downer.ts on a asia-pacific has seen echoing declines. echoes of the cold war. punishing russia for hacking the election. of 2016.igrs winne we are going to open the bloomberg billionaire's list and

see who came out on top. yvonne: this is the second hour of "daybreak asia." it is just after 7:00 p.m. in new york. in asia, it is the last trading day. today, there is not a lot of his edition taking particularly ahead of the new year. mentioned of the dollar falling the most in two weeks. what has become a volatile year. ingles.o to david and david: i thought it was going to be quiet. things are getting fun. i have a dollar-yen chart. still digging deeper. because this could be

japan is just opening. why do we have this up? it fell beneath that level briefly. 116.36. in other words, we have recovered that average. at the moment, as we get to the open in japan, we saw a dip in dollar-yen. on dollar-yen. the other one is the euro. we see the spike that right here. 1.5% over two days. above 106. our high happened 20 minutes back. 106.53. one centnt higher --

higher than current levels. you where trading has really taken place. that is when sort of japan takes the baton, if you well. that color coming out? light blue. it is only light blue, and a dark blue for me. 7:30. let's see where this takes us. there we go. not really anything there. thel below what seems to be 50 day moving average. we will be fleshing out all these moves a bit later. watching at the open. a massive amount of trade going on despite the fact that it is fairly thin.

we are adding about 16 box. bucks. levels of today. a big drop right here, taking us back to levels at the start of the year. the reason i bring this up, you have declines across asia. massive drop in the dollar. all the majors are gaining substantially against the u.s. dollar. you,uro, we just showed zero .7%. fairly sizable moves we are seeing this last trading day. which i had hoped was quiet. far from it. we will catch you later. again says it is time to move on to bigger and

better things after president obama punished russia for its alleged hacking of the election. he is imposing sanctions on intelligence agencies and expelling officials. the kremlin rejecting the accusations, saying it will respond in kind. first, what has the president said about these expulsions? nna: what we have heard is the white house will be expelling 35 people that they are calling intelligence operatives. this definitely has echoes of the cold war. betty: it does indeed. issued a elect trump statement saying, let's move on. at the same time next week, i am going to meet with my intelligence officials. what you read into that? >> it sounds like he is trying to take a more balanced approach. have all the details before he makes strong comments.

trump talked a lot on the campaign trail about striking a more conciliatory pose. it is going to be interesting to see whether it is possible to maintain that course in the wake of the sanctions and the current white house. it is certainly setting up an interesting playing field for 2017. betty: economically, what does this mean? jeanna: russia is a small portion of the trading portfolio. that has been shrinking in recent years. in simple terms, probably not a huge deal. what could be more significant, however, is if this has any sort

of effect on consumer confidence as we know geopolitical risks often do. if this results in a stronger dollar, weaker currencies. if there is any sort of fallouts. that could have an important effect economically. unfortunately, we are not going to know what that looks like for a couple of days. betty: thank you so much. let's get more in the first word news. first of the data recorders of the russian plane that crashed in the black sea show no evidence of an explosion. they show the captain reporting a special situation had enfolded. the plane crashed soon after sunday. almighty to people on board were

killed including members of the world-famous red army choir. pledging more proactive fiscal policy in 2017. the ministry of finance statement is in line with the president's promise to rein in threats to the economy. the ministry says china must assess its difficulties and protect itself from domestic as well as international hazards. over to japan. the boj governor has admitted japan is in no position to say it has escaped deflation. speaking to the nikkei news, he said policymakers cannot relax strength ishe yen's being corrected. bloomberg has learned the reserve bank of india approved the withdrawal of high denomination rupee notes three hours before the prime minister announced the move.

the r.b.i. says details are not on record. move has hurt consumption and an economy dominated by cash. global news 24 hours a day. this is bloomberg. nomura has cut hundreds of jobs. japan's biggest brokerage is not done yet. asia financeur editor joining us live from tokyo. the guys have been quite poetic when it comes to the name of this project. how much more can he cut? >> this project is all about cutting waste and improving productivity could read he has called it the project water

line, likening it to a warship gradually increasing excess baggage and could sink. bearing in mind the excess baggage isn't necessarily people but more how people spend their days at the company. they will be looking at the cost effectiveness of everything they do read him in a straight of tasks, phone calls, meetings. employeesne whether are using their time in the best way and they are going to be starting with executives and see how they create work for some ordnance -- subordinates. once the review is done, the company hopes to be able to estimate how much money they can save from improving efficiency. betty: how does this differ from nomura's previous cost-cutting efforts? gai has been atna

the helm. since they bought lehman brothers, at the height of the financial crisis, costs swelled. the company kept losing money abroad. those initiatives focused on cutting employees. most recently, they cut 900 people in europe and the to save 700order million dollars this fiscal year. it looks like those efforts are starting to pay off. the company is on track to post the first profit abroad in seven years they have earned ¥40 billion. turning to other ways to save money, mainly through this waterline project to eke out savings from everything they

do. betty: much more ahead on "daybreak asia." japan trying to give more free employees,rworked but can they get their citizens to finally relax? ahead, our next guest says inflation will be the main source of concern in 2017. he is predicting four rate hikes from the fed. ♪

.": this is "daybreak asia quick check of the latest headlines. super mario is taking his run to more mobile devices. it has begunsaid preregistration. until now, the game has only been available on apple mobile.

interest has tailed off. super mario run is no longer the pp.hest grossed a the funds says hall will decisionas cio and his will not affect operations. nter hall says it has had approaches from companies wanting to buy shares. offshore yuan haired it's losses. -- it dropped as much as a quarter percent. offshore rates, the most in two weeks. china says it will dilute the role of the dollar. let's take a look at the

euro. our next guest says it is the most influential to watch out for. great to have you here. perfect timing. to talk about what is going on with the euro. given the spike we have seen this morning, what is going on? has iteen liquidity? then volumes? 200 points in a matter of minutes is unusual. it reflects the thin trading conditions. they are at a loss for an explanation. the lack of liquidity meant the buying was exaggerated. that frankly does not wash.

the impact on dollar-yen was a lot less significant. the fall back to 116. we are still begin into it. i don't think we will find out what really happened. you think we are looking at a flash crash situation? 27 team.atching it for what are the big factors you are looking out for? one possible but slightly cynical explanation is there is a large barrier option expiring somewhere below. hasperson on the other side sought to move the market away from the barrier. whether or not that is the case, is only speculation on my part. that would be a possible

explanation for what would be a notoriously thin market. about risingalked inflation, likely the source of concern for next year. how serious is this problem going to be? is it mostly because of trumps's policies? are we going to see a low base affect? one of the most common mistakes we make is we tend to extrapolate in a linear fashion. it is clear from a number of election ofhat the president trump has unleased animal spirits, as the ecomists like to call them. at this stage, as analysts are complacent, it is

not just a direct stimulus. it comes from the spending president trump has promised. it is pretty clear from the acceleration that the animal spirits have been unleased to buy this political change. that means the impact will be greater than markets currently estimate and the fed will be forced to move more often. you are seeing possibly for next year. which was very interesting. what is going to happen to the 10 year treasury? >> rallies like the one we saw last night are great opportunities. increasing inflation will be reflected in bond prices. we could see something north of 3% next year. if inflation

continues to spike. we could see several months of ratings above the rating for the fed. this unleashing of the economy means that is going to be driven higher. i want to turn over to china. a lot of investors watching where the yuan goes. chart howpull up a much the chinese currency has weakened. uan is tumbling. where does it go into dozens of a teen? are we going to see a freefall? >> i think that is very

unlikely. the move we have seen against the u.s. dollar has been very gradual. it has occurred over the course of this year. dollar,ok at the u.s. we can see the moves are merely reflecting the strength that saw the dollar-yen rise from 100 to 120. really, the moves i don't think are extraordinary. if we expect u.s. dollar strength to continue, we expect to see further orderly depreciation. think thete eu outlook in south america is misplaced? the outlooku think in south america is misplaced? >> there is some optimism that opec and the fellow travelers my may help countries like

venezuela. i think the problem will get worse before they get better. the impeachment of the brazilian president is bad news. well i would like to see some of the more optimistic scenarios i am reading about, i don't think that is likely to be the case. it is not a key driver of the global economy, but in a highly balanced global economy, a small move down for a less significant region can still hurt the overall growth impact. they are concerns, coming out of south america where i think things could deteriorate. etty: thanks so much. up next, the world's richest billions to their wealth. who will be opening the champagne on new year's eve. ♪

yvonne: this is "daybreak asia." betty: 2016 was the year when populism reshaped the lyrical seeing across the globe. even so, the world's wealthy are ending the year with a lot more money than they started with. who are the big winners? >> good morning. year, theaid, this biggest winners this year were american. the five greatest gainers came from america. the biggest gainer was warren buffett. he added $11 billion to his wealth thanks in part because of the gains will sure hathaway made. bill gates as well, adding $9

billion. the only non-american in the top five -- dominated by americans. what about the losers, who lost money? sterling: since the americans dominated, there are no americans in the biggest losers list. the biggest loser was in china, losing about $5 billion. richestto be china's man, but now he is second behind jack ma. rivalry.continuing what were you watching out for this year, sterling? sterling: this year, technology was a sector where the billionaires fared well. tof bezos at its $7 billion his fortune. facebook did really well. flipside again, this was

the first year we have seen wealth creation turned negative in china. lost about $11 billion, thanks to the yuan losing. speaking of the world's wealthiest, continue this conversation. a soccer player is the latest to head to china in an eye watering deal. contract witha shanghai said to earn him $750,000 a week. make $84 million in two years. questionser raises about how such relatively weak chinese clubs can pay so much. betty: they want to win so they will pay. yvonne: up next, it has been a

tough year for china. those lucky enough to get a that wentny company public, whether the good times can keep rolling. this is bloomberg. ♪

yvonne: it is 8:30 in singapore. from theour away opening of trading. i am yvonne man. betty: quite the opposite in new york. a rainy and gloomy all day. it would have been snowing if it was a little colder. i am betty liu. let's get to the first word news. reporter: donald trump says it is time for the u.s. to bigger and better things after the sheda administration puni

russia. the tycoon issued a statement saying he will meet intelligence officials next week. russia rejects the accusations. announced angs has campaign to eliminate waste. the plan is nicknamed the waterline project. he has spent four years cutting costs. has trimmeduring some $700 million of expenses. also, italy's bail out of the world's oldest bank has won the green light. the rules say banks with a capital shortfall are not allowed to benefit from liquidity schemes. and a north korean economic leader has said to have executed

140,000 officials. ordinary people have also been killed for helping defectors or for watching south korean tv. 340.otal number is put at yvonne: time to see how the asian markets are shaping up. a look ate commodities right now. we are seeing a rally continue. a lot of this may have to do with the dollar. we already saw a lot of these contracts on the way up. when you look at oil, we are not close to 54.

gold continuing its rally. silver obviously, that spread, keeps the distance on. for being the boards, havinga look at currencies. dollar ringgit, pulli back from a low. we are pushing closer to seven. the distance, the discount weeken where we are, a 2.5 high. 247 right now. a few markets open. shortened trading sessions in australia and new zealand. the topix index. the nikkei a little higher. when you look at this benchmark him of the first annual loss in

2011. north of 850. of the 16% or 17% yesterday. second day of gains on the back of news hopefully it can put this airbag scandal behind it. talk to us about the euro which we mentioned earlier. the mysterious spike that happened about an hour back. david: very interesting what has happened. our guests pointing out. unless regulators get involved, we will likely never know what happened. have a look at where we are on euro. we are still higher, you will .6%.

i am right, what am i doing? that is about 160. at leveling off, if you well. we talked to some traders. you had some dollar orders coming in. once we hit 105, liquidity disappeared. it is sort of the situation. currency markets were in during the election and brexit. almost no liquidity. coming out with a note, saying it doesn't seem to be down to any specific news. if it was, we would see dollar-yen falling further. some of these orders were put in ahead of the new year holiday. interesting indeed.

looks like there is more to come. thank you, david. 2016 another ipo extravaganza. posting record gains. shery ahn has details. what are we talking about? about we are talking virtually every stock that ipo. a surge of 392% in the first month after listing the best returns since bloomberg started iling data. no ipos in 2013. china imposed a moratorium. take a look at this other chart on the bloomberg. you can see the number of ipos in the past five years, every the value of ipos the

was 106 million dollars. more than 200 companies went public. betty: why is the demand is so high? shery: we are seeing a week market overall. analysts are saying speculators tend to prowl these new shares where they think the selling pressure is low. foipos, 23on limit times earnings imposed by china's regulatory guidance. that forces companies to sel shares at levels below their peers. making them attractive. for getting your hands on these stocks is not easy. shery: the odds are one in 2500

to get part of that. in january, it became tougher. new rules were set. in order to subscribe for shares, you don't even need to prepay. this month, for example, the odds would be at 0.04%. compare that to 0.6% a year ago. trying out to spend more than $500 billion by 2020 to expand its railway system. it plans to cover 30,000 kilometers, 6.5 times the length of a road trip. our reporter joins us live from singapore. why this massive investment? china's part of five-year plan. they want to provide more infrastructure.

coast, with the west probably the wealthiest part of china overall. china'sso because economy is slowing down. to expand is to boost your infrastructure. it makes a lot of sense for china to be investing. realize it's big plan for the country itself. might this investment benefit chinese companies? >> it seems they are opening up some infrastructure projects to the private sector. a lot of the pressure that has been put on the state owned would be less. that would help some of the state owned companies leveraging down on their debts.

also, by building up infrastructure. high-speed rail. it could open up a lot of opportunities for chinese companies to go overseas. otherare a lot of countries around the world that are planning to spend a lot of money on high-speed rail. that could open up a lot of opportunities for china. betty: much more ahead. hong kong's growing wealth gap. we are focused on billionaires this hour. this is bloomberg. ♪

betty: this is "daybreak asia." yvonne: a quick check of the latest headlines. oil heading for its latest gain

in years. biggest also seeing its full-year rise in 2009, despite u.s. stock files remain at their hight seasonal stockpile opec and independent reducers have agreed to start cutting output. betty: southeast asia's best-performing stock is expected to continue -- shares have tripled this year. analysts see the stock advancing at 8%. that will be the highest price since m, 2012. they are also seeing as benefiting from a commodities rise. the company is working with financial advisors on the auction. and has interests from other bidders. they have been struggling to

recover from the recession. the company has no choice but to look for a buyer. >> if you have activists after a stock, you are obligated to take a look at what the possibilities are on the marketplace. an obligationave to shareholders to take a look at what is available in the market and that is what they are doing. is the 20th anniversary approaches of hong kong's return to china, the relationship has never been more strained. more questions are being asked about how the territory is being governed. richest person gets to vote for the chief executive. we asked him to reflect on that lationship.

have facedntly, you

criticism accusing you of the version of fine away from china at a timof slowingrowth. is this true?

angie: there are a lot of chinese companies who are looking overseas to acquire businesses, but they keep getting shut down by regulators including yourself. what is the impact for chinese companies in the future? how did they fix this? in g: is this frustrating? -- angie: is this frustrating?

wise words from the chairman, speaking exclusively to angie lau earlier this year. india'salmost up for annedng to deposit b rupee notes. it has been chaotic sense that currency dan put in place. i mr. modi promising the situation would -- prime

minister modi promising the situation would calm down. yoslyn: the deadline, frida r this to happen. that of course is going to hit where cash istry definitely king. we will see difficulties for people getting a hold of cash. 1000 rupees is 15 dollars. that aims of taking this note out of circulation had been corruption itat back into thesh

system which has helped give the economy a better push. in the long-term, digital ensure tax compliance. the finance minister spoke yesterday, saying currency availability -- has increased despite the monetization. think it could be several months before the situation stabilizes. 's support seems to be holding up. why is that? rosalind: it is still holding up. thinkn see what people when the elections happen. there are about five of them coming up in the coming weeks. the difficulty in terms of -- impactingd demand and the economy, they have had to revise the growth forecasts. own from the original

%7.8. of buyers not been able to get a hold of cash. beentions like this have tough for people. it has hit whole levels of society. ani is going to be making address to the nation. here is of course going to be india's economic plans, revealed on january 6. certainly a reversal of fortune for india for the year. the structural reforms could benefit any long-term. typically onlys use half of their paid leave. we are gointo talk about the

latest initiative, next. this is bloomberg. ♪

."tty: this is "daybreak asia yvonne: the country that coined of the phrase "death by overwork " is looking to give stressed employees a break.

let's go to our japan economy editor. japan already has 16 national holidays a year, probably the most of any developed nation. why this idea now? plan isovernment's twofold. they are concerned about people working too much. the goverent is trying to push a better worklife balance. a young woman working at the biggest advertising company committed suicide from overwork. the company of the -- president of the company resigned. the other thing that government if people areo, taking more holidays, they are spending more and helping the

economy. they want to help people relax and when they are relaxing, they go out and go to the movs or go shopping. double bot the economy. - that will boost the economy. betty: does it have any chance of success? it is unlikely. it is a voluntary scheme. even the ministry promoting this has not decided whether they will get their workers to take part in this or not. it is unclear if every worker in japan is going to be taking off 3:00 p.m. on the last friday of every month. there may be some companies that implement it. most people don't take even half their annual leave. overtime ands of unpaid overtime. there is a case of a woman, legal overtime hours and illegal overtime. whether it is a voluntary scheme

, the government can sort of go against that company pressure and social pressure. it is unlikely there are going to be huge successes. betty: it is voluntary. is there anything the government is looking to make mandatory? >> not in this premier friday idea. there is talk about enforcing the laws on the books against hilessive overtime, which, w there are laws against it, enforcement has been lax. workers to work illegal amounts of overtime. maybe that would actually have a better affect on getting people to work class than this voluntary scheme -- less than this voluntary scheme. betty: look away. if you have vertigo and cannot

handle heights, china has opened the highest bridge in the world. meters above a river valley. it crosses a gorge. tall as a 200 story building. yvonne: wow, just looking at it makes me scared. but beautiful scenes there. is going to begin, a final price tag of $150 million. betty: that is it from us. happy new year. yvonne: happy new year. ♪

rishaad: this is bloomberg -- this isia area bloomberg markets: asia. trade. jakarta the winner. war.s of the cold obama punishes russia