paul: good morning. i am paul allen in sydney, counting down to asia's major market open. shery: i am shery ahn. our top stories. beijing tightens the rules on internet monopolies including bytedance and tencent. president biden says they are in competition.

12 months ago, a visual fund help a local profit. and the origins of the coronavirus after a who visit to china. paul: well, the markets have just open here in australia. i let going on and what to expect this trading day, let's get over to sophie in hong kong. soph? sophie: paul, these stocks are opening higher, 3/10 of 1%, the asx, and yields higher after a big week for global bonds. the aussie dollar, consolidating around a 50-day line. iron or weakness weighing on the -- irone ore -- iron ore weakness weighing on things.

and this is japanese trade data, a busy earnings calendar ahead where companies are set to report in japan, including softbank group. of course, we will keep an eye on any developments when it comes to the virus emergency in japan, local media reported the government may lift. and keeping an eye on what is going on, crude above $57 a barrel. this as reflation trade moving to the upside early on the asian session. shery: president biden has yet to speak formally with china's xi jinping but says there will be extreme competition with beijing. the highest level communication since biden took office was a phone call between the secretary of state, antony blinken, and

his chinese counterpart. our correspondent joins us now. steve, how did that conversation go? because we heard human rights and democratic values were addressed. steve: yes, the whole gamut was addressed by antony blinken and his counterpart, including, as you said, the efforts, the counter democracy efforts, in hong kong, which did not go over well with the chinese. they talked about myanmar with the chinese being aligned with the international response in condemning the coup in myanmar. they talk about taiwan, reaffirming this was a redline for the chinese and that you do not cross it and that the one-china policy is critical to that relationship between china and the united states. they talked about contentious issues. of course. and that has been the highest-level conversation so far in the 2.5 weeks now that we have had the biden administration.

joe biden was asked about that on cbs's "face the nation," saying there is no reason not to call xi jinping but we have not had an occasion to talk yet. but he did say that his approach to china will be different from trump. he says, "we are not going to do it the way trump did it," pretty blotch. we have not had the conflict or we need not have conflict, he said, but there is going to be extreme competition. we are going to follow on the international rule of the road, and he also had a little bit of a job at xi jinping, saying he does not have a democratic bone in his body. paul: steve, also in china today, we have heard about rules. how is this going to change the landscape for chinese internet giants? steve: well, we knew this was

coming, because we had the draft rules pre-keep in mind that china revamped its monopoly laws back in 2008, but this is a new revamp after consolidation of regulators in china. it is pretty much in line with the draft rules. they had to go through a period with other bodies, and now the new anti-monopoly watchdog, these new rules take effect demurely, and, essentially, they will basically shore up -- excuse me, prevent the sharing of sensitive consumer data, which is a very important one, because these large -- i guess you can call it the duopoly of tech and china, whether it is tencent or alibaba, they have created these giant into and platforms and various businesses that they have added to the platform, and, of course, they share information. that gives them a competitive advantage. we will have to see how that plays out in if that forces

certain changes to their business model. also, it will keep these kinds of companies from forming alliances to squeeze out smaller rivals and will prevent subsidizing low-cost services to eliminate competitors. again, already, last week, i was reporting on a lawsuit that bytedance has filed in a beijing court against tencent, alleging monopolistic behavior in their allegations that tencent is blocking the tiktok equivalent domestically in china from tencent's platforms. that is interesting, because we also reported last week that tencent owns 20% plus of the big ipo of the bytedance rival, so we will have to see how this plays out and how the regulator either days down the law or lets business go on as usual. i think laying down the law is probably more likely. paul: all right, chief asian

correspondent, stephen engle, in hong kong. let's go to karina mitchell now for the first word headlines. karina: remaining optimistic with janet yellen seeing full employment last -- next year if washington and ask a strong stimulus package. however, she fears the labor market is stalling and says that more action is needed. she says more is still needed. christine lagarde says it may be hard to we the single market off of emergency help. meanwhile, new data from the u.k. suggests exports from the eu collapsed in january. one association said the volume of goods destined for the single market fell by 68% in the first month after brexit and a mountain of new paperwork. and truckers do not want to be trapped in the new red tape. over to iran, it says it is willing to return to nuclear negotiations but only if the

u.s. lifts sanctions first. they say they will comply with the 2015 a quarter even after it has confirmed penalties have been removed. the biden administration is looking at this without lifting trump era sanctions. and myanmar has its biggest antigovernment demonstrations in at least a decade. they demand the release of aung san suu kyi, and they shut down the internet in the hope of stopping protests. towns and cities saw thousands taking to the streets, the biggest demonstration since the demonstrations of 2007. 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. shery? shery: right p coming up next, janet yellen talks about the need for a full relief plan.

former treasury secretary larry summers disagrees. plus, asia is not leading the global demand recovery. we discuss with a chief economist ahead of the lunar new year holidays. this is bloomberg. so you're a small business, or a big one. you were thriving, but then... oh. ah. okay. plan, pivot. how do you bounce back? you don't, you bounce forward, with serious and reliable internet. powered by the largest gig speed network in america. but is it secure? sure it's secure. and even if the power goes down, your connection doesn't. so how do i do this? you don't do this. we do this, together. bounce forward, with comcast business.

ms. yellen: this package is going to speed recovery, anil will analysts with moody's and others working with the institution show very clearly that we will get people back to work much sooner with this package, and that is really critically important. there is absolutely no reason why we should suffer through a long, slow recovery. mr. summers: in any way, appropriate, and i look at the

fiscal stimulus under discussion , the 1.9 dollars trillion. you are talking about something relative to the gdp gap, six times as large. paul: hitting you some breaking news, with a voice and data network company rising, with a takeover proposal from mcquarrie infrastructure, five dollars per share, the value focused. rising in the early going in australia. treasury secretary jenner yellen and former secretary larry summers that you were just hearing from there, weighing in on josh -- treasury secretary janet yellen and former secretary larry summers that you were just hearing from there,

weighing in on joe biden's plan. the prospect of stimulus, regardless of size, is not enough from keeping some from looking elsewhere for opportunity. a ceo and chief investment analyst and creator of etf's that tracks companies driven by an entrepreneurial spirit, our guest joins us today. i do wonder about the size and timing of stimulus. you do look mainly at equities outside of the united states. what about the markets right now? >> that is right. for multiple reasons. we are focused internationally, especially in china. there are multiple reasons why china equities will outperform u.s. equities. their valuations are much lower. in china, 16, versus the u.s.,

23. these valuations, you have a big differential in u.s. tech or the u.s. in general compared to international. in addition to that, china, as you know, they have had positive gdp growth in 2020 when the rest of the global economy shrunk. they have momentum now, going forward. the expected growth is tremendous. we see great growth stories coming every day when it comes to china. also, here today, it shows there is a lot of excitement from the u.s. when it comes to china, out of the billions internationally, so we have been saying this for like six months now that there has been an intermarket inversion. we have seen the beginning of it. for 12 years, the u.s. has

dominated international. we see the change now within the last quarter, and the year to date data also reports the hang seng index is up 7.5% while the s&p 500 is only up 3.5%. so we are bullish when it comes to china. paul: china is not without its issues, as well. we just heard today about the new regulatory framework for internet companies, so do these sorts of regulations not do much to help the interim -- the entrepreneurial spirit that you look for? eva: that is right. there has been a strengthening of regulations for the last three or four months, we saw with one apo, so we keep our eye on this, and that is why we are more focused on companies that

are backed by makers such as tencent or alibaba, and there is a great entrepreneurial company backed by tencent, founded by a former employee of tencent, with great potential. their revenues have increased seven times in the last three years. the revenues last year only one, and the profit was 400 50%, so this is a growing market when it comes to online brokerage and we see it with robinhood in the u.s., and there is an explosion of investors in the market, and this is going to continue going forward. in addition to that, it is monetizing their community in different ways, so we see great potential when it comes to the future. shery: what do you look at in other sectors as we head towards the chinese new year?

it is expected to be better with travel, but still, we are not back to pre-pandemic levels. eva: that is right. it is going to take some time to get back to pre-pandemic levels, but we are seeing great improvement when it comes to international small-cap but also u.s. small-cap. we are still bullish about china. but we look at the bigger picture. for example, there is a great entrepreneurial company in the area of transportation with some vehicles. we think this is not just get to have. it is a necessity for the future to have this mobility. so we look at the bigger picture with the companies. we are not focusing only on the one week of the lunar new year but the bigger picture of what growth opportunities china has.

it is unbelievable, the growth rate that we see. out of the 55,000 companies we are tracking, the top 10 performers which are entrepreneurial, of them, seven are chinese, so it is unbelievable the amount of chinese growth possibilities we have going forward. investors should get excited about this. there is great momentum, and we feel very bullish. shery: what about opportunities here in the u.s., because you talked about how valuaare not as attractive? i wonder if you see any pockets of value, this chart on the bloomberg showing a rally in the small-cap sector already. eva: yes. regardless of how much of a rally already, small-cap have led large-cap for the last five years by 50%, so this is an appreciable amount, and they

have a very long run to go further. we are seeing great opportunities to get the russell 2000 is dominated by health care. so we feel that there is great opportunity when it comes to jen on next -- genomics, and they are getting more from the health care industry. we think there is great opportunities in small-cap, even though some large-cap might be fully valued. there are great opportunities in the u.s., as well, when it comes to entrepreneurial companies that are leading the way. our u.s. smaap are up 20%, and our global entrepreneurs are up 21% year to date. shery: eva, always great to have you. up next, softbank could have another record profit amid the

global trading frenzy. we preview those earnings next. 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.

shery: what a difference a year makes. just 12 months ago, is softbank fund was moving millions, and the ceo was radically scaling back plans for a second offering. they could have a record quarter. a guest is on the line from tokyo. what are you looking for earnings today? >> good morning. they are digital fund is definitely going to be one of the highlights for the earnings. they are definitely heading for another record quarter, mostly because of the doordash deal, creating millions of unrealized

gains. and another will come from uber, which has soared from the previous quarter, so the vision funds are definitely doing great. and, of course, this softbank tech companies, we know they have invested a lot in facebook. but one segment did not do well. we will see how it is doing. i think a lot of investors will be happy to hear about this. paul: so success from the doordash ipo, but can we expect more spectacular listings in the coming months? pavel: it certainly looks that way. there is a retailer in germany that just went public. going public. one in south korea, which is a

very unanticipated listing. there is definitely a solid pipeline of ideas, but probably the most interesting one are some companies like didi. ridehailing is in the vision fund, one of the more troubled segments. so seeing how those companies do in the market will be very interesting. shery: softbank also doubling down in other companies. can we expect to hear more about this? pavel: they have not one or two but a few are blank check companies in the works. one is$525 million in the united states, and another is on track to raise over $100 million, and just in the past two days, they

have announced two more vehicles, one with about $100 to $150 million. where things get interesting is about the portfolio companies. whenever there is exciting, new financial instruments, this should be interesting to watch. paul: all right, our asian tech reporter, pavel, from tokyo. more coming up on earnings. a guest joins us in the next hours. and softbank with another busy day. some companies set to report today. it has been an extremely impressive earnings season so ith many reporting a positive surprise. let's get a quick check of the latest business headlines.

the mongolian government is asking rio tinto if it is prepared to terminate plans to expand the copper mine in the gobi desert. rio tinto has told ministers it is ready to explore a reduction with interest rates tight to the underground expansion plan. however, it wants discussions that build confidence in mongolia. and a new deal valuing a company at more than $30 billion, some exacerbated, taking it directly to shareholders. it is the latest twist in a corporate saga that has gripped the business for months, veol ia. and an inquiry into local dollar speculation, the taiwan dollar performance with a bank banned

from working in fx for years, citigroup facing a two-month penalty. shery: and we are looking at live pictures in tampa bay as the super bowl gets underway. yes, it is that time of the year again. we heard a message from president biden, asking people to wear masks and to stay socially distant and get tested. remembering more than 400,000 people have perished this year, in the past year, given the coronavirus pandemic. now, this will be the tampa bay buccaneers playing a rare home game, taking on the champion, kansas city chiefs. is this the year where 25,000 people were allowed to attend the game? the tampa bay buccaneers and the kansas city chiefs.

some guidelines for the thousands of people attending the event itself. coming up next, the world health organization scientists say they have uncovered important clues about the origins of covid-19. the details from their visit to wuhan next. this is bloomberg. ♪

karina: u.s. and e.u. remain optimistic with janet yellen seeing full employment your. on the back of a strong stimulus package. she fears the labor market is stalling and says more action is required. they see recovery but stressed that support is still needed. it may be hard to we the single market off emergency help. meanwhile china published official rules on internet monopolies that take effect immediately. to curb the sharing of sensitive

customer data. the formation -- to squeeze formal rivals and subsidies to keep competition down. the increased scrutiny has triggered legal action. bytedance is suing tencent over monopolies at wechat. president biden is indicating a new era in relations when china -- with china. saying the two superpowers are in steep competition but no conflict. he says there is no particular reason why he has had to speak to see jinping but says that there has not been time yet -- to speak to see jinping. but says he is not had time yet. virus infections in the u.s. continue to slow. a new study warns that further surges of the more transmissible variant will likely become the dominant strain. president biden says it's unlikely that the country will achieve herd immunity due to a shortfall of vaccine delivers. even though schools reopen only

under certain circumstances. president -- president biden: you have to have fewer people in the classroom and ventilation systems that have been reworked. rcd's acting commissioner is going to come out with science-based judgment within as early as wednesday. as to what the minimum requirements are. >> 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. paul: let's stay with the virus are the world health organization scientists say that uncovered important clues about the origins of the coronavirus after a short visit to wuhan where the outbreak was first reported. one member of the team says he expects the main findings to be released this week after an investigation into how the pandemic spread so explosively from that city. our senior editor has been

tracking the trip. what is the latest? jason: hi, paul. yeah, as you mentioned the scientist evolve have completed their work in china. one of the independent experts participating in the mission. he told me the group would be going over what they learned the past few weeks trying to gather the threads of the information and looking at the clues, what they've gleaned in preparing a report that he said would be released in the next couple days. shery: the fact that we have lacked that clear path from where the virus originated going from bats to humans has led to tons of speculation around the origins of this virus. how close are we to understanding that? jason: it remains to be seen. he says tracing the virus likely from bats would take a long time to really understand. but he said he is hopeful that

the group will be able to have a solid explanation of what likely happened by the end of this trip. paul: so, jason, very keen to find out how the start of, and most of the world is. why is it so important that we know how the virus came from? jason: we know they're are just so many viruses with pandemic potential circulating and wildlife, particularly bats. it is really important we understand how this particular virus got from bats into humans. what the conduits of that was. in other forms of wildlife. knowing exactly how it got into people will help us prevent similar episodes happening in future, which is obviously important for future pandemics and being able to detect them while we still have the potential to stop them. shery: jason, the trump

administration last year cast a lot of doubt on duopoly and -- on the w.h.o. when we get the results, how much skepticism should we expect given these accusations? jason: this is going to be one of many investigations into the source of the coronavirus. the team made up of experts from around the world, it's been very thorough. apparently had very good access to information. i think that to a large extent, people will have already prejudged the final outcome, but i think we need to keep open minds and look for the science. shery: our senior editor there. and a new study has found that astrazeneca's vaccine is less

effective against the variant of covid-19 found in south africa. the trial only looked at efficacy against mild cases. the impact on severe cases is not known. johns hopkins university professor said overall covid-19 vaccines that are working against a range of coronavirus variants, but scientists are continuing to refine the shots. >> we have our main verys, -- the variants, the u.k., the south africa, the brazil variants. we are seeing other virus unrelated to those acquiring some of the mutations that we think are important for these new variant sprays. -- spreads. we are also seeing the variants accumulate more mutations. right now it looks like there is five or six of these variants are of concern because they possess mutations that we know will either affect transmission or would affect the ability of antibodies to bond to them. now, the good news is some of the studies, some of the more

recent vaccines, have been looking at efficacy against these variants. and most vaccines have some efficacy. it drops a little bit compared to the older strains but the efficacy is still there. the message is if you are online, stay online. when you get called to get online, i would get online because these vaccines are going to provide protection and they will help reduce the spread of the older strains as well as the variants. shery: we also seem to be hearing about a number of companies, countries looking at a combination of their vaccine shots to see whether they are more effective. the latest news was russia talking to china. could it be the right way forward? >> absolutely. it takes some clinical trials to make sure that you can go across these vaccine platforms as efficiently as some of the within platform boost strategies

are. but anything we can do to maximize the numbers of vaccines that we could use together will help us move forward to that goal of getting as many people as possible with the highest level of vaccine, of immune protection because that is what we need to get into the human population. francine: the only question the people know is how do slow death rates. and when might life returned to normal? we have a new vaccine tracker at bloomberg. it tells you and 7.4 years at today's rate. but how much will the rates accelerate? >> so, this is the important thing about models. models tell us where we might be going based on the data that we have right now. and vaccine trackers are really important to help us understand what might be the best way to rollout vaccine and how the rollout will change. it's clear that the vaccine

trackers will be changing their projections as we continue to increase our manufacturing capacity. and something as simple as the j&j vaccine could have a massive change in terms of the timeline in which we could get to a protective level of immunity in the population. paul: the johns hopkins public health professor. in support of mike bloomberg, the founder of bloomberg lp. let's get to a check of the markets. what are you seeing? sophie: a quiet start to the monday session. new zealand markets offline for the long weekend. gains in sydney, with gains being led by miners as well as banks. the 10 year adding five basis points, climbing above 124. nikkei futures in singapore gaining some ground ahead of a

heavy day for earnings. among the highlights, pushing towards 3900. as markets are assessing the possibilities for stimulus on back of the weaks jobs data from the united states. the wti climbing above 57. boj in a recent report noting the increasing correlation between stocks and wti as well as copper amid the resurgence in reflation bats. i want to highlight one stock mover in sydney. it's rallying on the back of a big infrastructure group of $2.6 billion. shares have been taking higher. shery: coming up next, s&p sends -- says asia is not clearly leading the recovering global demand. we discuss that with chief economist sean roche. this is bloomberg. ♪

shery: the popular narrative is that asia is leading the world recovery and digging the world out of a big hole but s&p does -- says it's not quite right. the region's reliance on exports could restrain his recovery and inflame trade tensions when the west.

we are joined by chief asia-pacific economist shaun roche. great to have you with us. we see this and the simplest of numbers in trade data when you have great exports with imports not doing that well. explain to us exactly what is going on. shaun: it's a bit of a puzzle. asia has managed the pandemic well. if you look at the number of deaths so far in covid-19, orders of magnitude higher in the u.s. and europe than they are across asia. and, if you look at the extent to which people are moving around that -- outside of their homes, the most famous google mobility data, life looks more normal in asia than it does in the u.s. and europe. and yet, what we are seeing is consumer in our region are remaining much more cautious than they are in the u.s. and europe. retail sales has not recovered. and we have not see pent-up

demand, either. and that is showing up in growth. it's convinced us it is u.s. and europe that's lifting asia out of the hole, rather than the other way around. shery: there is an historical trend. urc savings across asia being relatively much higher -- you are seeing savings across the asia being relatively much higher. the u.s. and europe are happy to get asian financing. how can this become a problem shaun: this could become a problem if the current account services means that asia becomes over dependent on growth in the u.s. and europe. if we did see a slowdown in the u.s. and europe. if, for example, the vaccine rollout did not go as planned, what does asia go to do next? the talk across much of the region including china's rolling back stimulus. and i think it is too early, because we still do not see the domestic demand coming through.b but the second issue is very

much related to relationships with the u.s. and europe. because if asia continues to remain too reliant on to man in those economies, that means asia is not pulling its weight in the global demand recovery , and that i think willlead to some tension going forward. paul: your growth outlook for china is on the lower side of the consensus. why is that? shaun: the first one is the consumer. we are still seeing clear evidence that chinese consumers are still quite cautious. all of this expectation for revenge spending never came through. i think chinese consumers took a long time to recover from the shock of last year. fiscal stimulus never really touched households directly in the same way it has done in other economies. at the same time, we are seeing financial concessions in china tighten quite a bit. they are focused on managing

financial risk and that is a good thing. so, we think that china will grow about 7%. we will have to see what the growth target is. but the current data seems fairly consistent with that view. paul: it was around about this time last year we had the pbo say withdrawing liquidity and turmoil ensued. what are you expecting of this lunar new year? shaun: we think that the pboc is going to try to keep liquidity conditions very stable. i do not think it is in anyone's interest to see too much volatility in short-term interest rates. at the same time, we have seen the pboc let short-term rates go up a little bit. maybe it is a bit of a single that tightening is coming -- a signal that tightening is coming. for us it is too early. if china does tightened monetary policy at the same time it tightens fiscal and housing policies and credit policies, then there is a risk that the

chinese will undershooting market expectations. shery: we will get new yuan loans data later in the week. what are you expecting on that and could the lunar new year help with the massive demand? shaun: we expect a fairly modest number. this is a key number. as we know, the economic activity data we going to a dark period during the run-up to the chinese new year. the credits are very important from that perspective. they are also really poor because the banks quotas are reopened again pared we get a sense of how big those quotas are for lending this year. and that will help us yes where not all gdp is going to be -- help us guess where all the gdp is going to be. to put in perspective, the net flow in china has been about 4% of gdp.

back in may that was close to 9% or 10% of gdp. we have seen substantial tightening and that will show up in growth over the next three to six months. shery: shaun roache, thank you very much for your insights. coming up next, the biggest protests in myanmar and more than a decade. the u.n. is describing the situation as an unfolding crisis. details ahead. this is bloomberg. ♪

paul: little less just take a quick look at the oil price. brent closing in on $60 a barrel. west texas at %5736. -- at $57.26 those opec supply cuts combined with vaccine supply and demand have slowed the oil price. shery: turning to breaking news out of japan right now. we are getting the current account surplus numbers at the moment. coming in at 1.165 trillion yen. this would be a surplus that is

narrower than in the months of november. but still better numbers than were estimated by analysts. the trade surplus, we are still waiting for that number but, of course, this coming at a time when we have seen tighter virus containment measures that could have depressed imports. in sternal demand has remained -- external demand has remained high. the account surplus coming in at 1.165 trillian yen, which is narrower than the previous months, but still better than estimates. paul? paul: protesters turned out in the thousands in myanmar over the weekend despite government efforts to stymie demonstrations with internet restrictions and arrests. myanmar saw its biggest protests in more than a decade's demonstrators took to the street to demand the release of civilian leader aung san suu kyi . our asia government managing

editor has the latest. dan, what is happening right now? dan: protesters came out in the tens of thousands yesterday across many cities in myanmar. wasn't just limited to the yen main city. this widespread dissatisfaction with the military that moves to seize power last week. we will see if the military will make any concessions. protesters are scheduled to meet again this morning. so, it'-- it'll be a test of their strength today on a monday during the workweek. shery: dan, unrest in india continues. farmers still out on the streets . dan: that's right. they have been going for months now. over the weekend, they campaigned to boost their

activities, blocking highways across the country, seeking to gain momentum among farmers in other parts of the country. it has mostly been limited to the states around delhi so far. but they have picked up big international support over the past few weeks. celebrities like rihanna weighing in. so, the farmers there are not stopping. they showed a lot of resolve and they rejected all the government's efforts to calm down the situation. shery: our managing editor dan ten kate there. softbank aims to raise more than $600 million through two new blank check company's amid record demand. spacs have become a popular way for venture backed stocks to lessen markets. softbank's spf investment two and three will focus on

technology companies including artificial intelligence. ubs is aiming to boost the bonus pool for investment bankers by 20% after a surge in revenue help the comfy record its highest profit in five years. we're told staff will see significant levels of compensation from region to region. when ubs publishes his plans next month. demand paid out 2.7 billion dollars in variable compensation in 2019. a private equity firm backed by lbma is seen meeting the race for the seller of birkenstocks. catterton is seen profiting from its network in asia. and competing with cbc capital with evaluation -- seeking a valuation of $5 billion. rolls-royce is planning to shut

operations at its aerospace unit for two weeks in the coming months to contain costs of the coronavirus -- commercial aviation. the company says the plan will affect 19,000 workers, 2/3 in the u.k. they are spreading their losses over the year rather in the single to we shut down period. -- single two week shutdown period. let's turn to sophie for what to watch. sophie: softbank group focused ahead of its result due later this afternoon. watching the chip space. we have japan's renaissance company. renaissance is one of the biggest semi conductors for the auto industry. and japanese steel makers are to watch as well.

nippo and kobe steel expecting full year profits. with stronger steel prices. in south korea after the country's safety ministry approved its vaccine. following the result of its phase three clinical trials. i see how markets are faring in australia. asx 200. you have it gaining about 0.5%. miners and banks gaining ground. we see yield tick higher. nikkei futures pointing higher. we see what what is going on with oil prices. with brent taking that towards us 60 bucks a barrel. we show how oil has fared. gains continue after brent and wti have gained ground and seven of the last nine months. paul? paul: thanks.

do stay with us. we got the market opens in tokyo and seoul. and plenty moan besides -- plenty more besides. we will keep an eye on the brent oil as it nears $60 a barrel. this is bloomberg. ♪

>> welcome to daybreak asia. i'm shery ahn. paul: i'm paul allen in sydney. asia's major markets have just open for trade. our top stories this hour. beijing tightens the rule on internet monopolies as bytedance oohs tencent. president biden says the u.s. and china are in competition but not in conflict. earnings from softbank amid

speculation of a bid bounce. now market see a record profit. and the u.s. social media app taking off in china. joining a wave of issues who want to discuss contentious issues in beijing. shery: japan and south korea coming online. let's turn to sophie for what to watch. sophie: tokyo stocks opening higher adding 1/3 of 1%, while the yen is trading near a four-month low. keeping an eye on softbank with results due later this afternoon. isuzu motors are set to report. last week, given the best days ahead for consumers. we got a list when it comes to sentiment with japan's quarterly set to -- virus groups and sectors potentially early. we have a meeting that can be closely watched. in south korea, virus curbs have

been relaxed as well allowing longer opening hours for businesses like gyms and restaurants. the cost be off 1/3 -- the kospi off by 1/3 of 1%. on the earnings calendar, cacao and sk biofarma. we check on what is going on with sidney pharma -- with sidney trading. stocks mostly higher. we are seeing the s&p gaining ground on that 3900 level. we are seeing cash treasuries come online with deals to the upside on the 10 year. after last week's -- that pushed two year to the record low. which while the 10 and 25 year loans are on the rise.

oil very much in focus. brent crude at 60 bucks a barrel. wti has topped 57. amid these reflation bets. paul: let's talk a little more about that oil price with our next guest joining us from tasmania. the global cio with ariana portfolio services. brent crude seven cents from reaching $60 a barrel. that glut seems to be disappearing a lot faster than expected. what is the impact on the global economy? >> it has been disciplining a lot faster, and that is indicating that the real economy is -- ticking up may be faster than people expected especially given the loss and the reintroduction of lockdowns. a pretty positive sign in the medium-term. if that's being absorbed into

the economy now as we look to the second half of this year, we can see sector see that growth continue. if we see that growth continue to pick up, that demand for oil is likely to persist and we can see the price drift higher. that has to figure into reflation expectation. we're seeing that in brent crude already at the moment. shery: isaac, we have breaking news. hold on a second. kia in south korea coming out and saying that they have no electric vehicle cooperation ongoing with apple. all of last week we saw huge gains on speculation that apple was partnering up with kia or hyundai or a japanese company. now we're seeing the worst day since march of last year for hyundai. the two companies are tanking

after they confirmed there is no talks ongoing on the electric vehicle cooperation with apple. there was a lot of speculation whether there would be the korean companies or japanese automakers. i want to talk about this. green energy is such a big issue right now. a lot of people seem potentially -- seeing potential here. we can see that reflected in the stock reaction. anything to do with apple as well. where do you find opportunities on both sectors? isaac: i think these areas that are going to increase opportunities, you look out over the medium-term the green energy sector is becoming more and more important. it's an even larger focus across the western world and moving across to asia and china. as they intend to move into this area. these are going to be growth areas over the medium-term. there are strong opportunities

looking out. shery: not just about green energy, but we talk about tech, especially after the pandemic. we have seen a lot of optimism that we could see further gains in the tech sector as people just change their consumer behavior. are we finding any opportunities in northeast asia that have not already seen huge gains in during the pandemic? isaac: i think when you look through asia, china really led a lot of recovery globally and in the economy but also in the equity markets. but there have been lakers -- laggards through emerging asia. that is a real opportunity looking out over 2021, but over the medium-term as well. there is an opportunity for catch up in terms of valuations that look cheap. also, we're going to start to see the emerging asian economies really start to grow at the back end of this year and through

2022, as the rest of the world's demand picks up. that's an opportunity we think is particularly attractive. we'd expect for that to persist through 2021 and 2022 if we see monetary policy remain very low, we certainly expect that in the u.s. and we see demand pick up as lockdowns reopen, as vaccines were rolled out. and rollout in emerging markets. there is a strong growth opportunity in that area. paul: the future of monetary policy seems to be getting pretty kuwaiti -- pretty clearly telegraph but what about fiscal stimulus, particularly in the u.s.? we have janet yellen warning of failure to pass the biden package will push the jobs recovery to 2025. how are you gauging the risks around stimulus? isaac: i think we are going to

see more fiscal support coming through. it is likely to be introduced over the next month. it is cricket to recover the governments in the u.s. -- it is critical to recovery. the governments in the u.s. and globally -- to support the economy as vaccines rollout and make sure the recovery isn't delayed or installed. and that is a critical risk for the next 10 months, particularly in some of the smaller growing parts of the world. europe, for example, which structurally has lower growth, is more at risk at dipping back into recession. if virus applies pullback. the stimulus in the u.s. is expected to come through. that will vote for recovery in the second half of this year, and that will provide some pretty serious balance to the global equity markets. paul: we have seen a pretty

decent forecast. 95% of the s&p beating. in this environment of low rates, is there no alternative? equities are still the place to be? isaac: there really is a tailwind for equity sales. we think those loan to cash rates in the u.s. are there for the next two, three, maybe five years. they are not budging. we expect them to be very supporting. we think -- yields will drift higher. we can see them another hundred basis points or so higher. in this year, the middle of next year, that does provide a strong -- for fiscal, and cyclical stocks and financial stocks. it bodes into a positive outlook for u.s. equities. over the medium-term, the next five years, is a positive story

from the u.s. and global equities. shery: isaac poole, thank you. we do want to check vanessa -- the message because we just heard a confirmation that they made an approach to a u.k. chip designer. this acquisition would be an all cash deal. with no final decision on the deal. we are seeing renaissance falling more than 5%, after they approached -- them with a 67.50 euro per share offer. those talks continue. renesas saying no final decision has been made it. return to karina mitchell with the first word headlines. karina: reports from japan say the government is considering lifting the state of emergency early. restrictions may be eased in ten

prefectures ahead of the march 7 take. with official meetings planned for later this week. the emergency imposed on tokyo and osaka originally covered 60% of the japanese economy. meanwhile, virus infections in the u.s. continue to slow. a new study warns that further surges as a more transmissible variant like to becomes the dominant strain. president biden admits it is unlikely the country will achieve so-called herd immunity for some months, due to a shortfall of vaccines. president biden: i think it is time for schools to reopen safely. safely. you have to have fewer people in classrooms, you have to have ventilation systems that have been reworked, our cdc commissioner will be coming out was science-based judgment within i think as early as wednesday as what the minimum requirements are. karina: meanwhile, the u.s. and e.u. remain optimistic about the

recovery with treasury secretary janet yellen seeing full implement next year if washington and ask a strong stimulus package. however, she fears the labor market is stalling and says more action is required. the e.u. stresses supported still needed. christine lagarde said it is hard to we the single market off emergency help. 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. this is bloomberg. paul: still to come softbank group could post record profit as vision fund investments benefit from loss evaluation -- lofty valuation gains. we will speak to an equity research managing director later this hour. first, what is in store for relations between the world two biggest economies under the biden administration? we will hear what the present has said about the recent on u.s. and china ties next. --

shery: president biden has yet to speak formula with china's seating paying -- xi jin ping, but the highest level between the two country since biden took office. with a phone call on friday between the secretary state antony blinken and his chinese counterpart. our chief north asia correspondent stephen joins us. president biden saying there will be competition but at least it doesn't seem to be a hostile competition. stephen: i think he is taking a bit of a cautious and pragmatic approach if you will. in the relationship with china in the first 2.5 weeks in the white house. as you just mentioned, he has not had a conversation with his counterpart in beijing. he has talked to a number of different world leaders including vladimir putin but not xi just yet. and speaking of cbs face the

nation, i should say, he is basically reiterating that cautious approach or, you know, not cautionary but just trying to figure out what the path forward is going to be because he has not yet, you know, withdrawn the tariffs. he is not necessarily undone the executive orders on china by trump. he did say his approach with china will be different from trump. he says, "we're not going to do it the way trump did it, but we're trying to figure out the way forward. he -- he says there is not been a call yet. if you read between the lines perhaps a call is forthcoming. he says there is need not be a conflict but there will be extreme competition. we will focus on international rules of the road. and if we get any glimpse on how

the tone is going to be, maybe we look to friday, because his secretary of state antony blinken had a phone call with his counterpart and it was a bit prickly in certain areas regarding democracy and human rights. they talked about tibet and they talked about hong kong, taiwan and myanmar and did not necessarily see eye to eye. blinken pressed him for coming out and condemning the crew in myanmar -- the coup in myanmar. but then he talked about taiwan and he said that is the redline of beijing. the one china policy is the cornerstone of u.s.-china policy and relationship. so, they have differences, but they are going to have this work out on a go slow approach. biden did take a jab at xi. he said, xi doesn't have a democratic bone in his body.

paul: steve, we have been hearing from within china today as well after extensive consultation, we finally got anti-monopoly rules. how is this going to alter the landscape for china's internet giants? stephen: you've already seen the first domino topple last week. you saw one company suing another company on the grounds of monopolistic or less monopolistic behavior. you saw bytedance suing tencent for blocking -- the domestic counter part to tiktok from wechat. that is going to go through the courts. under this new anti-monopoly law, which we had to scrap rules in november. now they have been formalized. and the monopoly watchdog says the new rules take effect immediately. that announcement coming out yesterday, sunday in beijing, that basically these new rules will prevent the sharing of

sensitive consumer data. we all know that companies like alibaba and tencent have -- and companies and services within their ecosystem and of course they are sharing information. so, i guess the anti-monopoly watchdog has to determine whether that kind of business model and what they have created over the last decade and a half or so is anticompetitive to smaller interests. they are also going to be preventing forming alliances that squeeze out former rivals, and they will prevent subsidizing low cost services to eliminate competition. this is a story that is going to play out over months, not weeks, years. paul: chief north asia correspondent stephen engle in hong kong. let's check in on that topix and nikkei trading underway for 20 minutes. pretty decent gains on the nikkei higher by 1.5%. the energy sector leading the way, higher by 3.2%. the topix now better by 1.5%

pure some strong early gains japan's topix closing in on 2018 piece now. plenty more to come. this is bloomberg. ♪ h■ñsrú ■nga■■

paul: the u.s. app clubhouse has taken on social media users with thousands joining discussions on contentious subjects such as taiwan and chin chang. china government reporter colin murphy joins us now. what kind of people in china are on clubhouse, and what are they talking about? >> so, it's not everybody obviously they can join this app. invite only aspect only to this. but, you know, people do require an iphone and they also have need for an apple i.d. not

connected to the mainland. in that regard, i think you can describe the people that are joining here as unique for now. we're talking about the usual issues in terms of -- lifestyles. what is significant from the chinese perspective is the focus on politics and also on the chinese language discussions around issues such as taiwan. shery: so, is this actually safe for those users? colum: for now it seems relatively safe. they have been discussing things around reunification between china and taiwan. but also, there's been popular rumor related to the seating -- sharing the experiences of their life there. they are talking about the diaspora overseas. but it is unusual in that it is

bringing mainland chinese people together with people with opposing opinions and in the chinese language. it is a very rare opportunity. paul: all right. china government reporter colum murphy keeping an eye on the clubhouse app. quick check of the business flash headlines. rose rice is planning to shut operations at its aerospace unit for two weeks to contain costs as the coronavirus batters commercial aviation. the plan will affect 19,000 workers, 2/3 in the u.k. porsche says it expects 80% of all its sales to be driven by electricity at the end of this decade. the ceo told build -- that the cars will include fully electric and hybrid variants. and they will continue to offer the iconic 911 series with internal combustion engines.

shery: turn into commodities. brent and wti trading near the $60 mark due to progress on the vaccine and asia led oil demand. su keenan joins us. su, despite the rally, we are seeing some skepticism on why the oil prices have come too far too fast. su: the top independent trade along with its rival -- both expressing caution about the big surge in crude prices. you look at texas intermediate that is trading in asia. it is up in the high 57's heading for 60. big picture. it has come back dramatically from being below zero in march, april. that's a better than 60% gain just a since late october, early november. similar story with brent crude. we are seeing it at the highest price in more than a year. the concern from analysts is that there's a technical

indicator showing oil is overbought and also there is perhaps too much euphoria associated with the post vaccine demand level and opec managing supply. further, china is leading the consumption right now, as consumption is surpassing that of pre-covid levels. there's a concern that the rest of the world may not be able to catch up in demand to the point that china is, and china cannot consume any faster than it is already doing. paul? paul: su, major oil stocks have been going along for this ride. what is the story there? su: big oil stocks are rallying strongly. if we look at some of the big names just since the start of the year, they are in double-digit gains. diamondback energy, marathon oil, exxon, they have all posted big gains, far surpassing the s&p 500 at this point, and that is interesting again, given the fact that you have got a heavily

democratic-controlled administration that is pushing to cut back on use of fossil fuels. a lot of the biden agenda does novor oil. some analysts cautioning we may not see these oil prices, stock prices continue to be sustained, particular as the democrats are pushing for a big up in the shift away from the use of fossil fuels. again, if you look into the bloomberg, the come back in both crude and west texas intermediate has been dramatic, and that right now, the vaccine euphoria, and the optimism on opec is driving the rally. back to you. shery: su keenan in new york with the latest on oil. take a look at kia and hyundai, plunging in the korean session after they both said that there was no e.v. cooperation with apple at the moment. we are seeing the worst day for kia since december of 2008.

hyundai motors rally 7% less -- last week. more to come on daybreak asia. this is bloomberg. ♪

karina: our top story china has published official rules on internet monopolies which take effect immediately. the regulations aimed to curb the sharing of sensitive government data and inflammation of alliances, it squeezes small arrival of these that keep competition down. the increased urinary has triggered legal action, bytedance is doing over alleged monopolies at ouija -- we chat. president by biden is in a getting a new relation with china, saying the superpowers are in extreme competition but

that does not mean conflict, the president says there is no particular reason he is yet to speak to xi jinping, they're just simple has not been time. he added he will deal with beijing differently than his predecessor. who scientists say they have uncovered important news about the origin of the coronavirus pandemic after a visit to wuhan. they expect the main findings to be released this week after an investigation into have the pandemic spread so explosively from the city. the who trip may be a turning point. a top u.s. diplomat has died at the age of 100, he was secretary of state under ronald reagan and saw to keep distilled -- diplomacy going despite strains between washington and moscow. he also saw the decoupling of the dollar from the gold standard. he was a labor secretary in the nixon administration and pushed

consensus-based foreign policy under ronald reagan. 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'm karina mitchell, this is bloomberg. paul: protesters turned out in the thousands in myanmar and india over the weekend despite efforts to stifle demonstrations with arrests. myanmar saw the biggest protest in more than a decade as demonstrators demanded the release of a civilian leader. we have the latest, describe what we have seen in myanmar over the weekend. dan: the breadth of the protest was staggering, tens of thousands of people filling all major cities in myanmar. this was very widespread, protesters wearing red, the color of the party.

they lifted the three finger salute which we have also seen in the thailand protest over the past few months. there is certainly momentum, the question is can they keep that up? today they have called for a general strike, there are more protests planned, it will be an interesting test of strength to give and it is a workday. the government has been looking to move on and also disrupting the internet, most of the weekend to try and stifle these protests. shery: talking about protests, same in india, unrest on the streets. david: that is right they have been camped out for months, but they have been doing things that try to escalate their pressure campaign against the prime minister's government. over the weekend they block

highways throughout the country, they are looking to expand their protests and support based beyond the area around the campbell -- capital of new delhi. the government has tried to stop that communication, cutting off the internet around the protest areas which has led to international condemnation including from the united states. the question here is, how long they can resist. they have shown they can endure for months. they have rejected all of the government's efforts to stop that, so it is unclear just how far this will go. shery: asia managing editor there. coming up next a big year for softbank which could unreal a record quarterly profits for its fund, we preview those earnings next. ♪

shery: softbank will report their current -- third quarter earnings and it could unveil a record profit for the vision fund which was losing billions just a year ago. let's preview the report. always great having you with us, give us what you will be watching in terms of these lofty expectations when it comes to the results today. >> thanks for having me, we are

watching a few things, four things in particular. we see the numbers, but numbers we already know to a certain extent because alibaba, softbank which is a holding have already announced it as well. secondly, an update on buybacks, that is what drove us to upgrade the stock in march of last year, we had that hold until they actually activated the buybacks, that is what we have graded. there are still a few months left for the buyback, but, keen to hear what they would do after that. thirdly, keen to hear about what they do for quantum mechanics and not just investment, we also want to hear them talk about exits. there are ipos, but it would be nice to see them monetizing during those ipos and listings. they are a dime a dozen right

now, stacks and listings and whatnot, it would be good to see they are trying to monetize some of that. lastly we will be hopefully -- they do not do any further twists and turns, in the past one thing that has shocked us is when a company which talks about long-term investment horizon ambition, they do large-cap tech investments. that is something we do not like to see. hopefully not much of that will be there. those are the four things. shery: are you at all concerned about equity income from alibaba which is already facing higher regulatory risks? atul: not necessarily, they have a 22.5% stake in alibaba, the stock itself is rated by jeffries. there are risks, but the stock -- some of those risks.

if they go back to business as usual, alibaba could bounce. more importantly, in the last 3-4 months at a time when alibaba stock was falling, softbank actually went up. this had not happened in the last seven years since the listing. the last few months have been quite informative and they have had a break in terms of correlation. paul: what merger targets do you expect to see softbank focusing on in the coming year? atul: did you say merger targets? paul: that's right. atul: do not expect them to be actively merging anything, but if you're talking about the spacs, they will likely do something on the ai front. that is what they have said and for now i believe they will

continue that same path. their own subsidiaries have had some mergers in the past for example in the last year or so yahoo japan which is a subsidiary of softbank acquired line, it also acquired others. there have been some acquisitions in the past down by subsidiaries, but softbank itself has not had done much mergers. paul: of course we did have that first spac from softbank that started trading on the nasdaq performing strongly as well, what are you expecting to hear around its performance? atul: nothing to hear about the performance, what we want to hear is if it will be their own companies which are part of the vision fund or will it be

something else outside of the vision fund? so far we have heard they are not likely to target their own vision fund companies because it will be too much of a conflict of interest if they were to do that because they are also -- by vision fun. then you have concerns about ponzi schemes rising. hopefully they do not do that, not part of the vision fund. the own vision of an ease have been acquired by other specs. open-door has been taken by one of those out there. their own companies they have invested in our going through the process with other investors. shery: you sound like you upgraded the stock because of their buybacks, but we are seeing the stock already at a 21 year high, can the buybacks still supported -- support it? atul: buyback doesn't support on

the downside, just about a year back if you remember we had come off from a failed we work ipo and the stock was discounted. their own investments were being written down dramatically. there were companies in which they had invested that were making losses as was oil. these things were of concern back then, now that is less so. during that process when the stocks fell sharply, the discount became nearly 70%, now the discount is at 30% which is something you would expect anyway, it is trading roughly around fair value, we'll see how it progresses based on the numbers they provide us. it is at an all-time high, but the buybacks -- there is still $7 billion in liquidity for the

buybacks and that could support a few more months. shery: how is their cash position right now? atul: by selling stakes in some of the places, they have managed to raise a fair bit of cash. they sold some stake in alibaba and this was 20% of additional, they used to own 60% of softbank, now they own 40%. they also sold in arm to nvidia but that was not for cash. they will get shares for that. they also sold almost all of their stake in t-mobile. so those three have helped them raise a lot of cash and reduce their net debt positions. they do have cash on the balance sheet which has allowed them to make more investments if they need to, and more important, they can extend the buyback. the buyback ends in june-july,

but they are not factoring in an extension of the buyback and another $10 billion. if they keep doing that that will support the stock price for sure. paul: jeffries equity research investors on the softbank earnings we are expecting. sure to turn -- tune in to bloomberg radio to hear more from the analysis from the daybreak team. they are broadcasting live from our studio in hong kong, you can listen in by the app, radio plus, or bloombergradio.com. 20 more ahead, stay with us. ♪

paul: we are seeing gains on the most of the major equities indexes across the asia-pacific right now, let's get to sophie in hong kong. sophie: ahead of the hong kong open and as a countdown to the lunar new year, closely watching southbound inflows ahead of the closure during the holiday. for the first five weeks of the this year already more than half of what was registered in 2020 which has helped list hong kong equities, maybe even the best start for hong kong's market since 1985. that inflow has been concentrated in a few leaders, among those names some of the biggest net buying has been seen in players like tencent and --

which are heavily weighted on the new china tech 100 index that was launched last week. some stock to keep an eye on, tencent today following reports that tencent music is tapping banks for a listing in hong kong they could raise as much as $5 billion. nate on at the race, is price tag at -- less potential for community buying on the mainland as well. shery: the robust economic rebound in china helped a tapestry beat expectations in his latest earnings, speaking to bloomberg, coach china's ceo says the company is aggressively ramping up its digital presence and launching new platforms to reach its customers. >> we are just out of a very

successful result. we have seen business in china grow by more than 30% despite that -- there were still some very strong regulations to contend the virus. we still got a little bit in the beginning of that, we see this kind of recovery. at the end we focus on what we can control. we have seen performance in q2 and we are very optimistic about what happened in q3. we have a very strong digital interaction with our customers, we can speak about our e-commerce growth. we really are pushing and we really are pushing and restarted pushing before the virus which is now going as you heard, a triple digit influx during china. we are very optimistic about continuing to see our e-commerce

ramping up. >> you have about 300 stores in the chinese market, are you looking to expand that store footprint this year, how many additional stores? >> we are confident about the future of china, the rise of the middle class is not about to stop. we believe at the end of the year there will be a minimum of 10 million people in china -- what we are looking at in detail is that we know that a lot of this growth may come from three or four cities. when we look at our distribution fleet, we want to look at region by region, province by province, city by cd -- city. >> are you looking at any additional partnerships to expand your digital presence? >> we really are very ambitious

about e-commerce. we are not afraid to be one of the first brands 2 -- we had a store on the way that -- last week we opened a first brand in this categories to have a nest an e-commerce store on tiktok. we will continue to look, we see socially that social media and social e-commerce is promising. >> does not seem like any change in the near term, but will there be a material impact on the business of tariffs were to be cut? >> we do not want to make projections are self about that, we are listening to the conversations that may happen. there is a new administration in washington and we will be mindful about what will happen. again, we focus on what we

control. what we can control today is the strength of our brand. we can control what has made us successful for the last two quarters which is transformation, being close to the customer, listening to them, making sure we are aware of what they want. then definitely continue to engage digitally in a very strong way and hoping to bring the digital market to the tapestry of our brand. and being as agile as possible to react to changes. shery: that was the ceo and president of coached china. fresh social distancing measures in china denting the otherwise optimistic outlook for spending over the lunar new year. catherine them joins us now and

authorities continue to discourage domestic travel during the lunar new year holiday, so realistically taking -- speaking, how much of a boost can we expect for spending during the season? >> it is interesting this year because if we take 12 months back -- think 12 muck -- months back, the covid pandemic was just erupting in china. we have seen retail deals plummeting more than 20% in the first few months of 2020. this year, chinese new year even though we are still seeing a disparagement of traveling back to hometowns, the propensity to consume and spend is actually much stronger than 12 months ago. you will see a seasonal boost in my opinion, the question right now and that is the million dollar question the market has is how much of a gain we will

see over the first two months of this year given the festival. again, to take a couple of steps back, the last couple of months we have seen progressive gains in retail sales. the key now is how much of an increased we should be expecting. paul: a rebound in retail sales growth, but we -- are we seeing any sectors with specific growth that you might think be in effect from the lunar new year? catherine: what stood out for me last year into this year is that i think the dining and catering essentially -- they are what we call the on-site consumption should see a significant rebound this year and given that most of

the migrant workers are workers who are away from their homeland , they are not actually to -- able to return to their hometown, so they may have an inclination to spend more time outdoors. obviously adhering to social distancing measures with their counterparts in the cities that they are working within. i am fairly optimistic about the dining and catering segments and some of the restaurant chains out there like the hot pot chains or even yum china, pizza hut, kfc, they may be a key beneficiary. shery: how about retail sales in hong kong? catherine: hong kong should also see a rebound from the low base last year and again 12 months back, things were just --

compounded by the fact that there was still the clouds from the protest that took place in 2019. we should actually see a rebound in retail sales in february, i am fairly optimistic even though we are still seeing sporadic lockdowns in areas in the city. i do think that over the last couple of months, the spending by the residence within the city itself will see a sink which will increase and that actually can contribute to better year on year sales in february. paul: bloomberg intelligence senior consumer analyst catherine lim. ubs is said to be aiming to boost the bonus for investment bankers by up to 20% after a surge in trading revenue help the company reported its highest profit in five years.

we are told staff will see significant compensation from region to region when ubs publishes plans next month. the bank pain -- paid out $2.7 billion in compensation in 2019. china's army of small hedge funds are pulling ahead of better-known foreign competitors as outsized gains attract more. funds offered by mainland managers attracted 30% last year dwarfing the gain of hedge funds globally. taiwan is analyzing deutsche bank and three other foreign banks after an inquiry into local dollar speculation versus approvals for taiwan dollar folds will be revolt that's revoked and the bank is banned from working on derivatives for two years. citigroup faces a two move -- month penalty. shery: coming up we hear why equities remain someone's favorite asset class in the complex and where he is looking

to add exposure plus, power pacific's represented staying optimistic. she joins us at the bottom of the hour. our markets coverage continues, this is bloomberg. ♪

>> is 9:00 in beijing, shanghai and hong kong, welcome to the show, i am david ingles counting down your first session of the week on the mainland and here in hong kong, let to you top stories. president biden's that he will treat china strongly if differently than his predecessor, he adds the two nations are in competition, but not in conflict.