haidi: good morning. sydneydi stroud-watts in where australian markets have just opened. shery: good evening from new york. i'm shery ahn. sophie: i'm sophie kamaruddin in hong kong. welcome to daybreak asia. ♪ asia-pacific markets said to follow a strong u.s. session, optimism over trade. and president trump's new tariffs flexibility. the s&p 500 saw the biggest rise this month. financials and big tech. nissan plans to draw a line

under carlos ghosn, taking an $80 million charge on his accumulated pay. shery: breaking numbers out of south korea. we have the jobless rate for the month of january at 4.4%. this is much higher than expectations. also, an increase from the previous two months. stayed at 3.8%. in fact, south korea's jobless rate at the highest level since january 2010. a number of newly employed people coming in at 19,000 it th0. the economy only adding 19,000 new jobs compared to 34,000. 4.4% for the jobless rate in south korea for the month of january. we have some indication these could be bad numbers. we heard from the finance minister, talking earlier this month about how we could see weak employment numbers given we are staying, coming from a very high pace.

the finance minister has warned about that numbers but 4.4%, much higher than the expected 3.8% and the level we have seen in the past two months. we are seeing consumer sentiment improving in south korea, but when it comes to corporate investment and exports, still staying quite weak. haidi: let's go straight to sophie kamaruddin with a check of the markets in asia. soph? sophie: taking a look at the mood as sydney stocks opening higher, 1/10 of 1%. kiwi stocks continuing to climb for the sick straight day. the kiwi dollar is holding steady ahead of the rba policy decision. we are seeing futures point to gains. the nikkei 225 could continue to rebound from a one-month low. we are seeing the asx 200 on the downside because we are seeing

reactions from earnings. i want to highlight, as much as 10% earlier this morning. this after the results. we did see the company say it's fiscal 2019 performer growth is around 9% higher on year-over-year basis. twe are seeing a decline of that stock so far this morning. this after saying its for your outlook is coming in at the low end of guidance. that is bapcor. sliding aftereing the company posted a first-half loss. the company has said that it has received a nonbinding bid for parties for takeover. i want to hang on an optimistic note. rising about 6.5%. this after seeing a first-half

profit growth of 199%. coming in higher by 147% as the company has raised its fiscal 2019 guidance. haidi: sophie kamaruddin with the latest in sydney. trading gets underway. let's get you to the first word news with jessica summers. issica: president trump downplaying the threat of a new government shutdown. that is despite saying he is not entirely happy with the security funding deal worked out on capitol hill. he says he does nothing federal agencies will be forced to close after friday's deadlines, while repeating he is still considering declaring a national emergency to bypass congress and release funds for his boardwalk. >> i don't think you will see a shutdown. i would not want to go through it. if you did have it, it is the democrats' fault. i accepted the first one and i am proud of what we accomplished. jessica: theresa may's soft brexit aide has said she will

wait until the last moment. discussedli robbins it at brussels earlier this week. forcing lawmakers to choose between her deal and a potentially lengthy brexit delay. she is also asking the commons to give her more time to renegotiate the deal. bank of england governor mark carney says brexit could be the asset tax for the new global order. he to the outcome of the split would show if it is possible to have the benefits of transparency while enhancing accountability. rising trade tensions and protectionism, as well as the trend of deglobalization are threats to grow, and the impact are already being felt. >> it is possible that new rules of the road will be developed for a new resilient global economy. at the same time, there is a risk that countries turn inward, undercutting prosperity for all. concerns over this possibility are already impairing investment, jobs and growth.

creating a dynamic that could become self fulfilling. jessica: indian retail inflation has eased to a 19th month low, justifying to lower rates. consumer prices rose a fraction over 2% in january, compared to median estimate of 2.5% and the r.b.i.'s 2.8% projection. a high probability of back-to-back rate cuts. global news 23 hours a day, on twitter,n tictoc on powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts. i'm jessica summers. this is bloomberg. haidi: let's get back to the top story. messaget trump said a as trade talks continue in beijing, saying he is open to extending the march 1 trade deadline if both sides are in agreement. tom mackenzie joins us with the latest. carrot andit more

less stick. is this a significant softening? tom: it is interesting that the tone has changed, especially from the comments of trump that he would not be able to meet with xi jinping in february. the markets sold off on that news, and ever since then, we heard comments, like kellyanne conway saying maybe you will get a meeting between the two presidents in mid-march. you have reporting out of newspapers and online portals suggesting the same thing. of course, you have trump coming out of the cabinet meeting suggesting there could be an extension of the deadline. after which, he has suggested you could get additional tariffs, but he has not been -- he has been suggesting may be getting an extension if there is real progress. there is a question over whether or not this is about trump focusing on the market impacts or an acknowledgment of the gap

between the two sides. or may be a bit of both. shery: is a summit really needed to seal the deal here? the that seems to be preference from president trump. he like to be able to press the flesh and look his anniversaries in the eye. he has done that famously with kim jong-un, and many critics would say that is a failed response. he did not get much progress from the north korea, but trump does like this position.he likes to be in the room with those he is negotiating with. we have heard this from the trump administration that he wants to get some kind of deal. sit down with president xi at the end of these negotiations that maybe they can announce some historic deal. many china watchers would deal of that a comprehensive deal is very, very unlikely. you may get some kind of fudged agreement to go some way of assuaging both sides. economic pressure in china, but

also the pressures in u.s. i would imagine one of the more difficult issues to navigate in a meeting or any conversation, particular into these higher-level consummate -- conversations will be u.s.' tough stance on huawei. tom: that is really interesting because u.s. officials have consistently said this is not part of the trade discussions. it is a separate track, national security. trump himself famously in an interview suggested the huawei issue and the keys of the cfo could come into play if it was to help to move the deal forward. he has already muddied the waters on that. the chinese will be can to recently -- increasingly concerned about what they are seeing from the administration and the white house. pushing back on huawei not just domestically in the u.s., but with u.s. allies as well. it may be the chinese bring this

up and try to request some kind of relinquishing of the pressure, but it seems like the barn door has already been oh should -- opened on this issues. very difficult terrain back on the forces at play. haidi: tom mackenzie, as we continue to watch an these trade negotiations. let's go back to sophie with more on is moving in the early stages of the session. sophie: plenty moving this morning as we get a day lose of results from -- deluge of results from companies. carsales.com sliding this morning nearly 8% after reporting an 82% drop in first-half profit, given the theppointing performance of company owned 50.1%. $4 million two $8 million impairment charge. we are seeing computershare gaining ground after seeing a 51% income increased.

the company also saw the total cost narrow. it has upgraded its fiscal 2019 earning guidance. we are seeing moves in gold miners as well. a different divergence. evolution mining to the downside, although the company expects better profit in the second half if gold prices remain above what was achieved in the first half. star gaining ground by nearly 5% this morning. it has kept its output and cost targets. shery: still ahead, we will check the major investment themes to watch with the head of global equity. he says it is time to look at disruptors for growth. haidi: later on, nissan's rocky road is far from over as the carmaker deals from the fallout of the carlos ghosn saga. we are live in tokyo.

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haidi: this is daybreak asia. shery: let's turn to the u.s. market close. the shutdown deal in washington. the rally that pushed the s&p 500 futures bouncing back. su keenan joins us now. finally topping the 200 day moving average. su: we did see stocks breakout from tight gains, really makes trading.

this was a big change. let's go into the bloomberg because you mentioned the s&p 500 breaking above the 200 day moving average. watching this happened was like watching paint dry because it was slowly reaching it. let's go to the snapshot where the dollar was lower, snapped the eighth a rally. bonds also lower, but was also higher, 2%. you saw very large gains in the chemical stocks and in materials which is what had been the bull's-eye of the tariff. let's look at the faang trade which was very strong, particularly with netflix leading the way. the only nonparticipant in the rally was facebook, but again, a strong sign for a widely held group in wall street and main street. haidi: in terms of how broad-based the rally was, that is really the key. we saw some of these beaten-down sectors that had been beaten down because of the trade story -- industrials, chemicals were the biggest gainers. su: you could see almost a relief rally in those sectors. when you talk about 3m, caterpillar, du pont, a chemical company that were subject to tariffs, you could see all of these got a big boost. let's look at the other big

gainers. what you saw was electronic arts beaten down. videogame stock. getting a shot in the arm after a goldman conference. look at the housing stock, very large gain. some mixed plays. some of the weaker trades, you are still seeing video gamers under pressure. noticed wells fargo led the banks higher. after hours, two companies. mixed picture -- activision actually moving higher as the announced cost cuts. they were the call of duty kings. now newer video games have caused the slump. twilio ceo saying positive remarks with disappointing results. shery: thank you so much with the latest on the markets. to the pursuit of long-term growth, look for the disruptors. firm is guiding its stock investment strategy

and the numbers say they are doing a good job. the global opportunities fund is up 11% year, top 5% of its class. mark is the lead manager of that fund and head of global equity at jennison. let's talk about the broader market moves we are seeing recently because we have seen a lot of optimism. just now, bloomberg learning that president trump is likely to reluctantly sign that spending deal, potentially avoiding another partial government shutdown. a want to point to one phenomenon we have seen. this chart on the bloomberg showing on the top panel the s&p 500 rallying, but in the second, the bottom panel showing volumes have been pretty low. is this telling us something specific about the environment now? mark: obviously, a lot of uncertainty especially when you

go through such a steep correction. you need to build confidence a little bit at a time. i think the big breakout today is very important in that realm because one of the things we have seen through this earnings season is a lot of the big leaders in the market are actually putting up spectacular results. seeink you will start to volume pick up as you work through some of these issues that the market is very concerned about. shery: the nasdaq still in bear market although we are trying to exit this level. can we expect further upside given the price earnings ratios below the five-year average? mark: i think they are very attractively valued companies within the nasdaq. globally, you can see the same thing, whether you're looking at chinese internet companies, leading tech companies as well as the u.s. valuations are not a stretch.

we are looking at a market environment where there is fear, but at the same time, the companies are telling you there is reason for optimism. when we see that type of environment, we will stick with the company's that are telling us there is a reason for optimism. haidi: to what extent do you think prices have been in the uncertainty themes of the year which is really the trade war, the europe and the u.k., brexit. has that all been digested in market expectations given we have seen this recovery rally slowly play out? mark: some of it was obviously priced in, but you can't -- i don't think brexit is as important as the trade war because trade war a fax china quite a bit. it is a far more important market in terms of global economic growth. so, we will see how it plays out. for now, has an investment strategy, we just look for

companies that have really strong secular growth and those stocks are improving quite nicely in this recovery. they are leading the recovery. they don't need a lot of help from macro factors, from issues like trade. the consumers are flocking to their products and services. other businesses are using them. i think it is a safer place to invest, when you do have these there thatdoes out frequently show up. to the extent that the trade issue dissipates over time, obviously it will be very favorable to global markets. shery: we saw fading as one of the biggest segments gaining. haidi: to what extent are those preferential growth stocks you have been talking about located outside of the u.s. -- i am curious on your thoughts about chinese tech given there have been pressures about the impact of the trade war and strategic

war over tech between the u.s. and china. mark: when it comes to china specifically, we prefer the internet sector. we don't really like the hardware sector. it is more commoditized and that is where the political back-and-forth is. on the internet sector itself, if you take a leader like tencent which obviously had a slowdown in its gaming business last year due to get -- regulatory issues in terms of monetaryor improving schemes for new games, that stock has been in recovery mode since october largely because they put up a great quarter, as reported in november. and what is driving it is their advertising business. ad revenue grew 47% recently reported. particularly in their many programs, where revenue, ad revenue grew 61%, and acceleration from the previous

quarter even though china was in a deceleration mode. if you have the right business mix for the moment and have the right platform which is ubiquitous in china, and you have these new products and services, you are laying on to that type of product warm -- platform, it is a winning scenario. we think for tencent specifically -- 50% revenue growth rate. dropped to 24% in the most recent quarter. we think it probably drops in the low 20% growth range this quarter and gradually re-accelerate over the course of the year and into 2020. there is not many large-cap tech stocks in the world that will see accelerating growth. we think it is very attractive and it is selling at one of the lower multiples you could find globally. shery: tencent took a big hit from measures coming from chinese regulators. how big of a problem could this be in 2019? mark: so far, gains have started

to be improved. a break in the logjam and that new regulatory body, it took a while for it to get up to speed. we were hoping that it is the beginning of a normal process of monetization approval. if it is not, if the government is actually trying to get in and control these businesses more of the consumer level, we would be very concerned because that would be extremely counterproductive to innovation in china. it as awe are treating regulatory delay. it seems to be fine as we speak. i think that is what the markets are moving with this particular stock. shery: thank you for joining us. you can get a roundup of the stories you need to know to get your day going in today's edition of daybreak. bloomberg subscribers, go to your terminals. it is also available on mobile.

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shery: this is daybreak asia. some: we are getting breaking lines on american mobile, reported fourth-quarter revenue of 462 billion mexican pesos. 458 billion.of we are looking at these other numbers in terms of operating income. pesos.llion mexican we have been expecting a bit of a boost when it comes to their earnings where they have been looking at increasing scale. the largest telecom carrier in latin america reporting earnings. that into a quick check of the

latest business headlines. trying to end the debate on whether carlos ghosn kept cash and deferred income by taking an $83 million charge against payments in 2017. ghosn denies wrongdoing, saying his pay was never fixed and could not be illegal. nissan is the latest automaker to slash forecasts, saying operating profit will be the lowest in six years, with sales weaker across all major markets. shery: tencent's partner warns that revenue in china may fall by a double-digit percentage this quarter, as they await the release of a new title. revenue from the mainland slumped 22% in december. for seeing a recent slump. tencent distributes its popular pc game dungeon and fighter. haidi: coming up next, the central bank's dovishness as we near the end of the hiking

cycle. we will ask of the bed has enough tools left in the toolbox for a potential next recession. this is bloomberg. ♪

jessica: this is daybreak asia. president trump says the u.s. and china are edging closer to a trade deal and the deadline on tariffs could slide. treasury secretary steven mnuchin and trade representative robert lighthizer open high-level talks in beijing on thursday. there is cautious optimism china may allow enough concessions. march 1 end marks the end of the president's truce. opec has lower the estimate on how much oil the world must pump this year as u.s. shale production thrives and global demand wains. the allies have agreed to restrict output until the end of june which would take it

straight into a third-year. oil prices remain about 20% below the four year peak seen in october and u.s. outputs have surpassed that of saudi arabia and russia. australian prime minister scott morrison is refusing to quit or call a snap election, despite his government suffering historic defeat on refugee policy. the lower house passed a law allowing doctors a greater say on the evacuation of asylum-seekers from detention centers. it is the first time since 1929 an australian government has lost his official vote on its own legislation. lord,rious mexican drug joaquin "el chapo" guzman, has been convicted of what the new york court calls an industrial scale smuggling operation. he faces decades behind bars after the authorities produced evidence about his gang from the late 1980's. the three-month trial includes

tales of murder, payoffs, and a naked prison escape. global news 24 hours a day on air and on tictoc on twitter, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts. i'm jessica summers. this is bloomberg. haidi: is a big earnings day in australia. sales of urgent are sailing in australia. virgin australia gaining 10% this morning, to be the most since november 2017. this after posting a 37% increase in the first half underlying pretax profit. apcore downside, we have r falling. even so, the company is on track to deliver record results. carsales.com following the most since august 2014, as earnings continue to be weak.

we are seeing moves in pact group. let's check in on how shares in sydney and wellington are faring. you have the asx 200 looking flat. we are seeing fluctuations for the aussie sharemarket as health care is weighing the most. gains in tech and energy. climbing for the six straight day. switching up the board to check in on the kiwi dollar ahead of the rba fed policy decision. we are seeing in gain ground, up 1/10 of a percent and rebounding that we saw overnight amid speculation the central bank will turn more dovish. up 2/10 of 1% after the consumer confidence gauge came in higher. the yen holding a two-day loss, while the euro is edging higher. shery: thank you. we are getting some comments from loretta mester from an

event in cincinnati. she say she fully support of the fmoc's decisions in january. it is well allocated to the risks in the economy. she is saying rates may need to rise a bit if the outlook is met. to expects gdp growth of 2% 2.5%, as well as inflation. our global economics and policy editor kathleen hays is here with more. basically, reiterating some of her views she express earlier this month. kathleen: loretta mester is not a voter this year. she is known as a hawkish federal bank president. that is why it is significant we heard remarks from her after the meeting. we got the dovish surprising tilt from the federal reserve, led by jay powell. when she acknowledges that inflation is about the fed's goal, that is what jay powell

said too. the big question is the forces that will move it higher. i would like to emphasize when they sit down at the table, they go around the table and make a decision. everyone speaks, everyone has influence. it is very important. she said the fed will finalize its balance sheets plan incoming meetings. if they feel like they are closer to the point of reaching their goals on unemployment and inflation, does that mean they are getting closer to the endpoint where they think they could slow down the balance sheet? that is an important question. repeating what she said but nothing has changed her mind. shery: do stick around, kathleen hays during this conversation as we bring in cumberland advisors vice-chairman bob into the discussion. great to have you with us. loretta mester just reiterated the fed is in the wait and see mode on future rate moves.

the markets seem to have gone ahead of themselves, being very risk on on this flexibility stance. what do you make of the latest fed's dovish stance? bob: i think the fed has been doing exactly what they said they were going to do. they have been saying for a while that they were in a mode of being data dependent. of course, over the first month of the year and into the end of last year, the data were not all that great when it comes to the way financial markets were behaving. i think they delivered essentially exactly what they said they were going to do. don't forget, we don't have a set of -- new set of forecasts. that will not come out until this next meeting. there is where the real story i think is going to be, in those sep forecast into whether or not there will be some further

marking down of the expected movement in interest rates. of course, they can afford to be patient. they are not going to have new data on gdp until another meeting or so for the first quarter. we know what the fourth quarter of last year was so there is no news. shery: i'm curious what you see in the economy. you were the director of research in the federal reserve bank in atlanta for many years. strong labor market, that seems to be the strong argument for the fed. this is leaving open the door for rates being higher and the readiness to think they can be quite higher. we have a chart that shows that even though you have got average hourly earnings climbing, they got up to 3.2 and backed off a bit, but still not as high as before the recession. consumer confidence, expectations for higher income in six months, as come down. how strong is the labor market when you get past some of these numbers, if that is how workers

feel about their paychecks? bob: two things about the labor market. on the one hand, we've got very low unemployment. i think it is worthwhile noting that while we look at new claims for unemployment insurance as a wrong number -- raw number, 100,000 or whatever the number will turn out to be. but, we forget that the economy today is much bigger than it was in 2000, say. if you take the ratio of new claims to the size of the labor force, we are at historic low. new claims are really low. on the other hand, if you look at the jobs numbers. 304, the last time. if we were creating jobs at the rate we did between 1960 and 1970, that number would be four times the number that we see

toay if we are looking at 83 2006, that number would be twice as big. the economy is just not creating jobs at the same rate. on the other hand, we now have more job vacancies then we have people that are unemployed. we have a really strong labor market relative to the economy, but we don't have a lot of growth and that growth is partly related to the fact that productivity is still slow and growth in the labor force is slow. the real puzzle here for those people who believe in the phillips curve is why don't we ?ee more inflation pressures interestingly, there was discussion in key west this past week and a lot of people said what you were looking at is slowness because of the fact , theduring the recession substituted labor for capital. we are getting to a point we

will start substituting capital for labor because labor is getting more expensive than scarce. this is another dynamic that is related to the financial crisis and the fallout from that. haidi: response to paul krugman helier this week and said it was never grounded in good data in the first place. now left to a fed with no good policy to respond to a potential recession. -- are youtimistic as pessimistic as paul krugman? bob: not at all. i think the fed has been pretty steady in what it has been doing. it has been cautious. it has not overreacted and it's got some flexibility to not only move interest rates lower if it has to, but it has other tools as well.

i think professor krugman is engaging in wishful thinking. want to look at another chart which shows three things. kathleen: it has the balance sheet which the fed has been reducing. the balance rate which is rising, inflation just under 2%. is the fed close to the point where they can't and should say this is it? we have done all we need to do, we don't need to hike rates anymore. what would you tell the fed to do if you were still there? bob: i think the balance sheet is over emphasized in terms of its importance. it is leading the balance sheet runoff. the question is how large should it be? if it followed policies that it did in the past, trying to keep the currency to gdp ratio constant, then you would be looking at a balance sheet from a currency outstanding perspective would be about $1.8

trillion. there is another $700 billion related to other kinds of deposits, foreign deposits at the fed and so on. if you start to add all of that up, you could get to a balance sheet close to $3 trillion and that would be sort of a neutral balance sheet. there is a lot of concern about oh, well, the run-up on the balance sheet has contributed to liquidity problems, but what people forget is over the same period the fed started to reduce its balance sheet, the treasury trillion ofver $1.3 treasury obligations into the marketplace. securities held by the public. what people forget is from a statistical point of view, the fed balance sheet counts as securities held by the public. the treasury is more than

compensated in terms of its treasury issuance. you have a huge influx of supply of treasuries into the marketplace, the fed's balance sheet is trivial in terms of its reduction. it is treasury and financing, over what parts of the term structure is issuing securities is affecting not only the level but the shape of the term structure. shery: looking at yields right now, the 210 spread around 18 basis points. pivothe fed's dovish risk inversion and what does this say about the potential recession coming up? bob: there is a lot of concern about trying to figure out where the next recession is going to come from. i think it is a fact that expansions don't die of natural causes. there is some sort of shock. we had an oil shock back in the 1980's. this trade situation with china

it isbe such a shock, but some stake in policy either on the macro side or government side war federal reserve side where you get the cause for recession. i don't see the fed being one of those triggers. haidi: bob, great to have you. vice-chairman at cumberland advisors. also joining us, kathleen hays. much more to come on bloomberg. stay with us. ♪

haidi: we had a first look under the hood of nissan post crisis, the release of the first quarter earnings and missing estimates. it also booked and $83 million charge related to carlos ghosn's legislation. let's go to our chief asia

correspondent stephen engle. stephen: three main things we had to take away from the earnings report as well as the prez conference with the ceo. one was what you just mentioned, the poor third-quarter results and the big slashing of the full-year forecast that ends in march. of course, this big charge, unprecedented move on the deferred payment to carlos ghosn. thirdly, the ceo really talking lt the alliance with the renau chairman on his way to tokyo, arriving tomorrow. let's get to that charge, $83 million charge against payments due to ghosn that he accumulated through eight years. it is at the center of these accusations against carlos

been accused brought prosecutors -- by prosecutors of being culpable of misrepresenting that payment. they kind of had to do this. as far as the results and slashing of the forecast, this is representative of the slump maintained across the auto industry with sales down 19%. they have a lot of work to do in the u.s. market and the china market as well. the ceo says they need to invest more, they need to be more aggressive in the china market. over the next three years, they will be spending $9 billion and body -- adding 20 new models to push into the china market. then there is the brexit issue, that is really weighing on their expansion or lack thereof in the u.k. shery: going back to that alliance, where are we at in this relationship? stephen: both -- all sides are saying we need the relationship. nissan wants a more equitable partnership in the alliance.

it will help that the new ceo of renault will be coming tomorrow and friday to meet with nissan. the first time they will meet face-to-face. they need to build trust and this is what was said last night at the headquarters about the need for this alliance. renault isance with a great asset that generates tremendous value. we want to energize the alliance and grow hand-in-hand and not go backward. stephen: the saga has slowed down a little bit. 87 days since the detention of carlos ghosn, but still front-page news in japan. shery: stephen engle, thank you so much for that. sources say amazon and general motors are in talks to invest in rivian which could value the electric pickup maker between $1 billion and $2 billion.

howceo told bloomberg about rivian was preparing to hit the market after a nine-year run up. >> the orchestra of activity. it took a lot of time to get all the right pieces of the puzzle. we now have all these pieces lined up. for us, it is a really exciting time to show this because we are confident. we have those big items that takes a lot of time and effort and carries risk. those have been set up and addressed. shery: david welch joining us now. could rivian now start challenging tesla and the electric car market? david: it could, especially if they get an electric pickup to market first. elon musk has talked about making a pickup truck. he also wants to make a small suv first. maybe an electric pickup. now rivian with money from amazon and general motors.

potentially how big the investment is, maybe gm's manufacturing behind it to get a pickup truck to market before tesla. it would be a coup for gm and rivian, and they could have a big customer in amazon who needs a fleet of delivery trucks. this could be a way to fuel them cheaply and cleanly. haidi: we know rivian as a company has been in stealth mode for a number of years before unveiling these two models fela auto show. they have been shoring up and adding employees as well. what do we know about the ability to scale up? we know in terms of production, that has been haunting tesla since the beginning. david: they have a plan, but scaling this stuff up is always difficult. tesla did a lot of things that probably made it difficult on themselves. they tried to automate in ways that established, acres have not done -- established carmakers have not done.

rivian has been having to raise money to get where they are and they are not planning to do it until 2020. a lot will depend on the details. how much gm puts into this and is there a manufacturing relationship where maybe gm gets some of the pickup truck and battery technology from rivian, in exchange they get gm's hardware. maybe some manufacturing. maybe they can build it in one of gm's existing pickup truck plants. it would definitely get rivian into market much more quickly. haidi: david welch. the investment from gm and amazon into rivian, a potential competitor with tesla in the pickup truck and suv space. some breaking news across bloomberg. japan reducing price index, coming in at 6/10 of 1%, missing

expectations of 1%. decelerating from the december pace of 1.5%. month on month, a deceleration of 6.5%. a slower pace than the 2.5% contraction we are expecting, matching the pace we saw month on month in terms of price inflation, or deflation in december. that comes ahead of fourth-quarter gdp numbers expected tomorrow from japan. plenty more to come on daybreak asia. this is bloomberg. ♪

shery: this is daybreak asia. i'm shery ahn. haidi: let's get you a quick check of the latest business flash headlines. that t-mobile bonds has defended his proposed takeover of sprint amid rising doubts on wall street. he told lawmakers his company does not use huawei equipment and will not after the deal is

completed. the $26 billion plan will reduce competition, according to a opponents. shery: a lawsuit in california has heard claims that the cbs executive sold shares ahead of the disclosure of sexual misconduct against the former ceo and other officials. the court was told that four executives disposed of $300 million of stock over 18 months before the new yorker published the allegation. we get the market opens in japan and south korea at the top of the hour. let's preview what to expect. sophie: we are seeing some optimism into asia with futures edging higher in tokyo. seoul steady on a two-day decline and earnings to react to. yamaha motors, checking in on the company after it missed estimates and offered a softer

than expected forecast. citi says the initial market reactions maybe negative. we are also keeping a not on toshiba ahead of its results do this morning. the stock plunged the most in almost three months yesterday on expectations it will slash profit forecast. nissan -- the announced the dividend could support shares this morning. nexon could see more weakness. japan display could receive up to ¥80 billion investment from a group of chinese and taiwanese companies. shery: thank you so much for that. coming up on the next hour of daybreak asia, we will discuss the sentiment in asian markets ahead of asia-pacific. whe joins us on the top of the next hour. we have seen risk on rally in the u.s. we will see what happens. the market open is next.

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haidi: a very good morning. i am haidi stroud-watts in sydney. shery: good evening from bloomberg's global headquarters in new york. i am shery ahn. sophie: i am sophie kamaruddin in hong kong. welcome to "daybreak asia." haidi: our top stories this wednesday, asia-pacific markets are set to expand on a strong u.s. session. president trump's new tariffs flexibility. opec lowers its forecast