haidi: a very good morning. i am haidi stroud-watts, in sydney, counting down to the market open. shery: and i am shery ahn. amazon ceo jeff bezos is planning to step down, handing the reins to andy jassy. haidi: alibaba kicks off what

could be a $5 billion bond sale, but it is revealing the effects of the china commerce crackdown. shery: and gamestop races $27 billion with the collapse. what are you watching? shery: haidi, a lot to digest, with the debt sale with alibaba, and amazon the spotlight after announcing andy jassy's appointment as ceo, and we have the aussie/kiwi cross after data

was a beat. the cash hold in new zealand. we are adding one third of 1%, and with tech very much in focus, after gaining some ground in australia this morning, this is up by 44%, so e-commerce name certainly a focus in asia, especially after a cloud computing player, amazon web services,, and the amazon cfo ca they are adding to aws's capacity to handle demand. shery? shery: the leadership position overshadowing estimates, smashing estimates, with the new chief, andy jassy.

this transition, this obsession seems pretty -- this secession seems pretty typical for how companies run. >> yes, andy jassy has been at the aws since 2006 at the cloud service union, and it accounted for about 12% of the revenue with a much higher ebit margin, and as aws increases as a percentage of revenue, the idea is amazon will come up, as well. bezos has a number of heads who are executives. that is how the makeup of amazon is ron. andy jassy is a very long-standing amazon employee, since 1997, and reviewing the remarks of the cfo on the

earnings call, the media call is that while this is a change in structure, jeff bezos becoming executive chairman, all it means is a shift in responsibility among senior executives. we do not know who will be replacing andy jassy at aws. that would be important, because that is a cash cloud with competition from google and microsoft, whose cloud services are growing, as well. they also gave a positive first quarter outlook. the e-commerce business going into this, the thought was e-commerce might slow down in the first half of the year. you can see that chart really tells the story, growing aws revenue, and i think the expectation from wall street is that the margins will follow, and i know that "bloomberg intelligence" feels the same way. haidi: what are some of the challenges? ed: people have short memories.

i remember the fantastic coverage by some of our bloomberg employees of looking at the conversations. there is always going to be this question around privacy, antitrust with all of the big stocks that we cover, as well as the companies we cover. there is continuing discussion around wages, for example. there is a unionization vote coming up. those are kind of the big picture questions. but also, when i talk about cloud as being the important business unit, aws, it is almost incumbent that google and microsoft are growing competition for the company, something they always need to be aware of, and on the e-commerce side, e-commerce spending, 4% year on year, 2020. the expectation is we will not see that in 2021. what they are talking about is

they will have to spend money on capacity just in case the demand is there, because they would rather have more capacity than they need than be left short in case this e-commerce demand carries on, but that mean some spending, spending in capex and investment. anchor: and we have seen the incredible assent of stocks, it has slowed a little bit since their last earnings. what are analysts saying about the future of the share space that led jeff bezos to be one of the richest men in the world? ed: i just her to the terminal that compared to the s&p 500, amazon's share gain is like a flat line -- i just heard on the terminal. there was a lot of renewed optimism around these stocks. we expected outside profit growth, outside earnings growth

with them. with amazon, we got that, over $14 eps, double what the street was looking for. the other thing is the multiples. i think i am right to say that most bank stocks, including amazon, are trading below 10 times the price of projected sales at the moment, and there is a question in the rest of the marketplace on the nasdaq 100, the likes of zoom, for example, just trading at crazy multiples, and it might be a more reasonable bet. in the near term, there could be some upside. not that many sales. if any, so i think the street is still pretty bullish on this company. haidi: the big news on the day. we have our bloomberg senior analyst on the line. just reading through your first

topline reaction, no expectation of a dramatic change in direction, given that jassy had been expected to take the helm for a long time now. what about the shifting priorities between their cash machine, which is their cloud business, and the e-commerce business? reporter: sure. i think the change that we see here today will not really change the direction of the business. going forward, we are seeing more in cloud, but that is not something that was lacking. that is before they were growing at a good rate, and they continue to grow at a very lucrative profit margin, but i will say this is pushing the retail business aside. finally growing a margin. this was a strategy that was in place from day one, and we do not see him shying away from

that, even as he sort of pushes the baton down to andy. shery: what are the key takeaways when it comes to the e-commerce business? reporter: e-commerce was really strong. 2020 was the year of e-commerce. growth rates were stellar and are expected to go up nicely into the first quarter. the hesitation that i have moving into 2020 really what happens when there is this 40% growth rate beginning in q2, and we expect growth will slow on the e-commerce side by comparison, but in the long haul, there is still plenty of room for amazon to take share in the digital world. in the u.s. alone. amazon is more highly penetrated than internationally. we tail sales still less than 20% of total retail sales, even during covid, which is small, and the opportunity for the

delivery over time still exists. shery: we talked to a guest earlier today, a ceo who mentioned that some of the vendors on amazon were actually chinese factories and that, perhaps, they were too exposed to the china factor. what do you make for the comments that perhaps amazon is trying to squeeze out alibaba? reporter: amazon has been known to go after a business to sees the potential there. so amazon -- two sees -- to take the potential there. i am not sure how accurate they are, but i guess i would not say that amazon would not go and chase business. shery: our bloomberg senior retail analyst with her views on what is happening on amazon. you can also turn to your

blooper for more commentary and analysis from bloomberg experts. for now, we go to karina mitchell with the first word headlines. karina: thank you. stock exchange opening in myanmar after the military rallied at the commercial capital, while backers of aung san suu kyi were involved. meanwhile, failing to bridge differences with the former prime minister of italy, and the speaker of the lower house found no agreement among groups who originally supported him. mario draghi is now seen as a favor to become prime minister. italian politics are deadlocked amid the coronavirus pandemic. meanwhile, former president trump''s legal team says his

impeachment over the u.s. capitol storming is "substantively wrong and should be thrown out," and this is ahead of a senate spearing, -- hearing, saying that his speech was protected by the first amendment on january 6. and going ahead despite the coronavirus state of emergency, the president of an organizing committee says the event will take place no matter what happens with covid-19, echoing optimism from the ioc itself with a final decision expected in coming weeks. global news 24 hours a day, on air and on bloomberg quicktake, powered by more than 2,700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. i am karina mitchell. this is bloomberg. haidi, back to you. haidi: how the beijing cracked and will affect future growth, and we will get insight from a ceo later this hour.

but up next, where value is seen in these markets. this is bloomberg. ♪ when you switch to xfinity mobile, you're choosing to get connected to the most reliable network nationwide, now with 5g included. discover how to save up to $300 a year with shared data starting at $15 a month, or get the lowest price for one line of unlimited. come into your local xfinity store to make the most of your mobile experience. you can shop the latest phones, bring your own device, or trade in for extra savings. stop in or book an appointment to shop safely with peace of mind at your local xfinity store.

>> the fed has made a commitment to keep rates at zero and continue to buy quantitative easing for three years, and so it is creating a bubble. it is creating a bubble in stocks. it is creating a bubble in just about every asset. >> without exception, the bubble will be broken in the next two months, not a few years. >> it just replaces liquidity that exists with the players in the market. >> the market, probably in the near term will continue to be concerned about it. >> the bubble, stuck in the

middle class, and it is not destroyed when it bursts. it is just transferred. once again, it gets transferred from the many to the few. haidi: the potential bubble. we are being joined by michael aked. great to have you with us. looking at what happen in the regular session and then after hours, and we are continuing to see with gamestop and some of the affiliated driven names, where to from here? are we going back to fundamentals? are we going back to popping up the reflation trade again? michael: thank you. i think the reflation trade will be a long one. there will be periods, such as now, when the value type investments will do better, and then periodically, it goes down

to random stocks as the worker, the extra money that they have sort of got from government, they use that for their own sort of personal gains. it has all been about the investor, about capital markets. we saw that from the end of the 1970's, and we are seeing that change now. i call it the democratization of the sort of bailout. haidi: so you are saying that stimulus checks are basically going into daytrading. will we see a number of big wall street heavyweights actually benefit from this because of access like having access to all of the auto flow data from robinhood, for example? michael: once every couple of years, it will be extremely painful as

well as with a lot of opportunities for a great return. as we do get it going out to people, there is a hope that those people will spend money. they will actually go out and buy goods. we have always said these are bailouts of the wealthy, not a bailout of the worker. the only thing they have known in the last 40 years, and that is essentially that you make the bank. over the next one or two years, they will start taking that and get what we have seen with gamestop and others. it cannot last forever, because you can go short on it, but you cannot hold that stock up. then the question is, was that

worth it? you have made money out of it or lost a lot of money out of it. shery: more volatility, the vix has fallen, but we are still off of that historical average around 19. michael: probably five or 10 years in the future, when it becomes clear that the asset price maintenance that the central banks around the world are pumping up asset markets just does not work anymore, and they will return to a much more consumption-driven economy. that will be painful for the markets. but it will be beneficial to the worker as they stop trying to invest and just start spending and saving in other ways. shery: are you seeing more signs that, perhaps, central banks around the world are willing to

do less? we have seen pockets, including in countries like the philippines, as well, even new zealand seeing a hint of inflation. michael: so we are seeing inflation return. i think those central banks that respond by pulling back sort of the community in the market -- it will be for governments to continue doing that. the tap of the community has been turned on through government spending, and they will not want to turn it off. that is going to continue. we will see central banks more type of supporters rather than the old school idea of maintaining inflation. inflation will benefit politicians, and we will see that return in the market over the next decade. shery: great to have your thoughts. thank you.

a big guest later in the week, esther george joining us for an exclusive interview to discuss the fallout in the retail trading frenzy and the economic recovery in the u.s. and how the pandemic has had a disproportionate impact on minorities. haidi: up next, how china is taking steps to protect itself from a widening u.s. technology ban and which companies are the big winners so far. we will have more details on self-reliance. this is bloomberg. ♪ are you frustrated with your weight and health? it's time for aerotrainer, a more effective total body fitness solution. (announcer) aerotrainer's ergodynamic design and four patented air chambers create maximum muscle activation for better results in less time, all while maintaining safe, correct form and allows for over 20 exercises. do the aerotrainer super crunch. the pre-stretch works your abs even harder, engaging the entire core.

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shery: here's a quick check of the latest business flash headlines. topping estimates, with heavy spending in the year-end holiday period, fourth-quarter revenue coming in at more than $46 billion, to believe dollars more

than analysts had foreseen. online ad spending has changed. exxon mobil is defending plans for the s&p 500's third-largest dividend despite posting its first annual loss in decades, assuring investors of financial health, alleging to change spending for dividends. and a health care app, good doctor, beat estimates with income rising to more than $1 billion, topping the range of the bloomberg consensus. however, their loss was worse than forecast. haidi: china is taking steps to protect itself from a widening u.s. technology ban, with the computers and machines that made them surge. how aggressive has this action been in terms of pursuing the

imports, and where does it come from? reporter: well, the numbers are part -- quite startling. the chipmaking equipment that went into china, $32 billion u.s., billions worth. almost 20% of all of china imports last year were semi conductors. as you alluded to, the u.s. administration has restricted the sale of technology to chinese companies. they are trying to assure they have the supply chains in place. there has been a great demand for electronics globally, all of that manufactured in china and then exported. it is about building out that domestic chip, self-reliance now a key priority for policymakers and the government here, and

that is why they are billing -- buying this $32 billion worth. it is at least a decade away, for at least for the next 10 years, that is good news for a company in taiwan. that will continue. after that though, they build up that self-reliance, then possibly the market share will start to erode. shery: tom, specifically, huawei has become a specific issue when it comes to aydin pyx. -- biden's picks. tom: a way to curb china's nefarious behavior, as u.s. lawmakers would put it, but, yes, through their colleagues in the senate, they are saying you need to delay the confirmation

of gina raimondo. she is the pick. republicans did not get a clear confirmation from her that she would keep huawei from that list which was put in place by the trump administration. that was to ban the sale of technology, software, hardware from them, but it also bars any company that is exporting their goods to huawei. they want them on this entity list, and they did not get clear confirmation from raimondo that she would do that, and they want that before she gets that nomination confirmed. shery: tom, from beijing. coming up, alibaba posting stronger-than-expected sales, but questions about how the chinese regulatory crackdowns will affect this space. details next. this is bloomberg. ♪

shery: janet yellen now reacting to a congressional budget office report that has upgraded the economic forecast for the united states, saying that the forecast shows a desperate need for an aid package, seen years before the u.s. can actually reach full employment again. we had seen this upgrade from yesterday, potentially complicating the prospects for president biden's release plan. he had upgraded the gdp forecast from 2020 to 2024, an increase

of 1.7 percent annually but janet yellen coming out and saying there are still many challenges ahead, including the uncertainty over vaccine distribution. for now, let's get to karina mitchell with the first word headlines. karina: alexey navalny has been jailed for breaking parole restrictions over a 2014 fraud convictions as police tried to crack down on protests against president putin. his supporters rallied across russia at the weekend with thousands being arrested. the kremlin denied any role. india is stepping up security against protesting farmers around new delhi, asking twitter to block the accounts of known leaders. farmers are fighting for reforms they say will ruin small owners. nationwide demonstrations are planned for this coming weekend. their anger has been stoked by reduced farm sector allocations

in monday's budget. a new report from the federal aviation administration says spacex went ahead with the launch despite being denied a safety waiver. the test ended in a fireball when the rocket crashed upon landing. the faa says space attacks had asked to succeed what was permitted but had been turned down. that prompted the regulator to delay a test of another rocket. retail sales disappointed, plunging in hong kong in december as coronavirus restrictions curved demand. sales by value fell more than 13% from a year earlier in december to just over 4 billion u.s. dollars. in a bloomberg survey. clients were reported in food and drink and at department stores although sales did rise in supermarkets, electronics, and autos. global news, 24 hours a day, on air and on bloomberg quicktake, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. i am karina mitchell. this is bloomberg.

back to you. haidi: let's turn to alibaba reporting a big third quarter with a 37% jump in revenue, but china's most famous tech firm facing nervous investors under a regulatory crack down on jack ma's ant group. his fall from grace is casting a shadow over the future. let's discuss this with capital cio's rocks over. -- brock silver. alibaba is fighting over a number of things as well. give us your take on the state of affairs without all the regulatory scrutiny. >> the $5 billion bond offering is back on. there's a lot of good news for alibaba right now. third quarter results were actually really strong. overall revenue, 37% up. at income, 52%.

the good news has spread across business lines. e-commerce up 38 percent. lockdowns are terrible in general but great for alibaba. the fiercely competitive cloud computing sector is up 50% and is now ebitda positive. a logistics business is cash flow positive. so this was a great quarter. haidi: let's turn to regulations. what is happening to jack ma as well. he was left out conspicuously on that list of the greatest entrepreneurs in china, according to one of the state media publications. i wonder, given this scrutiny on jack ma, on regulations on alibaba, how crucial is the billionaire to the company's fortunes? brock: look, this is an externality that is really weighing down on the company. it's not about jack ma per se, or at least it should not be. he has largely stepped back from

alibaba. without him, this last quarter was great. his actions are a proxy for an unknown regulatory risk that is a little bit worrying. for alibaba itself, i'm less concerned. i just do not see their business as being the same sort of stability threat that ant's simtech operations might be. the regulatory impact might be less than feared the alibaba itself. shery: ant contributing more than 70 million to its profit last quarter. how crucial is the future of alibaba in the bigger context of things? brock: i think it's likely to be heavily regulated. and that newly regulated ant is set for lower growth and a higher cost. the most important change is going to be capital requirements. their loans are going to go up from a few percent to 30% and that is a drastic, significant

change to their business model. that's 700 million dollars u.s. dollars. that's what it contributed. that's likely to decrease in the near term. i'm skeptical that the company can quickly resurrect ipo plans because even with beijing's support, that resulting valuation will not be anywhere near the former ipo valuation and that mania has significantly dissipated so i think ant is going to have to spend some time proving out the model and that will be a big of a -- a bit of a drag on alibaba itself but it still shows us a booming company. shery: at the end of the day, we have these antitrust, anti-monopolistic behavior investigations, but alibaba and ant, because they were so early to market, is there an existential importance to the chinese financial system and social stability? are they too big to fail for the government? brock: i think alibaba may have

a bit of two to fail going in its favor. ant was more of a threat to the chinese banking system and that will be taken down a peg but alibaba itself i think is going to do well. as i said, i'm relatively optimistic on the regulatory front for alibaba. >> how much do investors need to worry about what this entity potentially looks like on the others of this? the bullish case is of course that this gets it out of the way, that you have may be a more slimmed-down, more straightforward type of business, and that's going to be bullish longer-term for the company. brock: yes, look. normally, i look at most chinese companies with a jaundiced eye but i'm a bit bullish in this case. the shares are down 17% and they have been rallying in january and strangely, i think they are

down the announcement but i think those fears are overblown. i think the regulatory issues are going to turn out ok and alibaba even though it's highly profitable -- will have to reconfigure its business model. >> brock silvers joining us from hong kong. we will be getting more insight on alibaba in the coming hours. our guest joins us in the next hour of "daybreak asia." time to take a look at the markets. sophie kamaruddin in hong kong. sophie: tech is very much in focus given the tech giants. alibaba, alfa bank, and amazon are looking to boost investment and grow out there capacity to meet growing demand in the digital space. we are keeping an eye on reflation bets. bonds come under pressure. you have the kiwi 10 year yield rising 12 basis points this morning after that beat on jobless data from new zealand which has seen replacing.

rbnz using. moving the cash rate, going along to the future. asian banks saying the jobs mandate -- the inflation mandate is looking more and more achievable. as we are seeing asean's gained ground, banks are pushing the asx 200 higher by .8% but we are seeing the miners under pressure in sydney. php losing ground after it was downgraded to neutral at credit suisse. jgb futures, we are seeing them knowledge lower. there might be a 30 years that option on thursday from japan. the boj expected to clear its bond buying. let's check in on what's going on with the dollar-yen, trading around 105. thanks think the dollar and u.s. yields, they might have more upside as democrats are showing willingness to pass stimulus without agreement from republicans so that may see the yen push hire about 105. u.k. futures in singapore with

little change. s&p e-minis gaining some ground this morning and wti extending its gains, topping that 55 dollars per barrel mark. his silver futures, we are seeing them edge up slightly, but being below 27 as the rally stalls overnight as traders close out their positions in the silver market. shery. shery: jeff curry at goldman sachs likes the metal but not because of wall street that spared the head of commodities research told bloomberg that strong silver prices are sustainable and says that it traders were not close to cornering the market. >> to corner the market and create a short squeeze, we estimated required each one of these wall street that individuals to accumulate somewhere around 4200 ounces. that is a lot of silver and where are you going to put it? the analogy to the hot brothers

or silver thursday i think our far stretched. let's not forget, because of the hunt brothers squeeze in the 1980's, there are regulatory policies put in place that prevent that. position limits. you will see a similar type of dynamic take place in a macro market. we see it as extremely unlikely. >> what are you expecting silver for the end of the year? jeff: our target is $30 an ounce, dean driven by a combination of a stronger gold market as well as the solar panel demand, the green driving prices. we do expect, if you see the biden administration, the solar ambitions, that target would move to $33 announce. given the markets trading in that, there is a real

fundamental story here. we like solar. however, we don't like it because of a short squeeze. we like it because of the fundamental story behind it. >> jeff curry, you were mentioning about 1896 and the cross of gold. let's talk about the cross of silver right now, which is the fixation of the public on trading commodities versus the fundamental story around tangible assets. you have always waited the fundamental story. is that a day to view? do you have to shift and be more supple in your thinking about the speculative market of tangible assets? jeff: we think about the fundamental story of commodities in real assets more broadly. we think these populist movements are likely to do is create an environment in which government starts spending, particularly on lower income households that will create that

demand for commodities and goods more broadly in creating more cyclical commodity intensity economic backdrops. shery: goldman sachs head of commodity research jeff currie. we take a look at the tycoons in the clean energy boom. where that money will be going in the coming years. this is bloomberg. ♪

haidi: moving to energy, bp's fourth-quarter earnings fell short of expectations. the pentair make continues to hit fuel sales and profit margins. bernard mooney told bloomberg he is seeing share price recovery and investors are supportive of the company's green energy transition. >> share prices are down across the entire sector because of covid. now that we have got vaccines, they are being rolled out, things are looking better and our share price is probably up 40% to 50% from the lows of last year. as regards to strategy, i think the shareholders are -- they are very supportive. if anything, over the holidays, i think there is sort of a growing strengthening around the belief in the strategy. >> when it comes to m&a, how are you ensuring that discipline? it is such a hot sector. how are you making sure that you only by the projects that will

do it at the right price? bernard: one of the things we learned in the oil business over the last decade is the concept of value over volume, something that my predecessor actually spoke first about in 2012. value over volume applies to oil and gas. it certainly applies to renewables. yes, we have some targets out there around 50 gigawatts of renewable power by the end of this decade, by 2030, but i think the key is we have got to deliver on those 8% to 10% returns we promised. we believe we can do that through the operational efficiency we bring from our existing business, through the construction abilities we bring from our existing business through the integration we have with our trading business. these are things that we bring and we are seeing that today. 30 projects all in the range, on average, of 8% to 10%. the key is discipline.

that's why we will share this with investors. the key is the things we don't to, the things we walk away from. they are the proof point investors need. that is what we are doing and our job is to share it with them. haidi: can i get some early reaction to the new administration in the united states? we have seen some early policy changes, leases on federal land, some other changes come through as well. some u.s. oil companies have been pushing back against some of that. where would you put bps use on these matters -- views on these matters? bernard: we are big in america. we are very much looking forward to working with the new administration on their energy and climate agenda. it's great to see their focus specifically on offshore wind. our 4.4 gigawatts joint venture will only grow in america over the coming years and we are looking forward to building on that. we are, i think, along with many

others, delighted that the u.s. has rejoined the paris agreement. that is very aligned with our own agenda around zero. shery: bernard looney with bloomberg's anna edwards. haidi, let's take a look at 50 billionaires on bloomberg green's new ranking. they showcase the explosive growth of electric vehicles, batteries, solar power, and topping the list, elon musk. his fortunes soaring over $600 in the past year. a majority of his wealth can be attributed to his green business and that's mainly tesla. his green fortune, almost three times the combined wealth of the four chinese billionaires ranked second. also executives behind the world's largest battery maker, and this company also supplies to tesla as well. in third, the owners of the world's largest maker of solar wafers can also executives for the chinese electric carmaker,

byd. really, lots of chinese companies, and that's not surprising given china's big push towards green energy. right? haidi: the outlook is really bullish. if you talk to analysts, we expect these businesses will continue to see gains as governments across the globe commit more resources towards climate goals. we see that as one of the top agenda priorities from the biden administration but you mentioned china. there's -- they have vowed to be carbon neutral by 20 63. -- 2060. the european union has a green deal. in the biden has proposed a $2 trillion clean energy plan. you can read much more about how the place to go green has boosted these billionaires on the bloomberg terminals. we have an in-depth look at other executives that make it on the bloomberg rain ranking. this is bloomberg. ♪

haidi: shares in australia's largest gambling company are rising in early trade, following a nonbinding offer for it media division. paul allen has more on this potential deal. they will be receiving offers an ongoing restructuring on a regular basis so what is most interesting about this latest approach? paul: rumors have been

circulating for a while. they confirmed reports when it received -- when it made that offer. it is asking for the media assets only at a very early stage. no price has been mentioned although citigroup estimates that they can raise about $3 billion from the sale of those two units, a 30% premium to the current value. about 40% of revenue in the last financial year, and we saw shares rally it pretty hard yesterday, rising 9%, up more than 2.5%, so that would value the company in the ballpark of eight billion u.s. dollars, but yes, it's been three years since they merged. there always commentary and rumor around potentially spinning off certain assets or maybe just retaining the lottery part of the business. major shareholders have been agitating and applying pressure

for a split or selloff as well. shery: how are analysts reacting to all of this? paul: the analyst community seems to be fairly united in the idea that this is a positive thing. morgan stanley's ed young says this will make it harder for them to be acquired by other suitors. $11 billion takeover from mgm resorts last month. it will also create the largest gambling operator via revenue. that will leave them -- morgan stanley says that would make it a very strong, high-quality defensive option. jeffries says this deal looks pretty attractive. if the price is right, there's definitely some positives from the transaction. i mentioned the activist shareholders as well. it's really holding all the cards here. there is plenty of interest in it. it's a good idea to slow things down and no need to rush into this deal.

shery: paul allen with the latest from sydney. here's a talk check of the latest business flash headlines. uber jumped as it beat two rivals to buy and alcohol delivery app for $1 billion. less than 10% in cash. it is uber's biggest deal since july, when it bought postmates. boeing is selling 10 billion dollars of bonds to refinance and overleveraged balance sheet to keep money flowing in the pandemic downturn. it is borrowing to repay part of the $13.8 billion loan it took at the onset of the covid-19 pandemic. harley davidson saint on a surprise fourth-quarter loss and outlook that failed to impress. an adjusted loss of $.44 per share, missing estimates of a $.23 profit. it is aiming for low double

digit earnings growth through 2025 and a single digit rise in sales. haidi: let's take a look at some of the stocks we are watching going into the next hour of trading. sophie. sophie: you can see the earnings and south korea. results came in better than expected. it missed estimates in the fourth quarter. samsung heavy, losses in 2020. flipping the board in japan, more earnings from japanese lenders. a drop in third quarter profits reported. we are keeping an eye on panasonic after it saw an earnings beat and boosted its profit outlook on profitability at its tesla battery business. morgan stanley lifting its price target on the stock with the kospi also a boost. the operator posting a 30% year on year rise in sales for january. a skincare player on watch on

news that blackstone group is in exclusive talks to buy business for more than $600 million from hong kong owner -- nissan on the radar today as it has suspended its production at a u.s. factory in mississippi given the ongoing -- in the tip space. shery: coming up in the next hour of "daybreak asia," alibaba's latest results were a beat with revenues holding up amid chinese government scrutiny. duncan clark joins us to look at the prospects for alibaba and jack ma. we discussed the challenges ahead for hong kong with a focus on the restaurant and hospitality sector. a ceo is one of the territories leaving players and he is our guest, next. the market open in tokyo and seoul, next. this is bloomberg. ♪

>> welcome to "daybreak asia." i am shery ahn. haidi: i am haidi stroud-watts

in sydney. it has major markets have just opened for trade. our top stories this hour, asia looks set to gain. speculation and shorter shares stumbles. game stock erasing gains with a six to percent collapse. jeff bezos will hand the reigns to another boss. alibaba ready to fight billion dollar bond sales. there are few clues on the effect of china's e-commerce crackdown. retail sales plunge as virus curbs consumer demand. we assess the prospects with a restaurant operator. let's get you a look at how tokyo and seoul have, online. sophie. sophie: this even after japan extended the state of emergency for tokyo and some other cities. the earnings story is very much in focus. the personal care industry on watch as well with a few deals in that space including for she

sata -- for this company. another company may sell part of its business to blackstone group in a deal with cmc holdings. taking a look at the yen, trading above 105 this morning as markets way if the dollar turn around will have legs. let's switch out the board to check in on the open and south korea this morning. the are seeing the korean won on the upside while kospi is standing .8%. earnings aplenty to watch in south korea. the telecom company reporting results. keeping a close eye on tech stocks as well. samsung has been beloved by a korean retail traders, mom-and-pop investors piling into that stocks, helping with the kospi. this is a showdown between retail investors and short-sellers in south korea. that's check in on what's going on in sydney this morning. shares much higher.

some ratings jumping on an upgrade at goldman while bhp is falling after being downgraded to neutral at credit suisse. kiwi bonds are big movers today, adding 12 basis points after the jobs data beat in new zealand, which is repricing, rbnz tightening. cash treasuries opening to the downside. the 10 year yield rising for a fifth straight session ahead of refunding plans going into that supply event. goldman recommending steepeners on that event. s&p e-minis, we are seeing the move to the upside after u.s. stocks rallied overnight at that retail trading frenzy which fizzled out. shery. shery: let's digest not only the crumbling of the retail trading frenzy but also markets digesting the massive slate of earnings. we want to cross to our mliv

strategist, mark cranfield, because he can give us more insight on what is happening. should we start with the reddit mania we saw over equities here in the u.s. and what is happening there? mark: i've probably starting to cause enough pain that we can probably say we are close to the end of this mania because this week, people are actually starting to lose some real money. some of those who came a bit late into this frenzy are actually seeing stocks drop by quite substantial amounts. by some measures, just in the past couple of days, something like $160 billion worth of value has been wiped off a group of stocks, which has been pushed higher by the so-called reddit crowd so some of these names like gamestop, amc, they really had huge reversals, and this will be starting to actually hurt people's pockets and that's the kind of thing that will put investors off from wanting to join can some of these very

fast-moving and highly volatile activities. also, the push for silver seems to have completely unwound itself as well. while we did see silver prices jump substantially on monday, with a lot of retail people supposedly involved in that, that has completely reversed and silver is lower than it was at the end of last week so the latest signs are not that great for people that want to suddenly get involved in markets, which may be they are not that familiar with, so this pain will spread and people will be looking at the p&l results and saying this was not such a great idea after all. we are probably coming towards the end of this particular mania. does not mean to say that there won't be more in the future. we had many examples over the past couple of decades where things have been hyped up very exceptionally but this particular one may be coming towards the end. haidi: there is always something. let's get back to our bread and butter. treasury yields.

how much further do they continue to march higher, and out of all of the elements at play here, in terms of direction, i am curious how tolerant the fed is going to be. mark: for now, yields have been rising. is four days in a row now that 10 year yields have gone higher but it still only around 1.1% in absolute terms. that is not particularly high. a lot of people have been looking towards the 1.25% level for some time. that's the level where yields broke down in march last year, so that's quite a significant point. have not quite reached that yet, but it's been a gradual increase. as long as treasury yields are only going up fairly steadily, not jumping by huge amounts from day-to-day, people won't be too concerned. when you combine it with the fact that s&p 500 companies have been beating estimates in many places, around 80% of companies reported so far have managed to beat their earnings estimates so

it's almost looking like a reflation trade at the moment. people remember where treasury yields have risen a bit but stocks have been able to rise as well so as long as the pace is gradual, nobody will be too concerned. we will most likely get speakers coming out to try and calm down the bond market should we get close to 1.2 5, 1 .3% on the 10 year. it's quite possible that the federal come out to remind us that they are keeping short-term rates low for a long, long period. at the moment, the dot plot for 2023 has done nothing to change that at the latest fed meeting, so for now, very low short-term rates, a relatively steep curve, and a little bit of concern, but nothing too serious, particularly when you see that earnings data is very strong. looks like people are satisfied for the moment, but should we get a couple of days when treasury yields jumped by 10 or 15 basis points, then certainly,

that kind of volatility will be a little bit more scary for the equity market. haidi: mark cranfield. you can follow more on these stories and all the day's trading action on our markets live blog. that's on the bloomberg at mliv . let's get you to karina mitchell. karina: the myanmar stock exchange will reopen wednesday amid growing international criticism of the army coup. the military rallied supporters in the commercial capital. backers and denounce it return to army rule. the general suspended all domestic and international flights through april and the u.s. says it may be imposed sanctions in response. meanwhile, italy's search for a new government has stalled with parties failing to bridge differences over giuseppe conte, speaker of the lower house, found no agreement among groups that originally supported him. oreo draghi, now seen as

favorite to become prime minister. italian politics are deadlocked a made recession and the coronavirus pandemic. retail sales plunged in hong kong in december as coronavirus restrictions curved demand. sales fell more than 13% from a year earlier to 4 billion u.s. dollars. that was marginally better than the estimate seen in a bloomberg survey. declines were recorded in food and drink although sales did rise in supermarkets, electronics, and autos. global news, 24 hours a day, on air and on bloomberg quicktake, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. i am karina mitchell. this is bloomberg. shery. shery: let's get a quick check of the big movers across asia right now. take a look at kia motors because we have gotten news from south korea that apple is investing 4.1 trillion won in kia motors, around $3.5 billion, when it comes to building apple

cars. that will take place at the plant. it's in the process of working the wording on contracts. we are trying to get those stocks out as soon as we can. there you go. we are seeing that huge rally in the share price. mitsubishi gaining ground. they are seeing a smaller full-year profit loss than expected. panasonic getting more than 5% after raising their profit outlook. they are now raising their target and outlook on stronger sales for several units and they are saying they expect the business that supplies batteries to tesla to be profitable for the period so we have some big gainers across asia. still ahead, changes at the top at amazon. jeff bezos surprise decision to hand over the reigns later this year. plus, alibaba offered a few clues into how beijing's crackdown on big tech will impact its bottom line. duncan clark joins for an earnings review. this is bloomberg.

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shery: news of a leadership transition that amazon has overshadowed earnings results that smashed estimates. jeff bezos to be succeeded as ceo by andy jassy. let's get more with our west coast reporter, ed ludlow. not much a surprise when it comes to the succession, but what does it mean for the company? ed: not much of a surprise. he was the head of the consumer business. andy jassy was basically the most likely candidate to succeed jeff bezos. the timing perhaps is a little bit interesting, surprising, given how unstoppable amazon

seemed on current form. but andy jassy is a longtime servant of the company. he was employed in 1997. he led to the aws cloud unit since inception. he was named ceo of that unit as it grew, and he has really established the space. they are facing growing competition from google and microsoft, who invested heavily in their own cloud capabilities, but aws has become the cash cow for amazon. it is such a big diaper of profit and cash for amazon even though, of course, the consumer business makes up such a big proportion of revenue, but really, the messaging from executives on the earnings and media call is that this is just a job title change for jeff bezos. he will still be around, driving many of the initiatives and innovations at amazon and there will not be any sort of dramatic change in strategy going forward. >> you can see the reaction, shrugging that off.

continuity is the name of the game. you mentioned competition. there are many other challenges facing amazon. ed: if you took a poll of all the wall street analysts that cover the stock, around 55, there's 52 buys, a couple of holes on the stock. everyone is bullish about where amazon is at, reflected in their price targets, but the challenges are the same as they are for many of their tech peers, which are antitrust and regulatory challenges. those simply have not gone away. there's also the issue of labor and unionization. a union vote is due in the next few weeks when it comes to amazon. and finally, you know, they flagged it during the earnings call. covid was such a positive for amazon but it has not gone away. amazon faced such elevated fulfillment costs, associated with protecting workers and they are saying those costs should fall in 2021 as increasing

numbers of people are vaccinated, but at the same time, they do not know what the demand picture is from consumers and e-commerce so they continue to plan to invest in capacity. what happens if this demand from consumers is sustained and they get caught shorting capacity? it is hard for them to assess these risks. going forward, they will invest just to ensure they have capacity on the e-commerce side should the demand be there. shery: ed ludlow there. let's turn to popular reddit trades. the gamestop rally that disrupted wall street has come to a screeching halt. all the other beaten-down stocks also fell apart. su has this story and game stocks fall -- gamestop's fall coincided with short positions. karina: it sunk 60%. the biggest one-day decline.

the wild runoff and heavily shorted stocks that were touted by reddit and gamestop led the pack. all came crashing down. the removal of the short positions, currently removing the dynamic of the short squeeze. that had other stocks also crumbling in terms of the play that was in place. amc, express, blackberry, merrick airlines, and nokia, some of the other stocks that had been run up in recent weeks. to put it as one professional trader does, part of the pressure was the fact that these shorts were gone and he says it seems reasonably clear that there has been cheerleading and rage against the machine, the man on the street is left holding the bag again. there were many posts on the forum, subreddit platform, that talked about losses and some regrets. i was able to speak to one of the traders who had access close to the wall street that's forum

and some of the trading that was happening and he said a lot of folks got in this for a get-rich-quick kind of thing and they are not used to seeing a lot of red on the screen. he believes there was a lot of nervousness. he spoke to one fellow trader who had clocked a $112,000 gain and had to explain to his wife, who was quite angry, how it was suddenly gone. a lot of dynamics no longer in play for the so-called reddit army. according to partners, the short interest plunged to 53% of the outstanding shares in gamestop from an original 140% last month, and again, it was that heavily short position that helped to propel the run-up we saw in recent weeks. haidi. haidi: what is going on with the hedge and the short-sellers dusting themselves off after last week? su: dusting themselves off.

we saw gamestop rise to stratospheric heights, up some 1600%. it caused major pain for hedge funds that were in a bearish position and had to buy their positions back. goldman says long short hedge funds, lost 5.9%. all told during the past month, we know melvin capital, one of the big funds, was down 53% in january and that stephen cohen, the billionaires hedge fund with citadel, helped bail it out. we know according to people close to the matter that even cohen has opened what was a close fund to new money and within a matter of days, according to people close to the matter, raised $1.5 billion and we are told that does not necessarily have to do with bailing out melvin but has to do with them seeing new opportunities in the market. lastly, we have robinhood, the embattled online broker who is in the middle of all these major

trades, saying that they would like to push for a change in the one-day to two day closing settlement that takes place in a little-known area of the market that governs all the closings here. the move to change that from two days to one day might cost a lot of money. haidi: su keenan with the latest. coming up next, the popularity in myanmar could be a problem for military leaders while promising a fair election in a years time. we will get the latest on that story from bloomberg. ♪

haidi: man mars to leaders -- myanmar's coup leader says -- the military says the takeover was justified because of widespread fraud in the recent elections.

bloomberg's government managing editor joins us now. just latest developments. how much do we take away from it even that, you know, domestic as well as international independent bodies had already verified the november election results as being valid? >> yes, this is not so much about whether the november election was actually free and fair and legitimate. it's more about the military figuring out a way to keep its hold on power and influence in the government in the years ahead. so we have seen over the years in myanmar, the hong kong -- the party dating back to 1990, they won a landslide election that the military ignored. they spent two decades drafting a constitution that would guarantee them a lot of power. and you know, once his party joined the political process

again, it had the same results. he was winning massive majorities in parliament so she won 80% of seats in the election. to the military, this was ultimately the threat. they were worried she would become so popular that she could force through changes to the constitution that would dilute their power. so what this is about and what they need to do over the next year, from their perspective, is to figure out a way to change the rules either by banning her completely or some other mechanism to ensure that when they do hold the next election, it does not produce the exact same results. shery: will international sanctions curb their measures and all given we have now seen the u.s. formally declare this a coup? daniel: that's unlikely. the military leaders are already under sanctions for their treatment of the rohingya so

more targeted sanctions against them, it's unlikely that that will be effective, so anything broader will hit the wider public which is largely voting for her. the u.s. and other countries will be careful to try and target any measures as, you know, as best they can. for instance, the u.s. review of aid, you know, they have about almost $200 million last year, but a lot of that went to health programs which will probably still stay in place. shery: daniel ten kate there as we look at emaar's gdp per capita rising in the past few years. here is a quick check of the latest business flash headlines. the chip shortage is having a material impact on nissan with the company suspending reduction of trucks at its main plant in

mississippi. nissan says the changes will start with nonproduction days for its truck line and it will monitor the impact going forward. the production of cars, nissan says, has not yet been affected. alphabet rose after google reported quarterly sales that topped expectations, lifted by heavy ad spending in the year-end holiday period. fourth quarter revenue came in at more than $46 billion. 2 billion dollars more than analysts had foreseen. online ad spending has risen since the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, when marketing departments pulled back. ping an health care app good doctor beat estimates on full-year revenue with income rising 36% more than $1 billion and topping the range of a bloomberg consensus. net loss of $146 million was worse than forecast. ping an good doctor claims more

than 72 million active users, a rise of 8.5 percent on the year. our next, alibaba is offering few clues into how it plans to navigate regulatory changes in china. we will discuss with duncan clark. this is bloomberg. ♪

shery: we are getting the latest pmi numbers. let's start with singapore. the ihs market singapore number coming in at 52.9. this is a second month of numbers coming in in expansion territory. we had seen that in december. the previous month, for the first time in 12 months, so again, it's 52.9 expansion territory for the month of january. let's turn to hong kong. pmi numbers for the market data coming in at 47.8. it is better than the previous period of 43 point five, but remember again, it's a

contraction. it has briefly entered expansion in november but it is back in contraction territory so we are seeing a little bit of a deceleration -- acceleration for both numbers in singapore and hong kong. this as we continue to see economic data pretty much supported across asia, haidi. haidi: that monetary support continuing to play out. we are also getting the pmi services as well as a composite final reading for the pmi for the month of january. are seeing a little bit of a pickup when it comes to the services number. the previous number was 45 point seven. also, we are seeing an acceleration when it comes to the composite number as well. 47.1. of course, both of these numbers are firmly within contraction territory as japanese economic activity continues to be hit by the state of emergency and the coronavirus induced slowdown. let's take a look at how all this is playing into the market

sentiment. after the retail frenzy, we have a return to fundamentals. it is a reflation trade, cyclicals trade, and this is what we are seeing when it comes to treating in this part of the world. asian stocks are trading higher, extending the global rally and really strong corporate earnings from the likes of amazon, alibaba, and others are continuing to drive sentiment. we are seeing upside of 1.2% in particular leading the rally in australia. a bit higher after the rba moved to extend its qe program. let's turn to alibaba because it just reported a big third quarter, but china's most famous tech firm facing nervous investors as a regulatory crackdown in jack ma's fall from grace casts a shadow over its future. let's assess the implications with stephen engle, who is standing by with a special guest. stephen: a big set of results from alibaba and jack ma.

the company he founded. our next guest knows jack ma well. he wrote the book called alibaba, the house that jack ma built. he is the chairman of a company based in beijing. we would like to bring in duncan clark. always good to see you. let's start with the results. what stood out to you? it was an impressive set of results but we knew it would be good as alibaba has emerged pretty well coming from the lockdown in the first half of 2020. sales of 37%, net income up 52%. was it the impressive set of results that stood out to you or the relative silence from the ceo on the outlook and regulatory uncertainty with ant? >> it was a mix. the one keynote was the profitability of the cloud business so, you know, in the last few hours, we have seen the

promotion of the head of amazon. the new reality for these companies that anything currently digital light cloud is a major boost. i think that was notable. but you are right that, obviously, the core e-commerce people expected it would be strong and it was perhaps stronger than that. the regulatory cloud as opposed to the other cloud, it is hard to assess. it's hard to know when that will lift, if that will lift, so the relative silence of the ceo reflects the uncertainties of the regulatory environment in china. stephen: we also got news that alibaba will restart its marketing of its $5 billion bond sale that they postponed due to all of that uncertainty when jack ma kind of went out of the public view. has enough uncertainty been removed that investors, to assuage the fears that investors might have for this bond sale? duncan: the indirect questions

over the future of ant clearly weigh, because alibaba is a big shareholder in that company. the fact that jack ma steps down, as ceo and then chairman, quite a few years ago, means investors have had time to get used to a company without him as the face. the reality is jack ma, because of public interest, remains to some degree the face of both ant and alibaba. alibaba is more of a machine. it's maintained by others so i think investors are more sanguine about the impact. there is this lingering question of signs that might come as a result of any investigation into predatory behavior and that was addressed by the ceo. they are looking into that. internal corrective measures, and there may be some sort of fine coming down the road but i don't think we see anything existential for the company. stephen: donald talked about the

substantial uncertainties going forward. he says they are unable to assess the business impact on the rectification of ant. how does this play out? there's been a lot of speculation as to what alibaba/ant is going to propose as far as the blueprint of reform to the pboc. do you see a holding company that will be overseen by the pboc? do you see alibaba being forced to divest some of its purchases? it is a long question because there's so many different tentacles to this story. stephen: a clear line between ant and alibaba was ant -- may be the infamous speech that jack ma made in shanghai a few months ago was an attempt to make ant a rule maker. it's very much now a role taker from the dilatory authorities so their fate will be decided in discussions with but driven by

the regulator and we have already seen signs of may be a financial holding company with more steak holding. it's very likely they will have to get rid of some of the businesses, the data they collect will be more tightly regulated, so this is a different debate than what we are seeing with alibaba where there's been accusations of monopolistic or dominant behavior. actually, you know, most products -- all products on alibaba are available on other platforms. some more competition might be helpful to the perception of alibaba and that is growing. we see that with jd and with these streaming sites, that if you have all the traffic on the tiktoks of china, including bullion, you see an opportunity for these companies eventually to make a dent in e-commerce. it's not there yet. it's happening, but there is competition on the margin. stephen: the argument could be made that a lot of these other

companies, they have benefited greatly by the investment by the duopoly, either tencent or alibaba. duncan: true. such is life. in technology, you may see the builders but then others come along and i guess the key will be, will it be from a technology shift? we cannot predict the future but alibaba was born in a desktop world. now, who knows. 5g or some automation thing that will come along. all these companies are just, you know, constantly paranoid about can they invest and embrace new opportunities? they will continue investing heavily in research. they will not sacrifice that for margins and i think that reflects throughout because these companies are constantly looking over their shoulders. the level of competition i think is healthy. consumers have generally had a pretty good run in china. some of the accusations have

been has there been too much dominant behavior? and that is being looked at. stephen: do you see the overarching theme on the regulatory front in 2020 12 be this rectification of ant/ alibaba or is it going to spread to other companies as well? the other half of that duopoly is tencent yet in-state media just yesterday, when they published a great list of great entrepreneurs in the tech space in china, they mentioned of course huawei, they mentioned xiaomi. no mention of alibaba. today, this morning, we are getting moves that bytedance is suing tencent for allegedly, you know, blocking them. there is a antimonopoly push by other competitors. is this going to branch out into other companies and bring in tencent and some of the other big companies?

duncan: tencent had its time on the naughty list a few years ago. it's a bit like if you are australia or canada, you find yourself in a cool place with china. that happens domestically with different companies. is a rotating staircase. i think companies are aware that they need to up their regulatory game. there is more unpredictability. at the same time, i don't think the government wants this story to dominate through 2021 and they have been guiding media to report on how the government is pro-political platform economy, pro-innovation. they need the golden eggs laid by geese. they need the innovation, the growth, and they know it's not going to work. there is some debate about the impact on state companies like the banks pushing back but i don't think we will see the wholesale pushing back on all of these internet companies. the government knows that

economic goods is what they need. they are going to be policing it more carefully. stephen: duncan clark, bda chairman of china. thank you so much for joining us on bloomberg. and alibaba, the house that jack ma built, looks like you will have to write volume two, because a lot has happened since you published that. >> it could be a series, a thriller. it will stay with alibaba. we do have more details about this restarting the plan for its jumbo dollar bond issuance. an investor meeting will be taking place on february 3 for these dollar issued bonds and we are hearing the reiteration of what we knew earlier, that alibaba group holdings will be issuing up to $5 billion dollar bonds and some of those will comprise sustainability bonds which will be the first-ever for alibaba. we know that this was a bond sale that was meant to kick off

as early as mid-january but had been held off given the uncertainty, the antitrust investigations taking place into the company and uncertainty as to the status of jack ma as well, but it looks like they are taking advantage of that earnings beat and the positive market sentiment to get this dollar bond sale on the road again. coming up next, hong kong retail sales plummeting in the last quarter amid tighter social distancing curbs. we will be discussing the hit to the sector. the outlook as well with peralta group. their ceo joins us, next. this is bloomberg. ♪

karina: this is "daybreak asia." i am karina mitchell with the first word headlines. former president trump's legal team say his impeachment is "substantively flawed and should be thrown out." lawyers have filed their initial response ahead of the senate hearing, saying trump's speech was protected by the first amendment. they say the senate has no constitutional authority to try him now that he has left office. russian opposition leader alexey navalny has been jailed for breaking parole restrictions over a 2014 fraud convictions as police crackdown on protests against president putin. he was arrested last month on his return from treatment in germany for a claimed nerve

agent attack. his supporters rallied over the weekend with thousands being arrested. the kremlin has denied any role. meanwhile, india is stepping up security against protesting farmers fortifying the streets around new delhi, asking twitter to block the accounts of known ruble leaders. they are fighting proposed agricultural reforms that they say will ruin small owners and nationwide demonstrations are planned for this weekend. their anger has been stoked by reduced allocations in monday's budget. a new report from the federal aviation administration says spacex to head with a december launch the site being denied a safety waiver. the test ended in a fireball when the starship rocket crashed upon landing. the faa says spacex has asked to exceed the risk permitted but had been turned down. it prompted the regulator to delay a january 28 test on another starship. global news, 24 hours a day, on air and on bloomberg quicktake, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries.

i am karina mitchell. this is bloomberg. haidi. haidi: karina, hong kong's economy shrank by a record in 2020. the pandemic dragging down a city that was already reeling from political upheaval, but hong kong's chief executive, carrie lam, says she expects spending will finally pick up once virus restrictions are lifted. to discuss how the city's famed sector is faring, we are joined by one of the leading players, a ceo. great to have you with us. are you equally as optimistic as we head into a another chinese new year season where there will be a disruption? last year, it was the protests. this year, the pandemic. do you see a return to the former levels of activity that we saw further the scene in hong kong? >> good morning. it will take us quite a while to

get back to the new normal. over the past two months, we have had to adapt and it's not going to be -- month of february. haidi: does not depend on a resumption of international tourism or are you sufficiently encouraged that the domestic consumers are able to do that? you made commitments to open up more restaurants as well in this climate. manuel: that's right. our commitment his with the local trade. we have been mostly focused on what is happening in hong kong and potentially, -- people live in hong kong. the restrictions are on the coming weeks and months. our business will be sufficient regardless. >> why are you doubling down in

hong kong? we understand you are also opening overseas. why not target other markets? manuel: because we are committed to the hong kong market. this is a market that we understand. we have been able to adapt. at the end of the day, hong kong is a city of 7.5 million people. because of economics, they need to be fed and entertained. it would be a mistake -- outside of hong ko shery: this gtv chart for our viewers showing how commercial rent has fallen to a seven-year low. does that help that at least rent prices are down? manuel: it does help. not necessarily a lot. i think it has to be more about adapting our business for new behaviors in hong kong, especially with people enjoying

more outside. we have to get sufficient with our activities. shery: when it comes to hong kong, it has not of been the pandemic but also the ongoing protests, the democracy movement. how have you seen that change consumer behavior? manuel: definitely, people are very cautious on the way they are spending their money. definitely, we can see that -- the business is becoming more utilitarian. we have to adapt. we have to do things we had not considered, such as delivery services or in other cases, opening. haidi: your two overseas

restaurants this year, can you tell us where they are, and outside of hong kong, where are you seeing better opportunities? manuel: we will be opening in shanghai. it is an estimate. we want to see whether our product is -- shery: best of luck with all of your projects. co-founder, manuel palacio there. we will assess the virus impact on indian commerce as well. the largest and oldest business organization in the country. president shankar joins us from new delhi. this is bloomberg. ♪

>> here is a quick check of the latest business flash headlines. uber jumps as it beats to rivals to buy an alcohol delivery app for about $1 billion. the deal is mostly over stock with less than -- uber stock with less than 10% in cash. it is based in boston and operates in more than 1400 cities across the u.s. it was also talking to doordash and go puff, uber's biggest deal

since it boss post -- bought postmates. harley davidson had an outlook that failed to impress. it posted an adjusted loss of $.44 per share. by deliveries fell by half. harley is aiming for low double-digit earnings growth through 2025 and a single-digit rise in sales. investing in heavyweight bikes, a segment shrinking across the industry. exxon mobil is defending plans for the third-largest dividend despite posting its first annual loss in four decades. it is assuring investors of its financial health, pledging to sacrifice spending for dividends given its crude oil prices were to slide. the biggest oil explorer has listed payouts every year since 1970 two while rivals shale mbpd to dividends last year.

let's take a look at the 15 billionaires on bloomberg green's new ranking. this showcases the explosive growth of solar power. topping the list is, mass uprising li, elon musk. his fortunes soaring over 600% in the past year. a majority of his wealth can be attributed to his green businesses. mainly tesla. mosques green fortune is almost three times the combined wealth. those are the executives behind the world's largest battery makers. in third are the owners of the world's largest maker of solar wafers. executives at the chinese electric carmaker, byd. rounding off the top five. shery: analysts are expecting these businesses will continue to see gains as governments around the globe commit more resources towards climate goals.

china, as we have been talking about, bowing to become carbon neutral by 2060, but also the european union is developing its green deal, worth hundreds of billions of euros in annual investment, and of course, in the u.s., president biden has proposed a $2 trillion clean energy plan with climate -- combating climate change at the top of his policy agenda. you can read more about how the push to go green has boosted these billionaires on the bloomberg terminal. it also has an in-depth look at other executives that made it onto the bloomberg green ranking. take a look at some of the stocks we are watching going into the start of trading in mainland china and in hong kong. sophie. sophie: keeping an eye on chinese lithium battery makers on its plans to invest $4.5 billion in three projects on the mainland. keeping an eye on alibaba and its dollar bond planned. the performance -- they may

underperforming given the regulatory scrutiny. negatives are largely priced in. keeping an eye on online brokers in asia, the rally on the retail trading mania including singapore. jeffrey's saying stocks will benefit -- price target to 780 with pcp w. china's rates market is focused today with 20 $8 billion of funding maturing this wednesday. the repo rate back 2.2% after jumping about three. shery: of course, we will be watching the market opens in china as we continue to see some gains across asia with the nikkei and the kospi on gaining more than 1%. coming up in the next hour, hsbc's head of asia-pacific internet research gives her reaction to alibaba's results and the outlook for china's tech sector amid regulatory

challenges, plus we hear from j.p. morgan asset management as trading begins for chinese and hong kong stocks. that is it from "daybreak asia." the china open is next. this is bloomberg. ♪

>> it is 9:00 a.m. in beijing and shanghai. i'm tom mackenzie. >> good morning i'm david ingles. counting down to the open on the chinese mainland and hong kong, your top stories, amazon ceo jeff bezos will step aside later this year, handing the reins to another ceo,