australia there are declines across every single sector. hasn't been the best morning. 's fingers crossed that things improve later on. yvonne: that has not been a good first half for hedge funds. is $3 trillion industry heading for its worst performance in 2011, on volatility from events like negative rates in japan and the brexit vote in the u.k. let's go to our asian investing editor, here with us now. how have hedge funds weathered through this volatility? >> as you just mentioned, the markets have lurched from shop to shop this year, starting in january with china's stock and currency market turmoil to the negative interest rates in february in japan, and the name

of all of this has been uncertainty about what the fed is going to do in such a macro driven environment. hedge funds have really struggled, and the results are parent in the world. globally, hedge funds are down 120% this year, and in asia they are down just about 2.5%. ve been trailing a lot of the world's major indices and many have been stymied by a lot of these macro driven -- yvonne: yeah, and we are seeing hedge funds joining the so-called platforms. tell us about why they are doing with this. >> platforms traditionally used to help smaller hedge funds. they would set up shop, get up and running, provide them with office space, administrative help, allowing investors to do what they do best, which is put their money to work. as the environment for hedge funds has gotten tougher, there is pressure on one side, that investors are no longer very happy about shelling out 2% in

and you werees, seeing on the other side that compliance costs have spiraled much higher. in this kind of an environment, even larger hedge funds are contemplating saving a lot of money by getting help with things like hiring office help and renting their own office space. yvonne: i was moderating a panel with the hedge fund managers who said that -- no more, those days are gone. when we talk about the trend, is this specific to asia or are we seeing this globally? >> we are seeing this globally, however there are some quirks in asia's hedge fund market. $172 a smaller market, 17 billion, and the sizes are correspondingly small. the average hedge fund sizes are u.s.,half that in the

and with access to deep-pocketed investors, you're seeing greater demand for such products among asian investors, although it is a global phenomenon. yvonne: thank you so much. let's check on some other stories making headlines. he will keep his office in london despite the u.k. decision to leave the european union. ues saysastian jacq really doesn't do politics. the pound dropped to a 30 year low and sent shockwaves through the global market. some have indicated that they might move jobs out of the country. and japan's most popular messaging app has lowered the saying thes ipo, hike is due to strong demand and market conditions as it prepares for what could be the largest tech ipo of the year. line is offering millions of

shares in tokyo next week after delaying plans to go public two years ago. an 11% jump in profit ahead of a plan to share sale which could be the largest this year. documents filed to the hong kong stock exchange showed net income of $1.9 billion through march 31. goldman sachs, morgan stanley, china international capital, j.p. morgan chase, and bank of america are sponsoring the listing, which could raise $8 billion. a big m&a deal may be in the works in china's financial sector, china international capital court and china investment securities, said to be in early discussions. let's bring in stephen engle. what do we know about this possible m&a? stephen: in your previous story, you mentioned -- cicc, cis. these are people familiar with this potential merger, telling

us that talks are private and even in preliminary stages. they are saying it's a merger, they are saying that we are in preliminary discussions with china investment securities brokerage based in shenzhen to discuss business cooperation. sources are telling bloomberg a merger are talking which would combine assets of about $28 billion usd. it's an interesting one, because the chinese parent, which owns china investment securities, has been making their investment companies, financial companies -- they merge them with other securities, took china galaxy securities, trying to make these stronger core financial giants. yvonne: is this a good fit?

cicc has a bit of -- stephen: in the brokerage space, there has been a lot of competition, a lot of companies of china's equity markets exploding. the first shanghai securities calls this a good deal for cicc. as a brokerage , they were number one in china. china investment securities -- what they do, they combine a different clientele. cicc, which tends to have more high-value work clients -- they have the big corporate clients, whereas china investment securities is more mass-market. they have 160 bridges across china, serving the needs of ci has justc 20c. yvonne: some of these companies

are kind of incestuous in some ways. how are they are intertwined? washen: we know that cicc set up and run for many years by the son of the former premier. he was also a big investor in morgan stanley. securities,vestment 100% owned by china, which is also a unit of china sovereign wealth fund. -- it kind8.4% of of goes full circle. there is some interconnectivity. yvonne: all right. we will see if it comes to fruition. thank you so much. that's not the only big merger making there's. dealondon stock exchange is winning support from shareholders -- however, approval is another matter. let's bring in roz. roz, is exit really

complicated this deal? rosalind: a little bit. the two sides say they want to go ahead with it, and one of the key sticking point is headquarters. german regulators don't want a combined exchange based in london. the current plan has exchanges keeping operating quarters in london and frankfurt, and a holding company based in london at the same time as the ceo, who says he would head up the new entity. they are trying to get around this factor of moving the headquarters. they could consider moving it to another location in the european union, for example the netherlands, only after shareholders approved existing merger plans. anddeal is completed deutsche investors have until july 12 to tender shares. this is a very important point.

one shareholder had asked reassurance that the headquarters would not be moved to germany. this is a $14.3 billion deal, and it is quite the complication for brexit. 99.92% of shareholders were in favor of the deal. the merger would create a mega exchange in europe, competing with the likes of cme, intercontinentalexchange. lse is the owner of lch. post brexit, it's part of the political tussle for this business. rosalind: that's right. i would say that various political fences are already clearing before brexit. clears $346 trillion of a

denominated -- they are a key growth driver, generating a and the of revenue, structure around it could create more jobs as well in the area. germany, france, brussels have wanted the clearing, and germany wants it in frankfurt, france wants it in paris. it's a lucrative deal and an essential service. deutsche bank would have 55% of the combined entity. pass regulators in brussels, u.k., and the u.s.. this is another key factor that's becoming a political issue, and just last week, bloomberg did the survey which found that market see only a one in four chance of this deal actually completing. yvonne: thank you so much.

coming up, a long-term view with our next guest, china's growing middle class resenting attractive investment opportunities. this is bloomberg. ♪

yvonne: 11:45 in hong kong. let's get the latest headlines. city property rises have resumed their upward march amid tighter loan approvals by lenders. the core logic values climbed 1.2% in june, taking second quarter gains close to 7%. listings fell more than 16% last month from a year earlier to the lowest in five years. china has displayed a futuristic, elevated boss that could be an answer to crowded streets. it is tall enough to allow other vehicles to pass underneath it. designer say it could reduce congestion by 35%. it runs on rails which could cost $20 million, a fraction of

the bill of the subway route. celebrate an to historic first encounter with its juneau craft. deep in space, it will fire its main engine system and to slip into orbit around jupiter. it will do it automatically with no help from earth. the nation is to go through the cloud and map the surface. global news, 24 hours a day, powered by our 2400 journalists in more than 150 news bureaus around the world. this is bloomberg. welcome back. the seniornow, investment director for equities at fidelity international. we are less than an hour away from the decision out of australia. most people are saying it won't be today, but possibly august. >> that seems to be the consensus. i don't think i have an edge.

yvonne: this election is really bringing uncertainty. >> it does, doesn't it? we have election uncertainty, brexit uncertainty. there is a possibility that they would decide to do it now, preemptive action. but still, the base case will be august. yvonne: it's a long-term uncertainty. doesn't change any long-term outlook? >> will, i think the uncertainty will be fairly long-duration if we get a hung parliament. it means that stuff isn't going to happen; it's going to be similar to what we will see in the u.k. at the moment, great uncertainty. they may be looking to stimulate the economy. uncertainty in the developed market, the u.k., australia, possibly the u.s., what about emerging markets? >> this is my favorite topic.

[laughter] >> i think yes, especially asia. last week, i thought it was really interesting that it was a risk off week, a week when everyone was shifting, and yet we had all these asian markets that went up. india went up every day, china, all performed quite well. this is the first time asia has done this massive shift, from being a continent that sells to be a continent that is a domestic, consumption driven market, which makes it more resilient external shock. coupled with all the lessons we have learned in the asian currency crisis, it is much more disciplined in terms of how they manage their economy, making it more resilient. if you are investing in the asian consumption story, the growth of the middle class in asia, it's a pretty defensive place to go. we have to remember that growth in the world is coming down, growth in europe is going to the

-- people will be looking for somewhere to go and hide. david: how about china? people have been trying to draw the comparison to china and brexit falling. it's a pretty isolated market, but there's also the argument that there ar no other country s benefited more from globalization in china. brexit not just as an isolated case of the u.k., but as a referendum against globalization, china could be, you know, to the downside. >> yeah. it's an interesting point. they may be lucky. they may have had 20 years of globalization when they needed it, and now there is less globalization when they don't need it. maybe they will survive because the economy shifted from the old export driven model to this much more domestic demand. i don't know, but maybe they will get away with it.

rosalind: india is now outpacing china. what are you looking at their? >> india is my favorite market in terms of portfolios. all of our regional portfolio managers overrate india. that could take you nervous. it feels like a crowded train, and the market is quite expensive. for what we find in india is that the growth story is clearly there. this reform program seems to be broadly intact. we could quibble about the pace, but the fundamental direction is there, and the desire to move forward is there. we find lots of really good companies in india, the corporate sector in india is really high-quality. good quality management's that understand the cost of capital, that understand how to generate returns. market, and at lot of our ideas are in the consumer sector, as indeed they are in many countries around the

region. that consumption story is the one we find exciting. -- any sense of instability and central-bank? >> look, he was a really good guy, so obviously it's sad that he won't be around anymore. he just decided not to run -- [laughter] david: maybe the finest minister didn't see i die. -- see eye to eye. >> maybe. he had his run. it all depends on who the next person is, i think. that we out-of-court would get another high-quality person. angie: and we didn't get that pmi data this week, a ditch and possibly that it could be deteriorating at a faster pace. services not exactly the rebalancing as some have thought. do you think the yen can continue to weaken? if we weaken more, could we

start currency wars again? >> yeah. i think there are couple issues. i think the renminbi weakness would not as a fairly be linked to pmi. i think you'll much more be linked to the u.s. dollar. i think is the u.s. dollar going to go. it all comes back to the fed, as usual. but if the u.s. dollar is not and the rate hikes are controlled and measured, which we believe it will be, then i think the renminbi weakness will not be too great. i think it will generally depreciate and will be very manageable. rosalind: if they do get that window, where the fed doesn't do very much, should policymakers take that time that they have in beijing to let go of the currency more? >> yes, arguably. if you look at what china does with its reform program, i think

it's a good thing that they don't do anything in big, brutal steps. always baby steps, the petri dish approach to reform. they will try something in a small isolated corner and if it works there, it goes out to other provinces. the progress toward open capital accounts, freely traded currency, will continue. i think they will continue to do their baby steps, irrespective. angie: matthew sutherland. coming up, live streaming your life is the latest internet craze in china, with some startups putting established u.s. players to shame. this is bloomberg. ♪

angie: poll dancing, bungee jumping, and insect eating are some of the many activities being watched on live stream by millions of people in china. haidi has been taking a look at

this phenomenon. haidi: just your average weekend activities. those are some weird examples. people doing normal, day-to-day things. a large number of these video streams have become so popular. ordinary people doing ordinary things, sitting around, talking, eating, even sleeping are getting drunk. just fairly unremarkable things, but still, it has so much uptake in terms of the viewers. one explanation is that you have this society, a lot of young people, from the one child of generation, they are lonely. they have a society where smartphones are very high, and it is one way to gain human connection, according to one of the heads in the space. it's not just ordinary people but there are

pictures of bungee jumping, one mainstreamed himself playing poker on his private jet, something like 300,000 viewers. angie: can you make money out of it? is this turning into a business opportunity? haidi: i think for some of the people. they received gifts from people that want to give them something as a sign of appreciation, virtual flowers and gifts, then they get a 50% cut of the revenue from the hosting service. but it is already increasing ethic in business. people are trying to get into this space, and we have seen there is added revenue as it becomes more popular, and in the u.s. there is the same kind of business model for facebook live, giving people the ability to broadcast live events to your feed, and twitter acquiring periscope.

angie: i think my livestream would be needing. -- eating. [laughter] angie: that's it for "asia edge."

♪ >> asia-pacific stocks declined for the first time in a week as the idea of bank balance and easily it -- and italy gives investors another reason to be wary. rba policy makers are digesting the news that australia's trade deficit was a wider than expected in may. glenn stevens expected to hold the record low cash rate. modi expands his cabinet with a goal of minimum government and the maximum governance. he is sticking to the