>> a very good morning. we are counting down to asia's major market open. shery: welcome to daybreak asia. the top stories, energy prices rise again as the big freeze cuts u.s. daily oil production by 3.5 million barrels. occidental declares a force majeure as output plunges as much as 65%. asia looks set to gain after

u.s. volume hits their highest in a year. bitcoin touched $50,000 as the crypto boom roles on. singapore pledges to rein in the deficit as it announces more help for the economy. the government will raid reserves for an $8 billion package. haidi: let's take a look at the start of trading in sydney. soph, what are you seeing? sophie: sidney stocks gaining ground with earnings very much in focus. we have already had reports from evolution mining and a trading update. keeping an eye on billion banking stocks given the continued rise we are seeing, you have the aussie 10 year yield trading above 131 this morning. the steepest since early 2014. nikkei futures in chicago pointing to upsides for japanese stocks as you had the nikkei testing whether it's run has

further to go at the prices last seen when the asset bubbles was topped -- popped in the 1990's. more support for japanese stocks. slightly higher after stocks pulled back from records overnight. what levels are u.s. yields will dampen risk sentiment. we also consider the reflation theme continuing. let's go to the board and check in on oil markets. we saw price gains installed yesterday. wti still hovering above $60 a barrel. ubs has lifted their price by $5. seeing some shift when it comes to market structure. nintendo up for the first time in about a month. shery: we have breaking news at the moment. we are hearing that the houston power outages could last several

more days. this of course coming as we continue to see that energy crisis unfold across the u.s. we have had blackouts from texas to houston in texas, as well as other parts of the united states. north dakota as well, oklahoma. the power grids really taking a hit. that is sending natural gas prices higher and oil prices higher. let's discuss the markets and get started the commodity space and bring in our next guest, who says he is betting on the reflation trade. joining us now is academy security head of macro strategies. great to have you with us. we are now hearing the houston power outages could last several more days. we have seen upward pressure when it comes to the oil market. natural gas commodity space. does this signal that this is really a trend that could stay, or is it a short spike where we

are seeing commodity prices spike and inflation expectations spike at the same time? peter: there is a lot going on. one, it's tragic for all the individuals involved without power. i think the current prices will normalize, but the important thing is the big bet to me is we are going to get proper infrastructure spending and the second wave of stimulus from this government. if anything, this has to be another wake-up reminder that the u.s. needs to revamp a bunch of infrastructure. we should spend money and look to build a better america. i think those things happen. ironically, this probably does spur action of the second wave of infrastructure spending. shery: what does that mean when it comes to your portfolio? where are you making those reflation bets? peter: anything i think that will really be involved in construction in the buildup i also believe a lot of the infrastructure will go beyond traditional infrastructure spending. and really move into 5g,

technology. how do we get wi-fi into the inner city? there will be a lot of spending on that, so i like that area. and within all that, anything that still has a covid discount, that has been heavily impacted by covid, i think that will narrow down. we are going to get through covid. each new strain is problematic, but i think we are resolving it quicker and quicker. that is where i want to push my portfolio. things involved in construction, 5g, anything commodity related, and anything with a covid discount. shery: are you staying within the u.s. when it comes to different regions? peter: i like overseas a lot. i think europe is getting its act together. i believe the u.s. dollar weakness will be structural in nature. part of my overall theory is we are going higher. the u.s. treasury are going to tamp down rates, so we are going to have negative real yields on the u.s. i think they will make the dollar unattractive. so especially as i dollar investor are going to see strong

returns from other countries. if you are foreign investor, euro-dollar investments might not look so good -- your dollar investments might not look so good. haidi: does that mean conversely you are going to see more gains for emerging markets? peter: i think there is a real potential there. we are focusing on when emerging markets will benefit from this shift away from traditional commodities and and to -- and into anything that is sustainable. we have a lot of retired generals and admirals i work with, and geopolitical policy was always driven by oil. in the future it will be driven by access to those resources. there will be a lot of opportunities of finding the right opportunities in that. haidi: this chart goes to what i was talking about before in terms of the outlook for the dollar and what it means for e.m. currencies. you see the index, golden cross

lately. the last couple times we have seen that, that has been the prelude to the selloff. do technical indicators like this still carry weight with you in terms of predicting what is going to happen next in the markets? or are things just so unusual and distorted at the moment that you do not necessarily pay too much attention? peter: i normally pay a fair amount of attention to entry points, but right now the fed policy is so adamant it wants to create inflation, that is one part. the other part of our thesis is china has shifted to wanting a stronger currency, so that has been a dramatic shift. and when you get these paradigm shifts, it's hard to look at technicals and say they still exist. that is why i am comfortable ignoring that and you can see the dollar decline and emerging-market strength. shery: let me bring up another technicality when it comes to this chart, because we do have

volatility when it comes to bitcoin. now decreasing a little bit perhaps, touching the volatility peak. we have to talk about bitcoin. whether we like it or not, it has touched that $50,000 mark. where do you stand when comes to volatility perhaps increasing and where the price is going from here? peter: i got lucky at the start of this year and labeled that is one of my three alternative investments. right now i think you want to pull back from bitcoin. having reached this $1 trillion mark, i believe a lot of regulators missed it, and they have to react. so you are seeing more commentators from central bankers against bitcoin, slowing it down. i think you can see regulation. when we pull back, one thing the u.s. has always been able to do is use the dollar as a means of influencing the globe. certainly sanctions work well when you can create the dollar and the flow of currency. so this rise in bitcoin will be problematic potentially for u.s.

policy, so look for policymakers to clamp down on this. i think over the coming weeks, we want to be a little cautious on where this is headed. we are still getting this ease of access which is great. that is all good. but a lot of the use is still for ransomware, negative things, and regulators are going to come down hard on that in the coming weeks, so i would look for a pullback right now on bitcoin. haidi: is there a risk to gold when it comes to the activity and interest we see in bitcoin? is it really a threat when it comes to the inflation hedging role that gold place? peter: i don't really pay attention to gold anymore. it seems it has itself in the crosshairs of bitcoin, now there is a silver squeeze. gold was always a little bit, the one side that calls it a relic, the other side who adores it. to be honest, gold has fallen off my radar for the past six months or so. haidi: all right.

always great to have you. let's get to vonnie quinn with the first word headlines. vonnie: new research suggest in the pace of covid-19 deaths will drop sharply in the next month with u.s. rates falling by more than 40%. this comes from the university of massachusetts in collaboration with ecdc. the pace of fatalities would be the lowest since the end of november. data from johns hopkins university also suggests deaths will fall. hong kong has approved the sinopec vaccine for general use. the shot has an overall efficacy rate of about 50%. that improves to 62% on a second dose a month later. the approval comes one month after hong kong gave the ok to the vaccine developed by pfizer and biontech. astrazeneca is still awaiting approval. protests have continued in myanmar as the military filed

another charge against the de facto civilian leader. they dismissed u.s. sanctions and said the seizure of power was in line with the constitution. the general says the army still wants to attract foreign investment and called on protesters to cooperate with authorities. google has agreed to pay nine entertainment more than $23 million u.s. a year for use of its news content. the sydney morning herald is citing unidentified industry sources, saying a final agreement could be struck in the next two weeks. australia's parliament is said to be considering world force -- world first legislation this week that would force giants to pay additional for news content. 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 vonnie quinn. this is bloomberg. shery: still ahead, the worst start to a year since 2013 has

google bonds tumbling on emerging markets. the record for e.m. debt. plus, the winners and losers in singapore's latest budget. we unpack their plan, next. this is bloomberg. ♪ 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.

shery: singapore is planning to spend more than $8 billion u.s. to help households and businesses recover from the pandemic. the new package comes in the annual budget after the economy suffers is a biggest contraction since independence. juliette saly joins us from singapore. really there was a lot to pack in that budget, including some longer-term challenges like climate change and innovation. tell us a little bit of the key takeaways. juliette: yeah, that is right. the singapore government is normally very prudent, but like every economy around the world, it has suffered significantly

during the pandemic. essentially what the deputy prime minister and finance minister are trying to do is balance the immediate risk versus long-term structural risks. it will be the third budget deficit for singapore and they will go into their coffers for only the second time, about 2.2% of gdp, but that is well off the 13.9% record gdp they had to dip into last year to get through the pandemic. there are a lot of measures for getting through this pandemic, including $3.6 billion for public health and safe reopening measures. also a lot for the aviation industry. singapore has no domestic tourism, so with the border shot and no travel, it has been really hard for the aviation industry and the economy. so the aviation sector will receive support. as you say, a lot of focus on ev's. around 22.6 million dollars over five years for electric vehicle-related initiatives. $45 million to support the

agri-food sector. they are also going to tighten foreign workers in the manufacturing sector. haidi: and they are getting pushback as well again. what does that mean for consumer stocks? juliette: it is going to be a little bit of a mixed bag. when we do see the market reaction from singapore later this morning, you can expect there could be upside to some airlines stocks on the back of the aviation package i mentioned, and also some ev-related stocks. for consumer-related stocks it could be a mixed bag. the finance minister says it will happen sooner rather than later. they are expecting it to happen sometime between 2022 and 2025, although singaporean households could enjoy an effective delay for five years. but the budget needs to be paid for, so a 7% increase is coming. watch out for some movement in terms of maple tree commercial trust, and another trust later

when we see the markets reopen. haidi: some stocks to watch in singapore. juliette saly there. you don't want to miss on our exclusive interview with the singapore minister, joining markets asia a little later. coming up next, hedge funds may have got tech stocks in the fourth quarter as the stock market edged towards new highs. analysis is just ahead. this is bloomberg. ♪ s bloomberg. ♪

haidi: australia new zealand rising 10 basis points as we watch the yield curve. australia's curve is the steepest of the mall compared to major economies like japan, the u.s., u.k., even germany. we are seeing the 10 year yield

just rising by 10 basis points. not just australia but also the kiwi 10 year as well. let's take a look at always a favorite season of the year. showing some hedge funds leaned into big tech companies like microsoft, amazon in the fourth quarter. this of course as we saw the stock market edging to record highs, all despite the covid-19 pandemic and the u.s. presidential election volatility. our wall street correspondent has been pouring through the documents. we always like to look at what the tiger cubs have been doing. >> absolutely right. the reason why we like to do that is because the tiger cubs tend to be big technology investors. this time around it looks like microsoft was the area they really liked to get in and this is a like of viking, tiger global. added to walt disney which had surged in the period.

i want to say a lot of these are backward looking stocks. backward looking wagers which have appreciated more so we don't know where everybody stands right now, but it is a nice little insight into where they are making their bets. one more thing about this is one cut their exposure to the tech sector by about 6%. so we are seeing a trend in the last couple of quarters about adding some tech bets but taking away to others. that will be continued to be highly watched. shery: one big bundle of haven stocks basically. despite the fact this is backward looking, we do care about facts, because hedge funds have been investing into spacs. what have we seen on that front? sonali: that is what is really interesting here. hedge funds are always big investors in spacs because it is better than cash. something better to keep your money in. it is like an option to buy your

company. there was a lot of activity in the spac market. what we know about this as well is there are still a lot of hedge funds that want to start their own spac, let alone investing in them. but the spac index has jumped quite a bit and we are seeing a continuation of this trend. shery: sonali ball sock with the latest. goldman sachs diving into the retail investing world, launching a new app for people who want to put in as little as $1000 to work. stephanie: spoke ask -- .. >> we want to be the leading digital banking platform and we are doing that through two different strategies. the one you have been talking about which is our market, direct to consumer strategy. we have had lending's and

savings, we have had an insight platform. now we have invest. the idea behind this is we can be someone's ballistic bank. later this year we plan to launch checking. it will not be the end of our product roadmap but we think by adding invest and checking, we can be someone's primary bank. the second strategy is that we are going to take those capabilities and embed them in the echo system -- ecosystem. we have also announced a partnership with gm. we think invest is a wonderful complement, this idea of someone's primary bank. it takes the best of goldman sachs in terms of investing advice and embeds it right into the markets app. >> why etf? why broader market rather than individual stocks? a lot of what we have seen around the democratization is retail investors picking and choosing. is there concern around that at all, or is it just a more

scalable strategy to do it this way? how do you think about it? stephanie: this is where we are starting right now. our research and our data shows that the best path to maintaining and growing wealth over time is to invest in diversified portfolios. we use those same diversified portfolios across our wealth management business and we are using them inside markets. you can view this in the first step in goldman sachs investing for the consumer. >> more changes ahead for you. what are the changes you are making? what can we see next coming out of this platform? stephanie: a couple of things. this is a very exciting day for us to launch markets investment also it is an exciting day because we had a new partner joint goldman sachs. she joined us from strife and before that paypal and capital. these are some changes we are implementing, having this two- pronged strategy of have any

direct to consumer markets business, and then the large partnership for financial clouds. that is one of the major changes we have implemented as we have gotten to a point where we have a more wholesome platform. i talked about the fact that we have lending and savings and insights, now we have invest, and we will soon have checking. that whole capability allows us to be someone's primary bank. as you mentioned, we are going to keep looking at other things on the roadmap. before we launched markets we talked to thousands of customers. we spoke to 10,000 customers and they told us what they wanted and they wanted help managing their financial line on their phone. and that is what we are helping them provide. we started with the products we have and we will continue to invest in more. >> another question i have for you, this is all coming in an interesting week. we are hearing on thursday involving robinhood, we are getting news today that game if occasion -- gameification is

something regulators are worried about. are you worried about this as far as impressing -- investing more broadly for the younger generation? stephanie: i will leave that for the regulators. we are focused on helping people better manage their financial lives. there is a bunch of ways to do that. i am going to give you an example from the apple card because i think that is a good example. the way that works is that when you get your bill there is a payment we'll let you get on your phone and it is set at paying your full bill. it is a knowledge that tells you the consequences if you don't pay your full bill and how much that will cost you in interest. it also allows you to pay your bill multiple times per month. we think there are a bunch of smart innovations you can put inside your products to help people better manage their financial lives. so that is how we are going to think about it.

haidi: let's get you a quick check of the latest headlines. jd.com is planning to spin off its logistic unit, applying for approval from the hong kong stock exchange. it will cjd logistics remaining -- jd logistics may be valued at $40 billion. details are yet to be announced. amazon has bought sydney-based deplatform. the founder announced the deal in a blog post, saying he is looking forward to working with amazon on easy-to-use tools for entrepreneurs. amazon has not disclosed the financial terms. softbank shares hit their highest since 1994, rising past the record set in the dotcom boom. the surge has been helped by last week's record earnings of the vision fund. he wants more of his portfolio to go public, and the upcoming

listing of the coupon group could triple their investment. coming up, the deep-freeze in texas keeps millions without power. we get the very latest. this is bloomberg. ♪ ♪

>> what is our priority for keeping the lights on and the heat on? >> oil and gas is not going away anytime soon. >> we need to have a very broad mix of powergenerating sources. >> until we can reach the point

we have grid scale storage and technologies rely us to -- it is important we not put ourselves in a situation we are dependent upon it. >> we need to make sure we are smart enough to make those coexist alongside one another but while still keeping a focus on improving our environment. this is a timely reminder for a wake-up call. we absolutely need fossil fuel in the mix. it is about how we get greener. shery: some of our guests weighing in on the u.s. energy crisis. we have just heard from the houston power outages that could last several more days. what does this mean for the energy crisis unfolding, and how did we get here? mike: in the big picture it means it is basically temporary. and it is more local.

-- then the market peaked around 70 and it came down and crashed to new lows we saw last year. this is giving the opportunity for producers to come back. this is almost march. the decrease will not last long. it is giving producers a chance to hedge and so forward so they have more incentive to produce. production will come right back. haidi: do we read much into the contango activity we are seeing as a result? mike: that is a shorter-term thing among the first few contracts. the one year basis is when i usually watch the bigger picture , it has been in backwardation for a while. it has become a more normal backwardation crude oil and uti because producers are looking for any edge they can to sell

forward to the can bring back production. one key factor that happened this year is average cost of production for shale and u.s. crude oil has dropped below $40 a barrel. the average price around $60 gives them incentive to bring the production back. of course the deep-freeze is temporary but once they get a chance, that production will come right back and then we all know demand is not coming back the way it used to and it may not be back with this work from home shift. shery: what does this mean for refiners? of course they were already hit by the covid-19 pandemic in their balance sheets are pretty weak. mike: it is going to be a problem for refiners, but that is less my area of focus. i am more on underlining commodities. this type of spike is often temporary and makes a bigger picture tops. but for refineries it allows them to hedge at higher prices. they can bring the production back on. haidi: all the talk about this

adding to the reflationary trade frenzy. is that overdone? mike: i think it is way overdone. one thing about crude and petroleum, fossil fuels are being replaced by technology. i have seen reflation trade happening things like bitcoin. to me that is the super cycle for commodities in the future. in the past we might have this in crude oil energy. -- haidi: that is a whole different conversation we can talk about. michael, always great to have you. expected to deliver a jump in profit and a healthy dividend when they report today. paul allen is watching this. comes on the back of strong results from bhp. record dividend fueling talk about another super cycle. so what are the numbers and expectations today? paul: expectations skyhigh.

$23.3 billion is the analyst estimate. that will be up to billion dollars the previous year. iron ore makes up the bulk of revenue. we have had iron ore up another 32% of two $160 a ton or thereabouts. last year they were warning of uncertainty due to coronavirus. that uncertainty has turned out to be a huge upside surprise. extended to their second and third biggest products. aluminum and copper also seeing a boost. the market really expecting something special, including for shareholders. the dividend expected to be $4.80 up from $4.43. analysts see this rising to close to $6 in. if that is correct, the yield will be more than 7%. shery: of course this is also the result under the new ceo. what challenges is he facing

given issues around esg? paul: just to remind everyone, he got the job after the previous stepped down following last year's blast destroying ancient aboriginal rock art. there was outrage over that, including from large institutional investors that demanded better standards. there has been a series of apologies. they are working on remedial work at that site. there is also a new position of chief executive for australia. so efg expected to be a major theme. also looking for updates around the iron ore project and getting talks with the mongolian government on the expansion ofa. sh paul allen in sydney with rectory -- with what to expect

from results. we are going to speak with more mining guests tomorrow. for now, let's go to vonnie quinn with the first word headlines. again, another record for bitcoin. vonnie: the movement here is pretty stunning. bitcoin blowing past another record, briefly touching $50,000: as its -- $50,000 a coin. a rival also setting new heights. bitcoin getting some high-profile investors. it treated at a few cents after its debut a decade ago. federal regulators are stepping up scrutiny of the penny stock raise, with trading surging in lesser-known companies. gamestop sold within one trillion shares in december and january. and average daily volume this

month is more than 60% above those levels. sec last week suspended trading after it soared more than 630%. joe biden says he intends to recalibrate the u.s. relationship with saudi arabia and will emphasize -- it is the latest sign of how the administration is assessing links. the white house paschi weapon sales and launched new efforts to end the war in yemen. singapore says it will rain in the budget deficit as the economy recovers but will dig into government reserves for a new stimulus package worth more than $8 billion u.s. ministers admit the revival will be uneven, but they say they must strike a balance between immediate needs and long-term requirements. they are expected to rebound between 4% and 6% this year. 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 vonnie quinn. this is bloomberg. haidi: coming up, we will be speaking about emerging-market strategy and why she says e.m. debt is on pace to outperform this year. this is bloomberg. ♪ ♪

haidi: you are looking at a live

shot of melbourne. sign of relief about to be briefed -- breathed because the five-day lockdown will be listed -- lifted as of midnight on wednesday with a five kilometer rule in terms of where you can leave your home to, as well as the four reasons to leave home. retail, hospitality, businesses will resume as of thursday. the amsk -- mask rule will remain, and houses can have visitors of up to five. we are also seeing resumption of that return to the office, up to 50%. no talk about when it will go up to 75%, which is the next stage. victoria had been contending with this holiday which had the cases of the u.k. variant. over the past few days there has been minimal cases and today there were zero new cases. so the five-day lockdown has

worked, and restrictions will be lifted as of midnight. let's take a look at how aussie markets are faring. sophie: when it comes to share markets, sydney stocks are under pressure coming -- under pressure. risk-off sentiment take hold for stocks and futures elsewhere pointing lawyer. -- pointing lower. yen holding their a five month low. we saw the dollar bounce. treasury futures are pointing lawyer -- lower for a fourth straight session. seeing a steepening of the aussie yield. westpac also gaining ground on the back of its first quarter. stock gaining more than 6% this

morning. jumping on its first half. domino's pizza climbing. its second half is off to a solid start. jumping the most in 10 months on solid outlook. we are seeing zip shares stumbled this wednesday. under pressure on its earnings. results flagged concerns. falling on its first-half loss, given the slump in coal prices we have seen for the company. pulling up the chart on the terminal, we have seen profit growth estimates revived -- revised upwards. eps now back at pre-covid levels. this, as vaccine rollout has helped stocks outperform peers. the index now at an all-time

high after a seven-day gain for emerging markets. haidi: let's take a look at emerging market bonds now. all of this is starting to show up in emerging markets. investors pulling $167 million from e.m. bonds amid growing concern inflation will return to developed markets. that pushes demand higher. we will have a jump when it comes to kiwi in australian bond yields as well as u.s. treasuries looking heavy at this point as well. let's get some analysis. adding to that the fact we are seeing technical indicators cross performing for e.m. as well. how does this inform your outlook as to where e.m. debt goes from here? >> we think looking at etf loans does not give you the complete picture for emerging market bonds. flows into e.m. bond funds have

been robust. none of these metrics captured emerging markets and there is significant growth to increase emerging market bonds. the other thing we have seen which is extremely important is the increasing amount of investors in emerging-market new issues. that is because there is just not enough value in u.s. high yields and investment grade. haidi: so in terms of geography, what are you most constructive on, given that of course we know emerging markets are not all created equal? shamaila: that is absolutely correct. we are most constructive on economies that benefit from the

recovery and commodity space. our reference has been to buy companies and countries that are going to benefit from higher commodity prices, and whether we are a super cycle or not, we don't know. however, i think there is enough reason to believe commodity prices going forward will be higher than the range they have seen over the last for years. you have a pretty high probability that the u.s. will be tightening infrastructure build. investments are going to be significant, being put to work over the coming years. therefore, emerging market countries opposed to those dynamics will benefit. shery: we have seen strong flows into asian bond markets, this of course at a time when global bond markets remain repressed. again we have a spike in global bond yields. would this dampen the signs where we are headed in asia? shamaila: not entirely true. as you said, not all emerging

markets are equal and not everything in asia have the same factors. we like in asia is mostly the high-yield bonds, particularly high-yield companies that are benefiting from higher mining prices, higher steel and energy prices. in the investment-grade space, we think a lot of value was created in chinese investment-grade corporate bonds, which were sold offer certain security that was sanctioned by the u.s. we don't feel sanctions will expand to the wider universe and look attractive at each level. shery: how supportive is the pboc being in this environment, given we continue to see signs perhaps of that pboc raining back when it comes to -- reign ing back when it comes to financial risk? shamaila: i think the pboc will be maintaining a level of liquidity they stung what is happening globally. in a global environment of recovery, the pboc has the

luxury of trying to withdraw from the quiddity. however -- from liquidity. shery: how do you feel about the korean bond market? we continue to talk about record slows there last year and we continued to see them up until last month. shamaila: what we look at more closely is the korean dollar bond market. there, we think valuations do not look attractive relative to what else we can buy in higher-rated, lower yielding securities in emerging markets. there are some sectors trading inside u.s. investment rates, so the value has been limited. what we really like there is the korean banks where we think we are getting safe for the risk. haidi: are geopolitical risks something you are continuing to

watch underwood new biden, administration, or has that side of the risk process for emerging markets, particularly here in asia, receded somewhat? shamaila: it has receded. we think the administration's approach to its foreign policy will be more conventional than what we have experienced over the last few years. so it has receded. however, it will be insignificant. there will be certain pressure points for the biden administration. getting more concessions from china, the climate, human rights. so it will be a different kind of geopolitical risk. however -- will diminish because it will be less drawn to foreign policy. shery: always great having you with us. thank you very much for that. don't miss some other big guests we have on bloomberg tv today. we have exclusive interviews with -- as well as singapore's

finance minister. of course we are going to watch those interviews closely as we watch the japanese yen, because we can see some significant weakness in the japanese yen, now past the 106 level against the u.s. dollar. this as we await breaking numbers from japan. we are expecting trade numbers. we have now seen the export numbers coming in in japan, rising for the month of january, 6.4% year on year. missing expectations of gains of 6.8%. when it comes to imports year on year, it's a contraction of 9.5%. the trade surplus missing expectations, and narrowing from the previous month. and we are seeing it coming in at a contraction, a trade deficit of 332 billion yen. when it comes to seasonably adjusted number, the surplus has

narrowed to 392 billion yen. still waiting for core machine numbers. of course we are watching those export numbers very closely and the trade surplus narrowing on an adjusted basis and deficit on the headline number. machine orders we have them now. month on month growth. oh. 5.2%, because the expectation was for a contraction of 6.1% in december, given we have continue to seek signals business investment was low. we have seen a run-up of covid-19 infections in japan, but surprisingly there has been growth of 5.2% for core machine orders. let me just break down the numbers. a contraction to the u.s. china rising 37.5% year on year. those are your exports,

depending on the region. we will keep you updated on that and how that will affect the markets. this is bloomberg. ♪ this is bloomberg. ♪

haidi: they reported first-half earnings slumped 23%. they had been one of the most high-profile casualties of the nation severing diplomatic ties

with china. what are some of the key elements from today's release that were gleaned? >> it's not a great result for treasury. net income fell 43% year on year in revenue is down 8.2%. it's not really a surprise i guess. they have had to contend with covid disruptions last year and also china tariffs, which really hit their business hard because the chinese market is their most valuable market. yesterday we saw a slump in the share class. perhaps people squaring up before the reports today. it is not looking like a good result for them. we already knew this but the company has outlined again its new operating model. they are divided into three with the premium brand and treasury america. so those are the new points. shery: what is happening to

their china strategy, then? sybilla: the china strategy has completely changed. china represented approximately 30% of total earnings last fiscal year. that is not really going to be able tv a viable market any year -- anymore with the crippling tariffs. so the company said it does not see them going away anytime soon. it is now pivoting to other markets essentially, and its ceo said they are feeling confident about pivoting to new markets in australia, the u.s. and europe, and is expecting modest benefits. still, the outlook for the second half will be below the first, reflecting the challenging period ahead. includes getting a proper foothold into those markets. they have also said they wanted to cut cost space in china because the demand there will be extremely limited. haidi: did we hear more about

any structural changes within the company? sybilla: i think they are going to elaborate that in the earnings call coming up shortly. there's not a lot of talk about it in the report. investors are looking keenly towards how the hong kong market might be, because that might be a viable route into china. whether there will be price pressure on the products. haidi: all right. coming up, we are going to get reaction to singapore is a budget. the government vowing to reign in deficit, digging in deep to covid relief. plus, market outlook. why -- of course we have the market open. the start of trading in tokyo and seoul is next. this is bloomberg. ♪ s is bloomberg. ♪

shery: "daybreak asia welcome to "daybreak asia," from bloomberg's -- welcome to "daybreak asia." i am shery ahn. haidi: our top stories this hour, energy prices rising as the big freeze cuts u.s. oil production by 3.5 million barrels. occidental declares -- permian output dropped as much as 65%. that coin topping $50,000 as the

crypto boom rolls on. the token is up 73% this year alone. the rival has reason twice that amount. more help for the economy. a company faces a second charge as they tighten their grip on myanmar. she is accused of breaching coronavirus restrictions. shery: japan and south korea coming online. let's get to the markets with sophie in hong kong. sophie. sophie: the latest trade data to consider. growth coming slightly weaker than expected but still accelerating for january while we saw imports contracting more than expected. downside pressure coming to the nikkei 225, off .4%. the index trading at 1999 highs. we have the yen trading above 106 but that's not adding to the

sentiment for japanese stocks this morning. switching out the board and south korea, we may get the line on housing markets plus money supply from south korea and the bok is to sell two-year bonds. we are seeing the class b snap a gain, and samsung shares under pressure. this as they bring a second case against it at the agency for trade commission. we are seeing the korean won under pressure as well. switching out the board to check out what's going on in australia where earnings are in focus. the share market under pressure. the aussie bond market also in focus. curve steepening going on. the aussie 10 year yield adding 10 basis points this morning. cash treasuries coming online so you have a 10 year yield inching up more as we are seeing at hold above the 132 handle and the thirty-year also in focus with that 2% level being breached while we are seeing breakevens

at 2014 highs and wti flipping below $60 a barrel. the impact of the u.s. energy freeze may be short-lived with the focus remaining on the rebalancing in oil markets which has ubs lifting its crude price forecast by five dollars a barrel and pulling up a chart on the terminal, stronger commodity prices have been a driver for the msci world index. that is the line in blue on this chart but emerging stocks are outperforming their global peers with rising discretionary companies boosting the gauge as well as the better earnings outlook. i want to highlight the allocations to em stocks. it is still overweight with that being the preferred region in that survey. allocation to stop. commodities at the highest level since 2011. haidi. haidi: let's get more from the head of asia-pacific financial markets research. michael, great to have you. you just don't have the energy. i hope you will someone up --

summon up some of the energy this morning. let me get your views on the reflation trade being pushed up by the disruption have seen in the energy market. is this more of a permanent change that you see or is this some kind of narrative fallacy that investors are conveniently reaching for? >> more of the latter. obviously, we are supposed to be in the back of a great green revolution which seems to b&r time for oil prices to be going through the roof. a lot of it is short-term, weather-related, supply and demand, etc., etc., and some of it is geopolitics but if we are talking more generally about a great reflation, i keep asking the same question over and over again and i do not get a good answer from anyone. when do we all get a pay raise? working people all around the world. if we have people as enthusiastic about pay going up significantly as we have seen reports about equities and bond yields going up or oil prices

going up or commodities going up, that might be the basis for a genuinely inflation. if not, what we have is asset price inflation which would be years and years. if you look at recovery for anyone except in markets, and price inflation, which makes ordinary people poorer. show me the money for workers and i will call this a genuine great reflation but we are not there yet, i don't think. haidi: what about the stimulus that is still in the pipeline? what about the vaccine rollout that is underway, albeit slower than we would like? does all of this not create the idea that the great reopening, businesses coming back, jobs coming back, will eventually happen? michael: well, it does. let's start with the vaccine. we are not there yet. there's still a lot of problems. countries in africa are talking about three years to five years before they get back to normal so let's put it in that kind of perspective. obviously, we would be delighted

if we can get back to normal, but where were we pre-covid? go back and read the headlines and the analysis of the global economy pre-covid and people were still talking about secular stagnation, about the lack of power of labor versus capital. very little has changed on that front, very little indeed, so even if we were to suddenly remove covid from the equation, the underlying dynamic is not exactly favorable to workers pushing for higher pay against the backdrop of what we currently see in terms of a search in commodity prices so i don't see that changing at all, unfortunately. i think is hysteria. shery: is there a concern that perhaps the fact that we are doing so much for the stimulus package in the u.s. will take away from future stimulus measures, such as infrastructure that we have been talking about forever here in the u.s. that could perhaps fundamentally help the economy? michael: absolutely. there is a key point. one of the other reasons we are

seeing markets lift off is because finally, slow hand clap, we have discovered that fiscal policy works. we have waited years and years not using it. we are finally going to use fiscal policy but if you look at this u.s. fiscal package, it does not invest anything in long-run productivity, does not invest anything in infrastructure. it's a sugar high where you are going to have $7,000 in the pockets of quite a few american families and if you look at surveys, some of them are going to save it. some of them will use it to pay down debt. some of them will use it to pay rent, health care, or buy food. it depends on whether you have been doing well or badly under covid already. those who are doing well will speculate. those who are doing badly will cover the bare essentials. some kind of stimulus is necessary. i get that. when it wears off in a year-and-a-half, when all those thousands of dollars disappear, has anything changed fundamentally to shift the power of labor versus capital to actually allow people to push

for sustained increases in salaries to compensate for this backdrop of the great reflation we are hearing about? if the answer is no, in 2022, things are going to look ugly in a reverse of what we are seeing at the moment, deflationary impulse and fiscal contraction, and that is just before we get the next round of elections in the u.s., where congress is essentially flipped back the other way again, and suddenly, the biden white house won't be able to get anything through. you cannot stand in the way of this steamroller at the moment, chanting is the great reflation, and thinking about the great gatsby. but the 1920's are a disastrous parallel for anyone to try and draw anything. do we really want to live out the 1920's? god no. you know what follows that? the 1930's. shery: putting all of that economic doom aside, does that even matter until we get there as an investor? how do you not invest when the

fed and policymakers have your back? michael: you are absolutely right. i'm agreeing with you. the establishment is basically saying, right now, we are blowing one of the biggest bubbles ever. don't stand in the way of it and you would be a fool to stand in the way of it right now because everyone is lining up to blow this bubble. you are being sent the message that everything is worth investing in apart from a hard days work because salaries will not keep up so invest in any other asset. that's fine. i'm saying this paradigm is not a widespread fundamental great reflation because when we get to the other side of it, goodness help us. we are going to be in serious trouble because we will have spent all the political capital on short-term sugar high which does not solve any of our structural problems and that's when things start to look more like the ugly parts of the 1920's because without drawing any parallels between this and any particular individual today, as i am writing in my notes this morning, the great gatsby was

published in 1925. so was mein kampf. there was a lot of bad stuff happening at the same time people were drinking champagne and thinking this was a wonderful time to be a plutocrat. haidi: let me lift the conversation a bit. you are back in asia after a much longer than expected stay in israel. how are things looking to you in this part of the world? because there is real growth. australia is doing better than expected, china is back to pre-pandemic levels of growth, and the are seeing the virus manage pretty well across major economies. are you feeling better that there is real productive growth in this part of the world? michael: i think there are pockets to be optimistic about all over, not just in asia. there are reasons to be optimistic. i want to make that abundantly clear. but it requires focus. and discipline to get that right in the long term. in the short-term, buy anything

because everything is going to go up apart from bonds. you don't want to be in those at the moment, particularly long maturity. asia has a lot of bright prospects in a lot of areas. i would not deny that. i want to get people to understand that just shouting the great reflation or the great gatsby may be a good short run tactics but i don't think it will protect you in the long run from some of the downside risks that are also baked into this cake. shery: thank you so much for your perspective despite the caution and warnings. we do appreciate all of the insight. michael every, head of asia-pacific financial markets research. let's get to vonnie quinn with the first word headlines. we have some encouraging news on the virus front in the u.s. >> something a little cheerier at least. the case of reported covid-19 decibel drop sharply in the next month with the u.s. rate falling by more than 40%. that prediction coming from the

university of massachusetts in collaboration with the cdc. it is lower since the end of november. data from johns hopkins university suggests the deaths will start to fall. hong kong has approved china's sinovac vaccine for general use with experts saying the shot has an overall efficacy rate of 50%. a medical journal says that improves to 62% on a second dose a month later. the approval comes one month after hong kong ok'd the vaccine developed by pfizer and biontech. the deal with astrazeneca is still waiting approval. a new survey says wall street is pulling away from london as the world's top financial center. advisory firms say the fallout from brexit is harming them. more than half of them view new york as the top financial hub. 12% of respondents said the u.k. leaving the european union has made london stronger. singapore says it will rain in

the budget deficit as the economy recovers but will dig into government reserves for a new stimulus package worth more than 8 billion u.s. dollars. ministers admit revival will be uneven but say they must strike a balance between immediate needs and longer-term requirements. >> rose is expected to rebound>> . -- growth is expected to rebound. >> -- the use of past reserves to support this economy investment to ensure singapore emerges stronger from this crisis. >> singapore's finance minister there. 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. haidi: we will have more from singapore later in the show. our guest will join us to talk about how the budget will help the city shift to restructuring.

the wti is trading around $60 as about one third of u.s. crude output continues to remain shut down in the deep-freeze of texas. we will have the latest. this is bloomberg.

>> what is our priority for keeping the lights on and the heat on? >> oil, gas, is not going away anytime soon. >> you need to have a very broad mix of powergenerating forces. >> unk until we can reach the point that we can rely on this energy 20 47 -- 24/7, it's important we not put ourselves in a situation where we are dependent upon it. >> we need to make those coexist while keeping a focus on improving our environment. >> this is a timely reminder for a wake-up call in saying that we absolutely need fossil fuel in the mix.

it's about how we get it greener. shery: some of our guests weighing in on the u.s. energy crisis with total u.s. oil production now plunging by one third, the most ever due to the snow and ice. let's take a look at the implications with david stringer. we are now hearing the permian basin alone output has plunged as much as 65%. no sign of easing anytime soon. >> that's right. not at all at this point in terms of this crisis. at least 3 billion businesses continue to have electricity supply disrupted. grid operators are warning it could take days more to have enough power back up and running to resort services. that is quite a turnaround. they had been saying that they expected to restore services by the end of tuesday. that is no longer the case. in the past 30 minutes or so, we heard from one utility in texas already warning customers to prepare for an additional

blackouts overnight. and those impacts that we have been seeing in the past 36 hours, we have seen the shutdown of u.s. refineries, oil wells, meets plants, facilities. disruptions for things like the agricultural industry, soybeans and corn also disrupted and corn also disrupted so widespread impacts. we still have millions of homes and businesses in the dark and there's no end in sight, at least not for a couple more days yet. haidi: of course, we talk about this in the context of the broader switch to green. in the aftermath of this, are we expecting officials and regulators to call for, you know, ways to avoid this happening in the future, more reserves, bringing our capacity online, or even bringing plants that should be shut down online? david: look, there's obviously going to be some pretty sharp

questions to address in the aftermath of all of this. we are several days away potentially from getting to that point of the process. but we are starting to get something of a slightly clearer picture of exactly what triggered this, exactly some of the problems that meant the grid in texas could not keep up with demand. the grid operator saying it looks like it was widespread shortages of natural gas supplies to power plants and also a decline in wind power generation that created a shortfall that meant the rising demand as a result of the unprecedented cold temperatures sort of overwhelmed the capacity of the system so there will certainly be more questions to address in terms of how it was triggered and how that is addressed in the future. shery: what does this mean for producers and refiners who have already been hit by the pandemic? david: quite. it's more bad news. as you said, the impact on u.s. oil production is unprecedented.

output has plunged by one third. crude output down by report 5 million barrels per day, way ahead of the new year estimate even in the past 24 hours, maybe 2 million barrels in the permian basin alone, america's biggest oil field. outputs plunged as much as 65%. we have seen companies like occidental issue a majority to suppliers for chevron also. wells in west texas. this is a serious set of impacts to some of these producers and as you say, all of what had already been the impacts from the pandemic. haidi: we have seen fracking and the bigger shale basins going dark as part of this as well. what does this mean for earnings season? does this mean there's disruption and delay as well? david: it's too early to say at this point how that will go through and feedthrough into

those earnings figures. you know, i guess, you know, what we are seeing is oil holding about $60 a barrel, reflecting that slumping output in the u.s. and also some of the factors, seeing curbs on output in russia, another region grappling with freezing temperatures so i guess it depends how long does it all going to stay at those levels? if prices go up, we will see a positive readthrough into earnings looking forward. shery: david stringer there. coming up next, bitcoin briefly crossing $50,000 for the first time. we are seeing a little bit of a pullback now. we take a look at a new survey which shows many cfo's are just not ready to dive in yet. a crypto update is just ahead. 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

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haidi: will the bitcoin rally continue to accelerate?

traders about $50,000 for the first time have pulled back a little bit from that milestone. su keenan joins us with the latest and some big names now. morgan stanley, part of them taking note. su: it's up fivefold in the past year. big names like morgan stanley, hedge fund giants like paul tudor jones, billionaires like elon musk, all have made moves to embrace bitcoin as you look at it rocketing higher in the past week, catching above the 50,000 mark before pulling back early in the latest session in new york. if you look at the bigger picture, it's up more than 70% so far this year. we are only two months in. that's after a 170 percent surge in trth quarter of last year. if we go into the bloomberg, we can see the bitcoin rally is continuing to accelerate and to

quote one of the biggest bitcoin crypto lenders in london, whether it is musk, mastercard, or morgan stanley, he says the mood music and momentum is impossible to ignore. he goes on to say, to the annoyance of many, that bitcoin express has left the station. shery: still, despite all of the optimism, there's still a lot of concern about a bubble given its incredible rally. the latest we heard was from the ecb councilmember, gabrielle. su: he is shining bitcoin and says he would not buy it. and points to its parabolic rise. if you look at the past couple years, how dramatically bitcoin has risen, he compares it to the dutch to let craze in the 17th century which she reminds us ended in collapse as people had argued that to lips were in investment. so is it a wild ride for a bubble? if you take a look at gold, which is above 1800 right now,

bitcoin's recent rise has really outperformed gold, outperform stocks and commodities, and there are indications some gold but are now turning a bit toward claim, but a separate survey by gartner, which was taken after tesla's elon musk famously put 1.5 billion of the company into bitcoin, the survey finds most financial executives, including cfo's, are not planning to do anything like that. in fact, is not only 5% of those surveyed -- they plan to hold bitcoin on the books, talent sheets. 84% said they would never do that. back to you. shery: there are some skeptics out there. su keenan with the latest on bitcoin. for now, let's get a quick check of the latest business flash headlines. citigroup has unexpectedly lost its legal battle to recover funds. a judge ruling that 10 asset

managers do not have to return more than half a billion dollars. the city transferred last august while trying to make an interest payment. the court says the asset manager should not have been expected to know the transfer was an error. leaving hong kong developer ck assets has sold a luxury apartment on the foothills of the peak for a record in another side the city's high-end housing market is recovering. the five-bedroom home went for 59 million u.s. dollars. it is 314 square meters, translating to a price of 100 36,000 hong kong dollars per square foot. bloomberg intelligence says it is now the most expensive apartment in asia. asia's busiest international airport is considering the sale of offshore dollar notes for the first time in a sign that the travel industry is starting to recover. south korea's international company says its bank sold $300

million of data in the second quarter and will select more later this month. do not miss an exclusive interview coming up in the next hour. benjamin joke now -- benjamin discusses whether there's still room to cut rates this year. this is bloomberg. ♪

haidi: we have export data out from singapore out for the month of january. we are seeing domestic exports seeing a jump of 12.8%, better than the 6.8% in the previous month and much better, a huge pita over the surveyed expectation of 5.2%. on a seasonally adjusted month on month basis, a gain of 7%, still better than expectations of 3% and also we are seeing that break down of electronic exports, up by 13.5 percent. that's a little bit slower than the prior percent in december

but still pretty high. the increase is on account of not electronics so things like specialized machinery, gold, as well as petrochemicals but we also did see growth in electronics as well. in terms of the top 10 markets as a whole, all of them grew in january 2021 although exports did decline. total trade, the ministry saying that declined over the year in january 2021. exports grew but imports decreased. staying with singapore, the city state is planning to spend more than 8 billion u.s. dollars to help households and businesses recover from the pandemic. the new package coming in the annual budget. the economy in singapore suffering its biggest ever contraction since independence. let's bring our markets coanchor, haslinda amin, who is in beautiful singapore for us. what has been the response we have had to some of the key

pillars of this budget? haslinda: some have called it a balanced budget. for the finance minister, he says the budget is aimed at addressing immediate challenges as well as the long-term structural needs of the country. taking a glance of the budget, here is how it is looking. we have a budget deficit for a second year, spending pretty much is targeted at those who still need it, who are still reeling from the pandemic impact , lower income businesses as well as sectors which are still in pain, the likes of aviation, retail, tourism. they will be getting the wage support scheme extended by three months and six months depending on their needs for the low income family. they will be getting rebates, spending vouchers, and additional help in various ways. $8 billion allocated for

covid-19. all of that will be funded by dipping into reserves. this would be the second time singapore is dipping into its reserves and the finance minister says that when the time comes, singapore will have to balance its budget again. in terms of the recovery plan, it will be difficult. it will be on even. a plan for post-pandemic. $18 billion will be set aside to help workers ensure they have the job amidst the fourth industrial revolution. spending will also be challenged into innovation among companies to ensure they are prepared and also to cut dependence on foreign workers. it is about looking ahead towards singapore's future and here is what is summed up by the finance ministry, emerging

stronger together. that is the theme of this year's budget. shery: we are also watching the goods and services. what has happened on that front? emerging stronger will also depend on what happens, so how you pay for that recovery as well, right? haslinda: you are right, but you know, amid the pandemic, is difficult to talk about raising taxes and gst will be delayed for another year but the finance minister says it will happen within 2022 and 2025. it is likely to be sooner rather than later. we talk about balancing the budgets. that cannot happen, he says, without raising taxes. what also happened during this budget, singapore raised prices by as much as 23%. that is a way of raising revenue but that's also to do with singapore's green agenda. it is trying to get people off the roads, off their cars, and encourage ev's as opposed to

conventional cars. to that end, the gap in terms of pricing for ev's and conventional cars will be reduced as well as texas as well. the green agenda is not a sideshow for singapore. it did implement a 100 billion dollar package to protect singapore against climate change. it is front and center for the country's future. remember, this is an island state. shery: haslinda amin with the latest on that singapore budget. in fact, let's discuss this a little bit more and bring in the head of treasury research and strategy. great to have you with us. as haslinda was telling us, we did see that focus on green initiatives as well, climate change, also innovation, on top of these very immediate firefighting economic measures, so what do you make of this budget? >> the team of emerging stronger

together really captured it. while there is still some focus on supporting a lot of the businesses and workers that are still in the heart hit sectors, i think the clear priorities have shifted. you look at the 24 billion dollars that will be allocated to basically help firms transform over the next three years, it's very much preparing the singapore economy for the growth that will, in the post-covid environment. in all the structural changes that he alluded to, those are coming home to roost and really, for the enterprises and for workers, they have to embrace that adoption and speed up to prepare themselves for the changes that are coming. i think it is a good balance and while there is some shock that has been extended, i think the horizon has been cast a little bit further into the future. shery: when it comes to the

economic recovery, we continue to see this uneven recovery. sectors like electronics doing really well including in singapore. we just had the january numbers and we saw electronics exports rising more than 13% year on year. how much will that sector and that part of the economy help boost and lift other parts of the economy and offset some of the weakness in other parts? selena: you look at 2020, manufacturing sector was the only major sector that actually saw positive growth and i think this is a story that may be kind of repeated into the early part of this year. manufacturing sector is about 20% of singapore's gdp so positive growth roman 10 will -- momentum will be helped but it's coming off a slightly higher base compared to last year. what we are really hoping to see is the construction and services sector will play catch up this year, possibly as the vaccination rollout gets really underway and as the population

gets vaccinated by the later part of this year. hopefully, that will give domestic businesses and consumers that lift in terms of confidence so we hope for broader based, more even type of recovery story for 2021 as compared to 2020 but it is very much dependent on businesses. we do see reason for the virus resurgence in other countries that have led to patenting of social restrictions and re-imposition of law downs. so that sense of caution continues to prevail even in this budget which is why i think there is still that caveat. they may actually tap on the deep pockets singapore has if necessary. >> the caveat in the wide window they have given, it could be between 2022 and 2025 that you see the gsc. what is the earliest you think they should be able to roll it out given this need for fiscal

sustainability within the asian population? selena: the additional $11 billion -- the consecutive yields for this project -- the timeframe you mentioned has been shifted to 2025. i really think they don't want to leave it to the last minute. 2025 is kind of really a last choice kind of option. my base scenario is that if things to recover both domestically and globally and we are on a much firmer footing by this time next year, then the 2022 budget could pre-announce the hikes to come in 2023 and possibly in a two-step process. this is this in our air i'm looking at now. it is still very much dependent on how things evolve over the next 12 months to onth.

the cbc chief economist and head of treasury research and strategy, selena ling, with us with her views on that singapore balance, widely considered a balanced budget. do not miss our exclusive interview with singapore's minister for finance. he will be joining us on markets asia a little bit later. let's get some more reaction on some of these developments with regard to the deep-freeze in the state of texas p we are hearing from samsung about their factory in texas, saying that due to the recent blackouts in the states, austin semiconductor gradually halted its operation on february 16. they were ordered to do so by austin energy. appropriate measures have been taken. the company saying production will resume as soon as power supplies are restored. but currently, they are saying that they are discussing the timing of that restart of production with authorities and of course, we have seen global demand really overwhelming the ability to supply and this will no doubt add some further

complications with regards to availability as we see texas power plants shut by the cold, leaving businesses as well as homes about power. let's take a look at the latest with sophie. what are you watching? sophie: we are seeing samsung shares under pressure, losing 1.5%, weighing on the kospi, which is the worst performer so far in asia this morning. this as the chipmaker suspended a factory in texas. ericsson has brought a second case against the chipmaker to the u.s. itc. when it comes to other outliers, the index 50 gaining ground ahead of a decision on the auckland lockdown be extended -- being extended. the aussie share market under pressure with earnings and focus. the nikkei is selling after a two-day gain with softbank slipping from a record high but the index is keeping above the 30,000 level as energy and financials climb in tokyo and across the region on this reflation theme and with that, keeping a close eye on bond

markets. the are seeing the selloff continuing in australia but treasuries studied somewhat with the u.s. 10 year yield edging back towards 130 on the benchmark but breakevens are still lacked 2014 highs. switching up the board as we are seeing yields broadly higher and the dollar gaining ground as well. gold is faltering for a fifth straight session. edward says the rebound in the dollar is pushing bullion towards -- we'll selling this morning. wti slipping below $60 a barrel. the impact of the energy freeze is being assessed. we are seeing oversupply concerns for the longer-term outlook that will be framed by the rebalancing expected in energy markets and that has prompted ubs to raise its forecast for brent and wti by five dollars a barrel. shery. shery: we will be looking at the outlook for the virus. in hong kong, a panel in the city now giving the green light

to sinovac's coronavirus shot. we will discuss. this is bloomberg. ♪

haidi: a panel of experts is recommending hong kong approves of the covid vaccine from china's sinovac ion tech. the pfizer shot was given the ok last month and there is also a

deal ongoing with astrazeneca. hong kong is relaxing some social distancing rules. the latest wave of virus infections is receiving. let's get more from our health care reporter, michelle cortez. that's start off on this vaccine. we heard last week that they were postponing their decision for more efficacy data to be presented. what do we know now about the efficacy levels of this particular vaccination? michelle: after the first shot, this vaccine appears to reduce the risk of contracting the infection by 50%, which is on the lower end, just above the level that was considered, you know, effective enough in order to make it approved, but then if you get a second shot, a few weeks later, as recommended, that efficacy rate jumps up to 62%. the other thing is that the officials wanted to know more information about how it works in the weeks following that second shot. at this point, the indications are good. it does appear to be offering some protection and that's

really what we need. it does not have to be 100% effective all the time. it's not as though people who are getting this are sick. what we are trying to do is prevent people from getting sick so it does not have to be perfect. shery: it's really rare that we get good news when it comes to the virus front. at least we are getting slowing infections, not to mention more vaccines. michelle: yes. in the united states, we are seeing a lot of rates are just coming down dramatically. we are seeing significantly reduced infections, especially in nursing homes but really throughout the country. the thing that is important to remember is we are still seeing very high mortality rates. the most deaths in the entire outbreak occurred last month in the united states. now, we are seeing an increase in cases. hospitalizations and deaths should follow. we are expecting johnson & johnson's vaccine to get approved as well or cleared by the fda shortly, which will

increase the number of vaccines that are available but it is still a matter of rolling them out. haidi: michelle, here in asia, we are seeing japan about to start rolling out its vaccine program as well. michelle: right. japan is kind of coming in after everyone else and there was concern that many people are hesitant about getting a vaccination and there is a particular concern because they were not studied very widely in japan so the japanese authorities did ask some of these companies to come back and do add additional studies in the japanese population to really convince people that it is safe and effective. that has been done and these numbers are looking very good for the japanese population. they are starting to roll out those inoculations now, about 40,000 doctors and nurses from about 100 hospitals across the country are getting them now and that's going to increase to 3.7 million in the next couple of weeks and from there, we will continue to get additional

vaccinations happening. shery: michelle cortez with the latest on the coronavirus pandemic. we do have breaking news at the moment. spacex completing a race of money last week according to cnbc which is citing sources close to the matter, saying that this has jumped the company's valuation to $74 billion. the new funds the company has raised would come in at 419 point $99 a share. in this sense, the valuation of spacex to jump up 60% from its previous round in august. let's turn to vonnie quinn for the first word headlines. >> joe biden says he intends to recalibrate the u.s. relationship with saudi arabia and will emphasize ties to king salman rather than to the crown prince. that is the latest line of how

the new administration is reassessing links with the kingdom under president trump. in its first few days, the white house launched new efforts to end the war in yemen. exports from japan accelerated in january even as new virus infections hit key market. the value of overseas shipments rose 6.4% from a year ago, rising for a second straight month and picking up from december 2% climb. even so, that is a slight miss on analyst estimates. machine orders gained from the previous month. -- agreed to pay within 23 million u.s. dollars a year for use of its news content. the morning herald is citing unidentified sources, saying an agreement could be struck in the next two weeks. australia's parliament set to consider legislation this week that would force social media giants to pay traditional media outlets for content. 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. shery. shery: let's turn to myanmar. protests have continued as the military files another charge against the de facto civilian leader. our government reporter joins us now. so we first had charges of illegally possessing foreign walkie-talkies, so what is this new charge about? >> already facing as many as three years for breaching an import/export law. we are talking about the walkie-talkies. he filed an additional charge on tuesday under the natural disaster management law. she allegedly violated covid-19 regulations while campaigning in last year's elections in which her national lead for democracy would go on to win in a landslide. this additional charge is actually the same charge being saved by the detained president.

haidi: what are we hearing from the military? they gave their first briefing since the coup. some of these comments with respect to the impact of sanctions and treatment of protesters was part of that. philip: yes, yesterday, we saw the crew speak out for the first time -- sorry, saw the military speak out for the first time since the coup. it had defended its move to oust the civilian government in the face of these growing protests. it dismissed the impact of u.s. sanctions while showing no signs of compromise with demonstrators. he said that the military actions so far have been in line with the constitution. and it was not a coup. he also added that the regime was taking steps to fight covid and wanted to attract foreign investment while seeking to

discredit protesters by showing videos of violence against authorities. you know, this press conference kind of came on the back of a slew of new laws and regulations being passed by the military that kind of made greater punishments for such things as creating incitement online, harsher prison sentences for basically any number of violations that are all apparently in an attempt to crackdown on protesters. >> more ahead on bloomberg tv. this is bloomberg. ♪

>> a quick check of the latest business flash headlines this hour. amazon has bought a sydney based e-commerce platform, a company that helps small businesses create websites. the founder and ceo announced that the deal in a blog post, saying he is looking forward to working with amazon on easy to use calls for entrepreneurs. amazon confirmed the acquisition but no financial terms have been disclosed. a japanese oil explorer is planning an electric vehicle startup to meet the government's green target. it will announce a mini ev later

this year. it says the price tag may be under $10,000 with estimated demand at around one million units per year. japan wants to ban internal combustion engines by the mid-20 30's. citigroup has unexpectedly lost its legal battle to recover funds it mistakenly sent to lenders. a judge ruled that 10 asset managers did not have to return more than $.5 billion that they transferred last august. the court says the asset managers should not have been expected to know the transfer was in error. let's take a look at some of the stocks we are watching in this asian session. sophie. sophie: jd.com and focus in hong kong after they jumped on plans to spin off its logistics shipping business the listing in the city. previous estimates put valuations for the unit at $40 billion. following a german news report that bmw is to boost its annual

production by 100,000 vehicles under a contract manufacturing deal. shares hit a three month high on tuesday in hong kong and we are keeping an eye on tsmc with taiwanese markets coming back online after the lunar new year. local media reporting it will add staff to a factory to accelerate production as demand rises. order visibility is seeing lasting until 2022 2023. demands picking up from clients like apple, qualcomm. ahead of all that, we have taiex futures jumping more than 2%. shery. shery: you will get more insight on the markets as well with learner group and our guest. she sees a potential correction in the second quarter. an exclusive interview with the philippine central bank governor on the outlook for the economy and rates. also, do not miss that exclusive interview with singapore's minister for finance. they just released their 2021

budget so you will want to keep an eye out for that conversation. more markets coverage continues. mainland china is closed right now but you have the start of trade in hong kong. standby for "bloomberg markets: china open." this is bloomberg. ♪ ♪

>> here we go. good morning. it's 9:00 in beijing. welcome to bloomberg markets the china open. counting down to the open of trade here in hong kong. let's get to your top stories today. global stocks retreat from records as treasury yields continue to surge, the highest level in a year. investors are weighing how rising yields could affect risk assets.