haidi: hello and welcome to "daybreak asia." i'm haidi stroud-watts in sydney. sophie: i am sophie kamaruddin in hong kong. shery: good evening. i am shery ahn. our top stories this hour. asians box set to gain ahead of friday's u.s. jobs report with wall street hitting new highs as earnings overshadow virus worries. the delta variant is pending

return to office plans at blackrock and wells fargo. robinhood's rally reverses as early investors moved to unload shares less than one week after its ipo. haidi: we are in the final stretch. let's take a look at how we are setting up for markets in this part of the world friday morning. sophie: we are seeing futures looking mixed in asia on a busy friday as we wrap up the last trading week of august. they are still nagging u.s. peers. a vote of confidence from goldman. earnings growth and low interest rates. speaking of rates, we get the rbi's see decision. no change expected as the central bank is seen tolerating price pressures paid the quarterly update, the aussie dollar holding 70 ahead of that and check out wti headed for the first weekly drop as markets assess the impact of the delta variant which has seen headwinds

increase in southeast asia and boosted chatter around potential easing of central banks in the region. flipping the board, we are likely to see some strong debuts out of seoul and jakarta as they start trading this friday. korean ip is have raised a record $13 billion this year. that is the biggest in a decade. they more than doubled their allocation to retail investors for its share sale on wrong demand which reflects appetite for tech names at a time when chinese tech shares have been on a roller coaster ride, haidi. haidi: what a roller coaster ride. we continue to watch this keenly because even if the wind out of the sales have been taken out, we have seen more bargain-hunting. some of these braver investors wading back in.

the chinese tiktok competitor just having that downfall, extending losses. the most on record after that post, lifting lockup of the shares, underscoring just the amount of risk aversion that remains when it comes to what happens next with the tech sector in china. shery: tencent continues to see double-digit losses as we head to the last trading day of the week. what a roller coaster ride it has been not only for the gaming sector. spiritual opium but also the education sector with ups and downs for that sector which has been receiving criticism from the chinese authorities as well, not to mention sportswear. one area that potentially acted as a safe haven this year given the spending in the lead up to the 2020 winter olympics, but our next guest now sayin the regulations on the education sector were worse than he

expected but he remains constructive on china especially some select internet giants have met bring in luis lau. are the valuations now finally cheap enough to get back into these tech giants if you are looking to invest in china long-term? >> i definitely think so. if you look at the valuations, they are down to the lowest level in the last decade. we cannot really go by what happened in the last 10 years because there was an environment where regulation was very light and we need to make adjustments to the current environment. i think the profitable internet giants, not the ones that have a pullover track record of profitability, but the larger and stronger ones, those are worthy of accumulating. >> what about sectors people thought were going to benefit from chinese policy #i mentioned the sportswear center where

beijing has been investing heavily in or the ev sector, clean energy? louis: those areas have risen a lot in the last few years. they are very good companies, very good brands, but quite expensive. i would look at the sportswear retailers. those have lower valuations. i think the other part of your question was regarding electric vehicles, maybe even semiconductors. these are quite expensive areas. haidi: we have been seeing this pullback when it comes to the reopening trade. consumer tourism related stocks and gaming as well. are there opportunities if you are willing to somehow be able to not just look past delta but whatever next variant could be impacting us? louis: with travel and casino

and gaming related sectors, we need to have a two-year to three year view because this could be an off and on rain of theme with regards to the different variants. longer-term, i think macau looks very volatile and there are some travel related industries and some of them are operating travel software and those could be quite interesting at this moment as well. haidi: when you take a look at the fundamentals of emerging markets in southeast asia that has struggled with the new variant and even with the old variant consistently, indonesia, for example, when we saw the virus curbs lifted, gdp bounced back. does that mean there are hidden opportunities within southeast asia, even as it continues to be ravaged by covid? louis: indonesia's emerging from the current ways. they seem to be past the worst. if you look at some of the banks, the telecom companies,

and the food companies struggling with input costs, palm oil packaging costs, those margins have been squeezed. i think with the reopening, the demand being strong, indonesia remains a place for bargain-hunting. the internet ones will continue to be quite popular as we saw in some of the ipo's. the traditional indices. shery: are there sure bets in terms of manned for the semiconductor shortage which seems to be really roiling markets and we don't know when that will end? is that a sure bet around north east asia? louis: i think if you listen to some of the industry leaders and companies, they seem to indicate the semiconductor shortage will continue through 2022 and 2023. in terms of a sure bet, the demand will be there. the supply is going to increase.

the u.s. is going to encourage companies to start producing semiconductors there. in terms of the fundamentals, semiconductors will still be very strong. there is a lot of leading-edge development. we like the smartphone chain and then component companies that are serving data centers, i think that these will be very strong in the next two years to three years. haidi: there's been some partly tongue-in-cheek commentary about how we are seeing investors really turning to try and work out, read the tea leaves to work out what the next targets and opportunities are. if we take a look at the volatility associated with china, is this the best way forward given the lack of transparency that we now associate with lessee direction? louis: if we go back to a few months ago, i mentioned that soon, a buying opportunity might

come to china and we might be in one of those regulatory driven phase is where the implied risk premium in china has been elevated in the last two weeks so i think it might not be as productive in terms of trying to find what the next area is but rather may be trying to look at areas that may be consumer oriented, and i think that those will have less policy risk and i think you can invest more safely but because of the ways the government promotion cycle is going leading up to the 20th party congress, this volatility and regulation is likely to continue for most of the year until the year-end so the clearer point if you are trying to be safe is to wait until year-end but you can still be quite selective and find good opportunities in this environment. shery: great to have you with us. we have an alert on the bloomberg right now. we are getting the

second-quarter numbers for cookout. operating profit missing estimates, coming in at 162.6 one billion won, a gain of 66% on year but still a little bit short of estimates. net coming in at 311.6 6 billion won which is higher than estimated but when it comes to the operating profit, it is missing expectations. cookout has done really well this year. we are talking about shares gaining 89% through july. and the founder of the south korean messaging giant becoming the richest person in south korea. we have seen this stock release or in the past year in 2021 with the tycoon having $6 billion more in net wealth. let's turn to all the confusion across wall street when it comes to the return to office policy. banks summoning employees,

diverging policies, intertwining with the spread of the delta covid variant. sally bakewell joins us now with the latest on this. sally, what are we hearing? we continue to hear conflict messaging coming from different banks. sally: i think confusion really rains at the moment on wall street. today, we had blackrock and wells fargo saying that they are pushing the return to office plans backed by a month or early october but of course, that contrast with banks that have taken more aggressive lines on bringing people back into the office, such as goldman sachs and jp morgan, who now have people in the building. of course, it is a little bit more difficult for them to turn that ship around. so they seem at least at the moment largely to be sticking to their policies to continue to have people coming into work but it definitely is causing this kind of -- it is jarring. it is causing consternation

among people who quite understandably are a little bit anxious going back to work knowing that the delta variant is rampant and transmissible as it is even among vaccinated people. haidi: we know how qian wall street ceo's are to getting people back in the office and some semblance of normality. does that mean we will see mandated vaccinations potentially? sally: that is a great question. only morgan stanley and jeffries have really gone to the extent of mandating vaccines. it remains to be seen whether some of the other rivals would do that. perhaps when approval comes for the vaccine through the fda, that might fuel or allow the banks to take this extra step. but no doubt they are all waiting their current policies and current measures.

jp morgan for example might change its mask mandate. we saw citi last week reinstate its mask mandate so this is really cap ending their plans. -- upending their plans. they will be reviewing their current process. haidi: we are expecting early september according to some reports for the final approval for the pfizer shot. sally bakewell in new york on the state of the return to office plans there. still ahead, we will be outside the national olympics stadium in tokyo as the summer games wrap up this weekend. we will be talking about the legacy and impact for prime minister suga later this hour. offer of a safe haven for hong kong residents to stay in the u.s. what reaction we have had from china, next. this is bloomberg. ♪

vonnie: this is "daybreak asia." i am vonnie quinn. the u.s. senate is heading for a stand up over the federal government's debt limit that could throw financial markets into chaos without a bipartisan compromise. republicans signaled they are unlikely to support an increase. democrats currently have two options. convince 10 republicans to vote by september or go it alone. organizers of the 2022 winter olympics say the beijing games could take place without dictators. the ioc's executive director tells bloomberg it all depends on how the pandemic evolves, especially in the host countries. it is battling a widespread outbreak. china's borders are mostly closed to international tourists. games are set to begin in february.

moderna says a final analysis of its late age study shows that its covid-19 vaccine remains 93% effective six months after second shot. the company did reiterate it believes a booster dose is likely necessary in the coming months, especially in the face of a surge in the delta variant. the who has called for a moratorium on booster shots until more people in the developing world are vaccinated. hong kong's streak of covid-19 infection free days has ended with a report of the first local case in nearly two months. it comes just as the government begins easing restrictions on international travel. officials confirm the infected 43-year-old man had no symptoms and no recent travel history but had virus antibodies in his blood despite not being vaccinated. 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 vonnie quinn. this is bloomberg.

haidi: president joe biden says hong kong residents in the u.s. can remain in the country for as long as 18 months. the memo is the latest in a series of measures that biden's administration have taken over what it calls china's campaign to stifle democracy and the rule of law in the city. let's get more from jordan. how much of this move is symbolic as opposed to practical? jordan: for hong kongers who are in the united states, it is more than symbolic. they will be able to stay here and perhaps get work permits if they feel like they are going to get caught in this web of national security law if they return home but that being said, it is unclear how many people this would affect. it only applies to people who have already been in the united states as of today when the

order came down and you would also have had to have been in the united states continuously, so not going back and forth to hong kong. so it is not clear again how many people this affects but for those who it does, it brings some relief. shery: the response from beijing has been swift. they are calling this pretentious. jordan: that is right. they are calling it another example of the u.s. interfering in domestic affairs of china and this has been beijing's attitude toward hong kong for a long time that it is really not the united dates business or any western governments business what they are doing in hong kong. the biden administration and other western governments vehemently disagree with that and other governments in europe and elsewhere have taken similar measures to try and bring relief to hong kong residents. the biden administration has done a number of things to crack down on chinese of shows over its actions in hong kong. -- chinese officials over its

actions in hong kong. haidi: breaking news when it comes to the shanghai share sale for the china telecom. they are set to raise 47.1 billion yuan. we had earlier heard that china telecom had cut the number of shares it was planning to sell in that shanghai listing, likely to be the world's biggest in terms of 2021. we are still looking out as to whether that is possible because anything above a book value of 4.49 per share would imply a listing of 46.7 billion yuan or 7.2 billion yuan and we are getting news that 47.1 billion yuan is just over that intentionally making it the biggest for 2021, superseding that of its rivals. we saw it falling by a record in the overnight session. china telecom cutting the number of sales but still looking like a record size for that shanghai

share sale. coming up next, robinhood sinking one day after its meteor rally. it allowed insiders to sell. this is bloomberg. ♪

shery: we are seeing broad upsides among crypto assets. bitcoin has been seesawing around the 40,000 level. anytime he gets near its 100 day moving average in the past four days, is troubled. right now, we are seeing it gain .6%. we are seeing a lot of volatility for ethereum. it gained .9% and we also have the bloomberg galaxy index up .7%. haidi: let's take a look at

robinhood. the ipo of course last week was viewed as a dud with shares falling in love offer price. this week, the stock rallied 50% on the wednesday session. it continued into the following session, plunging by around one third as early investors -- su keenan joins us now so i suppose this highlights another unusual aspect of the ipo. no six-month lockup period where investors are barred from selling. su: and that puts a lot of pressure on the stock. they were able to sell as early as the first day of trading and later on, there was a regulatory filing showing that some of the early investors, large investors are also able to cash in and have issued plans to sell as much as 100 million dollars of shares over time and that clearly put pressure on the stock, falling just below the

$51 mark. investors again who were listed in this filing to part back in february in a $3.55 billion convertible debt they'll buy robinhood and the largest of the debtholders was a venture capital firm called new enterprise association. you will notice some very big names on there. they were all part of a big rescue, you may recall, earlier in the year, in which they helped bailout robinhood during that potentially terminal margin call during the gamestop trading frenzy. they have scored returns in excess of 150% or a combined gain of 5.5 billion dollars since february according to bloomberg data. while triple digit returns are

not unheard of, they rarely come this quickly. the filing was not only a surprise but put significant pressure on the stock. shery: what are analysts saying about more volatility ahead? su: they are saying expect more of it. technically, there is more downward pressure as mark salling may take place. they are pointing out that they cannot recommend on the long or short for this stock, when there's a lot of questions about whether it will become a meme stock and you know, a lot of the reddit army may try and short it. as we know, individual investors were a key driver of the wednesday rally up 50% where it was the fourth most traded stock. it did push the volume higher as we can see in the bloomberg. we look at activity in recent ipo's, that is the opposite. retail investor interest dwindles off but in this case, it seems to have spiked so a

very unusual pattern here. shery: su keenan with the latest on robinhood and robinhood rising to prominence given the meme stocks, we now have those breakout starts on financial and social media, some who work in finance, some who trade real ideas on twitter, affectionately now being called -- and turning out to be a place for women to build a following. >> i feel like joe weisenthal should be part of this conversation. i remember joining twitter maybe 10 years ago and it was around even then. it was a bunch of nerds getting together to get what the jobs numbers were going to be every month. guessing the number of mario draghi -- this just exploded. take a look at the pictures you are seeing on your screen.

talking about the intersection of social media influences and financial advice. >> really quite something in the era of social media. coming up next, fears of stricter regulation rippling through the differen in business, it's never just another day. it's the big sale, or the big presentation. the day where everything goes right. or the one where nothing does. with comcast business you get the network that can deliver gig speeds to the most businesses and advanced cybersecurity to protect every device on it— all backed by a dedicated team, 24/7. every day in business is a big day. we'll keep you ready for what's next. - [announcer] imagine having fuller, thicker, more voluminous hair instantly. all it takes is just one session at hairclub. introducing xtrands. xtrands adds hundreds or even thousands of hair strands to your existing hair at the root. they're personalized to match your own natural hair color

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shery: we have breaking numbers out of japan. we are getting household spending and labor cash earnings. they are a big miss for the month of june. household spending, a contraction of 5.1%. we have two consecutive months of double-digit gains. we knew it was going to be weak because we have the extension of the state of emergency not to mention base effects, but still, it is a much bigger contraction than was expected. a contraction of 5.1%. the expectation was for growth of .2%.

labor cash earnings, it contraction of 0.1%. instead of growth. labor cash earnings not looking good. we were expecting a decline given that we saw a decline in summer bonuses. some are bonuses dropping more than 7% in 2021 compared to last year but still, a contraction is much more than we were expecting in terms of declines and pressure on labor cash earnings year on year. a contraction of 0.1%. haidi. haidi: the boj going nowhere. let's get to vonnie quinn who is in new york and she has our first word headlines. vonnie: president joe biden issued an order allowing hong kong residents in the united ways to remain in the country for up to 18 months. citing beijing's crackdown on political freedoms in the territory. the president's directive also allowed hong kong residents to receive temporary safe havens. beijing blasted the move, saying

the u.s. is interfering in its internal affairs. in greece, a resurgent wild fire is burning homes north of athens , forcing more evacuations and threatening ancient monuments. it is fueled by the worst t wave in decades. officials say firefighters are working around-the-clock. as well as the site that was the birthplace of the olympics. european officials blamed the blazes on climate change. china restarting production as policymakers seek to balance climate goals with surging power demands. officials say operations will resume for a year at 15 coal mines across northern provinces. delivering up to 44 million tons of coal. beijing is attempting to tame record high thermal coal prices.

u.s. airports are preventing people from sneaking alcohol on board flights. officials say passenger outbursts have soared since covid mask mandates were brought in. so far, more than 3700 cases of so-called air rage have been reported and that compares with just 183 faa inquiries in all of 20/20. a soccer superstar will leave the only club he has played with since he was 13 years old. fc barcelona said it could not sign him due to so-called financial and structural obstacles. he had been expected to sign a new contract with the club on thursday. his most recent deal was worth almost $675 million. 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 vonnie quinn. this is bloomberg. shery: shares of tiktok's

arrival fell the most on record thursday in hong kong as the post-ipo lockup period expired. it underscores the extent of investors concerns over a widening crackdown on internet platform companies. for more, let's bring in stephen engle in hong kong. what is happening with the company? stephen: it has been a roller coaster 10 months and of course, this story is multi fold. we do mentioned the six month post-ipo lockup period expired and many people dumped out of the stock. the most on record, falling yesterday more than 15%. the stock is down within 20% since its ipo price six months ago. it was once an ipo darling of course but times have changed. and now, focus is kind of turning. while we had the cornerstone investors and key investors getting out, we also have

investors kind of not only parsing xi jinping's speeches but also the media more than ever before because with all the noise earlier this week, with them having the story about the dangers of online gaming and tencent falling, which fell again yesterday more than 11% in the past week, was an article that came out that talked about the algorithms that these media companies like tiktok have been using to drive consumer content and loyalty, if you will, to drive traffic essentially. the economic daily on thursday put out a note that says companies must reduce their reliance on the folder -- vulgar videos to drive traffic. this selloff is the lockup period expiring and then of course parsing state media.

haidi: we are also hearing of layoffs at bytedance. of course, the rival. >> that is the education crackdown so we have to look at the number of different crackdowns because they wanted to find its next star so they went into educational technology companies which will be shutting down completely after this crackdown on the online tutoring sector. we are learning that bytedance is going to be laying off hundreds of employees and closing down a number of these services. the educational tech sector from bytedance, famous for tiktok of course, at one time employed more than 10,000 employees and that will be shaved down. >> we also saw selling on some of those so-called stocks. is this just investors unloading on anything and everything that they perceived beijing might not like? stephen: confidence is shaky as

one investor told us and that is true across many different sectors. i will talk about the vaping stocks, e-cigarette stocks. they are looking at the sheen was -- chinois news report. one particular vaping stocks fell as much as 7% before correcting a bit. there was a report that talked about the ability of adolescents to be able to get e-cigarettes. it also fell 4.8% but also the alcohol front -- it is the most famous alcohol company. it fell along with other makers. there was a government ministry which posted a story linking alcohol with cancer. we have known about that link for years if not decades but anything being posted online in china sparks some fear.

haidi: stephen engle with the latest on the crackdown. the former hong kong exchange -- said china's corporate crackdowns are a natural policy progression name that rebalancing its economy. he launched a platform linking foreign capital to china's foreign businesses and said it is keeping a close watch on regulatory issues. >> what we are doing is on the right side of history. what we are doing is absolutely on the right side of the political and policy prerogatives simply because we are not consuming funding from the public source so we are not creating any financial systematic risk to china's financial system. we are spending on places where that is where real financing should have been because our financial system has become this massive system floating on top

of the real economy. what we are trying to do is put money into the soil, into the deep roots of the part of the economy that truly supports the gdp, truly creates jobs, and truly provides in fiscal revenues. >> what is your personal feeling about what is happening with ant, alibaba, and didi's misfortunes? you brought a lot of these tech giants to hong kong or to a secondary listing. charles: the market, if they follow china carefully, was strong, analytical. we should know that this was coming. this was all quite distant with the broader direction of what the government says, essentially rebalancing efficiency and fairness or equity. today, the business is becoming so big, the sector is becoming

so influential in all elements of our society, people rightfully begin to move that balance towards what is more equitable, what is more fair, and let's create a level playing field so i think that is just the natural progression of policy. >> as the former hong kong exchange chief executive, i have to ask you about, does hong kong stand to benefit from this as well? what is your outlook in terms of the ipo arena now? charles: i don't think -- i like to think from the perspective that someone else is having a problem. we are the beneficiary of that problem. even if that might be the case, i do not feel particularly happy celebrating that. that is not really our strength. our strength is that we to fix our problems, remove our barriers, we make it easier for people to come here so that they do come here and choose to be here. the question we should be asking

ourselves, why do big companies choose to list in the u.s.? we need to identify those issues and figure out a way so that they do not have to be agonizing between hong kong, new york, and other places. shery: it has -- >> it has been more than a year since this legislation came into effect. what do you make of the business environment right now? you get a sense that chinese companies or international businesses have confidence in hong kong or are they getting increasingly more worried about these invisible, moving redlines? charles: whenever you experience a new change, big picture shift, people will take the time to understand that the national security law is one of the big moments in hong kong history that people rightfully need to pause and think about it. i don't think this is the one thing that people will say that this is not something that is

going to fundamentally change the way hong kong operates. no, it will not. other countries have national security laws. every other country has a similar arrangement and hong kong has been the unusual place where such things have not been there be or so now, we are going to embrace the same type of, you know, arrangement, given what happened here in two years, and i think the business is going to have to find a way to understand it. i personally believe the business has found a rebalancing. i think the broader consensus is different. it has not fundamentally changed the fact that this is the best place to go. >> last year, you had to apologize over some remarks he made over the political protests that exposed false. you said it was taken out of

context. do you still support one country, two systems? charles: absolutely. that is what makes hong kong great. it is what makes hong kong resilient. it is what has made hong kong the absolutely unique, especially in this new environment when the two big rivals, the center of gravity between the u.s. and china, some people think it is unfortunate and i think it is absolutely fortunate that we are right in the middle and being able to help, you know, smooth out that rise and relative change and minimize the friction. shery: that was charles li. you can get more context and analysis on china's crackdown on its tech giant on redline's china and big tech at the bloomberg technology channel on youtube. let's turn to sophie kamaruddin, who is tracking the impact of

the pandemic on businesses. sophie: focusing on toyota as we have been tracking the supply chain issues, especially in asean, which are causing -- given that a near-term rebound in production is seen to be shaky. using the function to track the operations in thailand, we have seen the carmaker extend closures. we have seen downside pressure for suppliers including thai steel cable. when it comes to toyotas earnings, revenues seem to have peaked in fiscal 2021 and we are seeing that growth potentially followed by about 4% this quarter compared to the past three months given that the carmaker is struggling to keep assembly lines running and with that, we have seen them stay

range bound along with the broader market as investors map out the virus woes as well as consider the post olympics narrative for japanese markets. shery: coming up next, the tokyo olympics ending sunday after two weeks of drama, emotional highs and lows. the are on the ground. this is bloomberg. ♪

haidi: the tokyo olympics will conclude on sunday as we head for the initial line. the city reported a record of over 5000 covid cases on thursday and remains in a state of emergency. let's get more from kurumi mori in tokyo. what is the view on whether the games have been a success? kurumi: when we are talking about success of the tokyo 2020 games, we can really look at two things, covid and the economic impact. in terms of covid, we have not seen an olympics strain like some experts have warned before the games and also no major outbreaks in terms of the clusters. when we go to economic impact, the cost of these olympics are estimated to be 14.9 9 billion dollars and that makes it the most expensive olympics ever, even topping the london 2012 games in terms of the economic boost. a direct boost is estimated to

be about $15.5 billion by nomura. all of that together is a successful olympics and it depends on how you look at it but the games did go on despite the pandemic so it is really how you view it. haidi: there have been so many amazing moments over the past couple of weeks. in terms of public sentiment, has it become more popular and does that mean it will be more positive for the pm if he calls a snap election? kurumi: the public sentiment seems to be slightly shifting for the better as the weeks have gone on. before the opening ceremony, we saw that the majority of the public here in japan were opposed to holding the games. many wanted to cancel. they are even delayed again. -- or even delay it again. japan set a record for single games so far. we saw a lot of happy moments adding to the mood here on the ground.

in terms of suga, we are not really sure how that is going to help him because his approval rating so far has dropped. the latest polls showing that the approval rating is hovering at around 34% according to nikkei so the sentiment of the excitement in the olympics and the metals, not really giving suga a boost. maybe more focused on covid-19 and the situation in japan with the rising number of cases. haidi: ahead of tokyo 2020, the ioc brand -- first ever gendered balanced games in history. have we seen a solid win for equality? to discuss, we are joined by western university senior lecturer and sports management. michelle, great to have you with us. tokyo 2020, did they medal when it comes to equality and diversity? michelle: i think i am going to have to say no on that one.

while we have seen it lauded as the most gender equal, therein lies one of the fundamental issues and what we had seen for gender parity in terms of representation for women and men. we have seen a window into the lived experiences and we just scratched the surface a little bit and the members tell one story but the experiences tell something quite different. >> at the same time, it has really been interesting when you take a look at a lack of resources and a lack of support that women in sports get compared to their male counterparts. yet again, at tokyo 2020, the headlines are all about simone biles, naomi osaka, the australian swim team. is that sort of casting a new light on how much funding should go into women in sports? michelle: some of those

examples that you mentioned really bring to light some of the ongoing issues and if we think about it, it was fabulous to see once they announced the team, we had this marvelous image of a gender balance to swim team and then we had the coaching staff and again, if we look at the experiences of simone biles and some of the other women you mentioned, the way that they are constructed in the media and represented really matters and we have seen some really big criticism of those two women, osaka and biles, coming out and talking about their lived experiences. we know that simone biles is a survivor of sexual abuse in sport and in spite of her challenge, she has come to the four and sought to use her

profile as a means to challenge some of the issues in sport, particularly as it relates to safe spaces in sport. shery: we have seen a lot of controversy about the rules of the ioc. give us a few examples of the lived experiences that women have faced that really do not live up to the promise. michelle: just thinking about japan as a host nation as well, the world economic forum, their global gender equity report placed them as 121 out of 153 nations in terms of gender equity so one of the really big issues with these games has been the organizing committee and while women have been sitting at the table, their voices have not necessarily been adequately enabled and certainly not valued. when you have got -- what we are seeing in the ioc is men making decisions.

things like the inability for the beginning stages of women not being able to be accompanied by their children and family members. there is a problem with that when we have women that are lactating and they have to feed their baby. so when you have only got, as i said, one lens, one voice being heard, we see some impractical decisions and we have also seen in respect to canada, 2018, 20 19, and she was rendered ineligible. she was the second best ranked fighter and had to go to the highest court in sport and she had to fight for permission to participate. she did win that battle but there seems to always be this cost and women's involvement is only permissible under the guise of what men in decision-making roles render appropriate or otherwise and you sort of

mentioned that notion of how women are represented and we either surveillance of their bodies and we have seen the german team come out wearing the unitard and they feel more comfortable in that. we have also seen the european -- the norwegian hand ballers pushing against that surveillance and saying that these uniforms are impractical. shery: i love those unitard's. staying on that topic, is there more that the media can do? we have seen some women really being lauded but at the same time, their aesthetics are being appraised instead of their athleticism, for example. michelle: we should certainly give credit where credit is due. the ioc have done some -- they have enabled some structural changes so that we the events during prime time and we see

media reporting across the first week of the games actually diamond rated that women actually got more coverage than men. it is the nature of the representation. the media is so powerful and it does not just represent but it constructs realities. so unfortunately, what we are still seeing, as you rightly suggest, is women spoken about and their athleticism constructed in particular ways that really verifies these kind of gendered normative ideals around women so we the their mothering and relationship status, for example, talked about over their athletic performance. as is the case of south korea -- she has won three gold medals. the first woman to do so in archery since 1904 in fact and she has been slated on social

media by her countrymen and they rendered her a feminist only because of her short hair. she gives her metals back and it is challenging to comprehend the fact that we are where we are today and yet we still have these sort of ideas. haidi: the entitlement of sports viewing fans is quite interesting. very quickly, what about the intersection of gender and race? i feel like it is just another set of challenges for nonwhite female athletes. michelle: yes, and look, there is this history there. so gender and then other categories of difference. i think we really see that with casters to many and not being able to defend her 800 meter tile little. -- meter title. because of the naturally occurring hormone levels. we have been -- which was

specifically manufactured for african women's hair. that has been banned. shery: we have to leave it there. we are out of time, but thank you very much. we will be back. this is bloomberg. ♪

♪ anchor: welcome today by geisha. i am shery ahn in new york. taking a look at the major markets opening in asia. our top stories is our pure hope that starts are set to gain a purist wall street hitting new highs as earnings of virus concerns. s&p breaking deeper into territory warning of rapidly

averting liquidity and nonpayment risks. regulation with the former hk expert. let's take a look at our markets this friday morning. sophie: this morning, we are seeing divergence for tokyo stocks. the nikkei edging higher this morning. earnings from the likes of ntt keeping a watch on that. check up again -- out the yen. gdb is slightly under pressure. in the rates, rbi expected to hold later today. switching out to south korea, with the bank's debut in focus. we are seeing a little bit in the korean yuan while waiting for other earnings with the second quarter results earlier today. we are waiting for potential updates from the government on

where does whether to extend social distancing measures. in sydney this morning, digesting the latest commentary from the governor, up 2/10th of a percent. the aussie dollar holding on. the governor cannot rollout -- rollout growth declines in covid risk but the economy is bouncing back by the end of the year with the rba standing ready to provide support at the outbreak does worsen. we see u.s. futures edging below this morning. nasdaq hit new records on thursday and goldman has seen earnings growth driving further gains for the stocks, boosting equity target to 7400. rest stocks widening the gap with agent equities -- asian equities, which have been lighting since march. -- lagging since march. goals to reach herd immunity happen challenged in some countries including thailand and

singapore. markets are going for -- further. shery: but springing our next guest, who remains --let's bring in our next guest, who remains cautious on equities. joining us from hong kong, head of asian equities. always great having you with us. were these calls including the chinese markets when we continue to see the regulatory risk? guest: thanks for having me. good morning. i believe so. what we are seeing in the last couple of weeks has been challenging for asian investors. within the broader space and chinese stocks, we believe they have fundamental value after the pullback. we have seen a few stock -- stocks between 10-15% and showing compelling value for us. shery: you actually increasing

your exposure to some of those chinese names instead of reducing them at this time here -- time. mr. chen: we were lucky. prior to the announcement of stock underrated on chinese exposure in the asian equity space, that helped us being able to deal with a setback and deal with it from this position is a markets pullback from -- pullback. shery: as you take a look at the impact that the covid outbreaks across asia, where do you see opportunities, if there is a stumble when it comes to the opening up and some of the tourism gaining related trends? mr. chen: i think the covid pandemic, particularly for asia, has been challenging because of the abilities of vaccines and putting them into people's arms. we have seen various economies in southeast asia having to relock down their economies as a

pandemic continued to worsen. having said that, we are seeing some interesting things in thailand where we have seen experiments of the setbacks that seem to work quite well with infection rates and tourism. we are waiting to hear from singapore, doing the national data speech. they will relax their measures once they have reached a level of herd immunity through vaccination. in this overall context, we are going to see some interesting place emerging in the recovery of tourism and specific countries. this is probably not broad-based. i think this is where our edge

in the fundamental -- fundamental equity usage comes to play. shery: i want to get you to our question of the day, as well. throwing ahead to the u.s. jobs report and trying to work out what the impact will be, is there a sense with the complicated macro conditions that every central bank that is looking out of the way of this extraordinary policy environment is facing. what does that potentially mean for how good data pushes the markets? mr. chen: right now, we are having a very interesting thing with employment, inflation, and what would be -- well the central banks do with the extraordinary fiscal measures and monetary measures we are seeing. we are seeing board members from the fed saying economic growth seems to be gaining strength.

we have some things that the fed might taper. the markets have been very reactive to these measures over the last weeks as we have seen. i think the stronger employment numbers are probably going to put some backing to the expectation that employment numbers and ethnic groups isn't coming back despite the delta very concerns in the u.s.. we are seeing a patient runway from the fed. the departments are seeing that it will not until 2023 part of a strong employment recovery might shift that forward. shery: what about opportunities in southeast asia? of course, we have seen major economies like indonesia hard

hit by the virus and lighting when it comes vaccination. with a long-term perspective of the environments we have? mr. chen: we think so. i think a lot of the stock market has underperformed in an overall context and this has much to do with economic conditions and pandemic issues we have seen in the countries. we are seeing it interesting companies particularly exposed to structural growth stories we like in e-commerce. today we are awaiting indonesia and in the second half of this year, we probably see the lifting of the measure. those will be interesting companies to look at. shery: as of man it -- asset management head of asian equities. vonnie quinn with the first word headlines. vonnie: the man who engineered

the landmark program making stock markets on the mainland to hong kong is launching a new venture in china despite the recent regulatory clampdown. former hong kong exchange ceo called micro connect is speaking to foreign capitals with small businesses across china. he told bloomberg the tighter restrictions are a natural progression. guest: the government began to move that balance toward much more equitable and fair and create a level playing field. i think that is a natural progression of policy. vonnie: you can see that interview with charles lee in full and a couple of minutes on daybreak: asia. president joe biden has issued an order allowing hong kong residents of the united states to remain in the country for up to 18 months. citing beijing's crackdown on political freedoms in the territory. the president's directive allows hong kong residents who seek

temporary safe haven to apply for a work permit. beijing blasted the move saying the u.s. is interfering in its internal affairs. the u.s. senate is heading toward a standoff over the federal government's debt limit that could slow finance markets into chaos about a bipartisan compromise. republicans have signaled they are unlikely to suspend or increase. democrats have two options. convince 10 republicans to vote on a stopgap measure by september or to go it alone. global news, 24 hours a day, on air all bloombergquint take, powered by more than 27 journalists and analysts in more than 100 20 countries. i am vonnie quinn. this is bloomberg. shery: we will take a look at the economic impact of the recent covid surge on southeast asia. regional cohead of micro research. up next, more on the china crackdown as fears of stricter regulation are rippling through many sectors.

this is bloomberg. ♪

shery: shares of tiktok crashed. following the most on record thursday on hong kong. the lockout. expired. it underscores the extent of investor concern over that crackdown on internet companies. let's bring in our correspondent stephen engle in hong kong. is there any particular catalyst for the pressure? stephen: there are a few catalyst. again, everybody is reading what the extent of direction and severity of his crackdown on multiple areas of the internet in china and other areas of the economy. the latest to be in the spotlight. for the one hand, because you

said rightfully at the beginning, the six months lockout. came to an end. the big cornerstone investors that included blackstone, abu dhabi, pension funds and canadian pension funds. a lot of people got out of this because of all this uncertainty so the stock fell more than 15% yesterday. the most on record. it is down more than 20% since the bait, darling ipo. the other one is investors are kind of reading with more interest based media. not only teaching paying for policy clues but state media because in the noise -- xi jinping paying for policy clues but state media. another three point 9%. yesterday, it brought the weeds total losses to more than 11%. there were other -- week's total losses to more than 1%.

there was one economic survey that called on companies to reduce their alliance on vulgar videos to drive traffic. that is another reason why the social media companies fell yesterday. shery: also taking ahead, announcing layoffs. what is going on? guest: it is apparent to the rival tiktok, a big arrival. they are into educational tech as a way to look for the next rising star industry after tiktok. in addition to tiktok. they have companies like gogo kid and others, which will shut down completely. they are laying off hundreds of staff in the sector of --division of the company that wants -- once had 10,000+ employees. because of the crackdown on online tutoring and english schools by beijing, there have not been a snap -- they have

scaled back their ed tech significantly. shery: stephen engle there. we have breaking news of cacao with shares surging 74% on its debut. remember, we also had to cal second quarter operating profit slightly missing expectations, but cacao shares surging. we were expecting the ipo of the bank bayer -- branch of cookout. the founder has done really well this year considering the rally in the cacao shares that have gained 89% until july of this year by kim seeing those gains of $6 billion in his net wealth. kakaobank shares rallying at the moment, surging 74%. they had received a little bit of scrutiny from regulators in

south korea but that ipo went ahead and their trading debut happening in seoul right now with shares gaining 68% at the moment. former hong kong exchange chief charles lee says the corporate crackdowns are a policy progression aimed at rebalancing the economy. he has launched a platform liking foreign capital to snap -- china small businesses and says he's keeping a close watch on regulatory issues. mr. lee: what we're doing is on the right side of history. what we are doing is absolutely on the right side of the political and policy apparatus. simply because we are now consuming funding from the public sorts. we are not creating a financial system with systematic risk to the financial system. we are spending on places where that is where real financing should happening.

her financial system has become a massive system floating on top of the new economy. what we are trying to do is to put money in the soil into the deep roots a part of the economy that truly support the gp. truly create the jobs and provide fiscal revenues. shery: what is your personal feeling about what is happening with alibaba? you spent a lot of your time as former hong kong exchange ceo of brain these tech giants to hong kong or secondary listing. mr. li: the market was strong and analytical insight. we should know that this was coming. this is quite consistent with the broader direction of what the government says, but essentially, rebalancing the efficiency and fairness.

today, the business has become so big. the sector has become so influential in all elements of our society. the government rightfully began to move that balance toward what is more equitable and fair and created a level playing field. that is the natural progression of policy. shery: as the former hong kong exchange chief executive, i have to ask about -- does hong kong stand to benefit from this? what is your outlook? mr. li: i don't -- i would like to thank hong kong from the perspective that somebody else is having a problem and we are a beneficiary. even if that might be the case, i do not feel particularly happy celebrating that. that is not really our strength. our strength is we fix our problems. we remove all barriers. we make it easier for people to come here. they do come here and choose to

be here. the question we should ask ourselves, why specific companies -- big companies -- choose to listen to the u.s.? we need to identify those issues and figure out a way so they don't have to be agonizing between hong kong and new york and other places. shery: it has been more than a year since this legislation came into effect for national security. what do you make of the business environment? do you get a sense that international businesses here love confidence in hong kong or they getting more worried about these invisible moving redlines? mr. li: i don't think -- whenever you experience a new change, big picture shift, people will take the time to understand it and absorb it and the national security law is one of those big moments in hong kong history that people rightfully need to pause and think about it. i do not really think people are

going to say this is something that is going to fundamentally change the way hong kong operates. it will not. other countries have national security laws. hong kong has been the unusual place were such things have not been there before. now we are going to embrace the same type of arrangement, given what happened in the last two years here, and i think we will have to find a way to understand it and i believe businesses have found a rebalancing and found the right balance and i think the broader consensus is that it is different but it is not fundamentally changing the fact that this is the best place you go. shery: you had to apologize over for mark to made over the political protest last year that

you said exposed faults that were underlining the two system framework. you said it was taken out of context. do you still support that? mr. li: absolutely. hong kong is one country, two system. that is what makes hong kong great and resilient. that is what makes hong kong absolutely unique, especially in the new environment when the two big rivals in our central -- center of gravity, some of -- people think this is unfortunate. i think it is fortunate we are right in the middle and be able to help. smooth things out. to minimize the friction. shery: that was charles li, former hong kong exchange chief executive. he is the founder of macro connect. you can get more on china's crackdown on big tech screening

at the bloomberg technology channel on youtube. take a look at nintendo. we are seeing the worst state since february of 2019 after a miss in fourth-quarter profits. -- first quarter profits. they said they will buy back shares but that is not enough to alleviate concerns that gaining can -- demand could have peace. they maintain their forecast for 22% drop in operating profits for the fiscal year. they have not done well with semi conductor shortages and logistics continuing to impact production of their popular switch consul. the first quarter profit is estimates -- missed estimates and they fall more than 10%. this is bloomberg. ♪ ♪

♪ shery: the rating has been flashed to one of the lowest levels of junk buying s&p saying

the crisis of confidence by investors and lenders could squeeze the developers access to funding. this comes ahead of long-awaited results from the other debt ridden firm. let's bring in our china private at a work rebecca. you're the expert of the year. we have talked about huarong for so long. let's start with evergreen. that is a big story. downward spiral. what was the latest? rebecca: s&p global ratings have cut the credit rating by two notches. what is interesting is analysts and s&p saying there is risk rising faster than they initially thought. for shorter term debt such as trust that is coming. that came last night amid these other rumors that were swelling about of potential change to help ever grand, what cases

would be dealt with. that prompted a selloff in the dollar -- dollar bonds. shery: we finally are on the cusp of potentially knowing what is going on here. under the hood for huarong. rebecca: it is the corporate market and the bond market. that is wrecking what investors are looking for. it has to publish its result before the end of the month to avoid the technical default. egm is coming on august 17. investors more clarity over the financials in the structuring that may happen. we had some kind of tidbits ready with wire on -- huarong announcing filings of structuring.

shery: rebecca wilkins. wonderful to have you with us always. coming up next, a long and arduous road to the olympics in tokyo but just like that, they are drawing to a close. live in

[speaking foreign language] -- ♪ >> [indiscernible] >> let's see how the pandemic evolves especially in china and around the globe.

it's -- >> [indiscernible] shery: looking ahead to the whimper -- winter olympics in beijing but we have to conclude the tokyo olympics. the city reported a record of over 5000 covid cases on thursday and remains in a state of emergency. get more from bloombergquint take. what is the view on whether the games have been a success? reporter: when judging success, look at the covid situation and the economic impact. in terms of covid-19, we have not seen and a lepic strain like the experts have warned before the game.

no major clusters as of yet so far. it seems better than some experts have warned in terms of economic cost. $14.99 billion is the most expensive summer games to date. even more than the 2012 london olympics in terms of benefits. $58.5 billion directly boosting the economy. all that together. his of a success? it depends how you look at it. games have gone on. not as planned before covid 19. shery: does that mean we will see a boost when it comes to potential elections? we have not seen the approval rating benefits. kurumi: we will see how that dies in the upcoming elections. --dies in the upcoming elections. we are seeing a positive sentiment on the ground before the limits. people were pessimistic on the olympics.

they were pushing for cancellations and a look -- y delay. we are seeing more positivity coming in and japan winning a lot of gold medals, setting new records for the overall metal luck -- metal records. mick sentiment in terms of his approval rating dropping. despite those metals, his approval rating hovering around 34% according to a nikkei survey. it is not helping much right now. shery: you can see more of our a liv-ex coverage and keep track of those results at the tokyo games with bloomberg's metal tracker on the terminal and bloomberg.com. let's get you vonnie quinn with the first word headlines. vonnie: the streak of covid-19 infections in hong kong has ended with a report of the lowest case in nearly two months. it comes as the government

begins easing restrictions on international travel. officials confirmed infected 43 euros man had no symptoms and no recent travel history but has virus antibodies that is low despite not being vaccinated. moderna says the final analysis of its study shows covid 19 vaccine remains 93% effective six months after its second shot. the company did reiterate a winter dose -- booster dose is likely necessary in the face of a surge in the delta variant. the world health organization has called for a moratorium on booster shots until more people in the developing world are vaccinated. bill gates has called his relationship with jeffrey epstein a huge mistake. he told cnn he is discussing a philanthropy project. the new york times reported in

october 2019 -- epstein died in jail in 2019. he was awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. global news, 24 hours a day, on air and on bloombergquint take, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. i'm vonnie quinn. this is bloomberg. ♪ shery: next, we will assess the economic outlook for southeast asia with covid pushing the region to a breaking point. this is bloomberg. ♪

>> as far as the delta goes, it is difficult to tell if it is effective except markets that have slowed down. >> trying to get people to encourage them to come back. the delta variant has changed that. the cdc guideline has changed all that. >> where rents -- reinstituting the mandatory mass policy at all our sites. where providing incentives for good conversations with employees about the benefits. implementing safety guidelines with masking and social distancing. >> were going to work with governments based on the mandates. shery: some of the ceos we have heard from about that how the delta variant --

asking whether rebel recovery is hitting as headwinds intensify of support in the region constrained by the minute capacity and low interest rates. a winding road ahead for southeast asia. she joins us from singapore. your participating -- anticipating a u-shaped recovery for the region, conditional on a services recovery giving the impact and mobility. were kind of path are you sketching out to include s--get out of that services recession? >> [indiscernible]

shery: the fed has a sanguine view when it comes to inflation. what timeline are you anticipating and what are the indications for asean as noted by a recent note? we see assets of the bank moving ahead of the fed. mr. ein: this recovery is more uneven. [indiscernible]

shery: the buffers in-place place could reduce their vulnerability to the fed tapering. when it comes to asean, you see

it singapore as notching the practice of growth. where does that put the mas for that policy? mr. hak bin: is there any tightening, it will be the fifth -- the first to tighten. currently their inflation has picked up but there is still conversation. there is a chance that by early next year, inflation pressures could crack. [indiscernible] there've been complaints about construction costs. [indiscernible] shery: we have seen inflation pressures moderate for the philippines.

how likely are you seeing it looking on the horizon? mr. hak bin: i think that looks likely. covid has been hit hard -- hitting places hardest and causing hard -- harsh lockdowns. if you look at the growth, -- [indiscernible] shery: there is a potential that thailand may see a back to back contraction. what levers the -- does the bank of height -- thailand have it -- at its disposal to support the economy? you have fiscal levers looking likely versus monetary policy. there is more chatter -- mr. hak bin: i think that is very possible.

an issue that policymakers need is -- [indiscernible] it will probably not be very effective even if the 5% is caught. [indiscernible] they will have to expedite their spending. the market will adjust in any case. [indiscernible] inflation is low. that will help exports and cushion the pain for islam -- asean. shery: the gdp bounced back in the second quarter. what factors are you looking at for underlying momentum given the virus rates for indonesia and have we seen it occur when it comes to inflows given the backdrop?

mr. hak bin: [indiscernible] the inflation rate is higher in jakarta. indonesia has been hidden by the pandemic -- hit by the pandemic and the rate is rising. it's gotten into the auto space.

i think that will help cushion the -- cushion. [indiscernible] shery: thank you so much for the review of the outlook. head of macro research. haidi: don't miss out on that. another interview from southeast asia. the indonesian online shopping giant is propelled by its listing encourager product esther -- jakarta on friday. people her from the president. novavax filed for its vaccine in india, indonesia, and the

philippines. the company ceo expects to file in the u.s. sometime in the fourth quarter. we spoke to bloomberg about the company's plans. >> we had three major announcements. one was, of course, deciding the agreement with the eu, which says there is continued significant demand for our type of product you're the second was we have data that came out that was announced today that shows our vaccine works well and this could be effective against the variance that we hear about now. those data were prepared today. the third -- these fit together well -- is our first regulatory filing for approval for the vaccine for authorization. filed it in india first and in indonesia and the philippines, where we are working with our partner and they know that the

process as been working with the d cgi, the fda of india closely. that is why we have early filing there. indonesia and philippines are desperate for vaccine and they are following and we filed with him too. this is a first filing. we will file with the european medicines authority in weeks and with mrha in the uk and ultimately the fda. the expectation is that nhra will be in september and ema will follow. i think this is just the first step of cascading regulatory filings. shery: let's focus on the places where you have submitted those filings. when do you believe the vaccine will be available and where will it be available first? mr. erck: what is going to be available is we are stockpiling

vaccine now. we are stockpiling many tens of millions of doses so that when the regulatory agencies do approve them, we are able to shift at a moments notice. that is a big deal. when the sequence of approvals will come presumably from one of three agencies or more that we have filed with, we are not in the business of predicting how quickly the regulatory agencies will approve but i can give you insight that although we have just submitted the data within the last day, going over all the questions you would expect to be asked and have begun the intense review process. i cannot predict when it will be reviewed or approved but they are doing all the things we would want to have early approval. haidi: novavax and really so

many manufacturers have been dealing with supply chain issues. i'm curious what your manufacturing goals are. now that you are in this position. mr. erck: designate question. we have talked throughout the year about the difficulty of the tasks we are attempting, which is to get large-scale production in about eight facilities globally. it is really a challenge and has been a challenge in part because of simple things like filters that we filter our product with. media, which we used to feed the cells we grow them in. they bending global short supply. -- have been in global short supply. that is becoming the past. all of the suppliers i think have done well in scaling up their production capacity to meet the pandemic demand and right now, we are able to

produce eco-all of our facilities. starting in the third quarter, we are able to get to the levels of production we are predicting. for the first time, we have kept within the forecast so we will be at 100 million doses a month at the end of september and 150 million doses a month by the end of december. that is an expectation of a couple million doses for next year. shery: stanley erck, novavax ceo. countries in asia are tightening curves as the delta variant continues to spread. let's bring in our senior -- medical reporter michelle cortez. what are some of the more significant moves we are seeing? michelle: we're seeing lockdowns across asia happening right now. in australia, two thirds of the

country is in lockdown. they've been asked to stay home. they are curbing all sorts of activities outdoors. we are seeing the same situation in china, experiencing its most broad outbreak since the virus began percolating in you -- wuhan a year and a half ago. there are fewer cases happening in china but they paid -- take the virus very seriously so they are having things like restricting and putting people into quarantine even when they come from other places within china when they go to beijing. australia to china and other places, lockdowns are happening everywhere. shery: of course, we are seeing sydney's lockdown continuing in melbourne going into its sixth lockdown. the vaccination rate is an issue. michelle, we are seeing potentially a september approval for the pfizer vaccine for the fda. where are we at in terms of full approval elsewhere and will that help?

michelle: it is possible full approvals will help hesitancy. there are people who are saying these vaccines are still experimental because they have not been fully approved and that is one of the talking points when it comes to vaccine hesitancy and the anti-vaccination groups. to be honest, people have really heard plenty of information at this point about the vaccine. what we will need to do is make it very easy for people to get access to the vaccine if they are just nervous about it or having difficulty getting it. in many places in asia, they haven't been able to get it. we heard the ceo of novavax saying they are ramping up to start rolling it out here. counterintuitively, some outbreaks will be the things that encourage people to get vaccinated. in sydney, five people died in the past couple of days. four were unvaccinated. when you start seeing people dying because they didn't get vaccinated, that moves the

needle. shery: a young man in his 20's dying is really shocking. our health care reporter michelle cortez with the latest. more to come on daybreak asia. this is bloomberg. ♪

♪ shery: this is a picture across asia. we are seeing the nikkei gaining

ground for a second consecutive session. we are seeing most but -- sectors in the green but health care, consumers, discretionary meeting. materials under pressure. we also have soft data when it comes to household spending and labor cash earnings. asx 200 under change under pressure at the moment. tech gaining and materials pulling the other way. stocks rebounding from the previous session. unchanged for the kospi at the moment but one stock we are watching, south korean digital lender kakaobank surging on its first day of trade. the second largest ipo in seoul. this year. let's pray in our stocks reporter. the demand seems to be there. reporter: what a sensational morning. it looks like what the lender will be able to do in the future

rather than currently, less than 1/10 of the traditional financial companies. it makes up the largest company -- financial company in korea with market optimization. it is operating on the online space with its mobile application. shery: that is it for daybreak asia. our market coverage continues as we take a look at the trading in hong kong and shanghai this friday. stay with us for bloomberg markets in the china open. this is bloomberg. ♪

and there you have it -

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david: good morning. it is nine :00 in the morning here in beijing, shanghai, and hong kong. your last session of the week. let's get to your top stories of the week. essentially trading flat here. we are coming off records on wall street and europe. investors weighing earni