>> a very good morning, welcome

to "bloomberg daybreak: australia." i am haidi stroud-watts. annabelle: i am annabelle droulers getting down to major market opens. vonnie: good evening, i am vonnie quinn. at your top stories this hour. israel says it has cut the gaza strip in two as it expands attacks while national pressure grows over civilian casualties. haidi: australia up las vegas prime minister sounding optimistic note on china ties as he speaks in shanghai. vonnie: westpac lifting its dividend and announcing a billion-dollar share buyback as strength strengthen mortgages boost for your profit. annabelle: westpac the one to watch with the market open at the top of the art, but we are checking what is happening in the futures market at this point. quite a lot of optimism in terms of the direction for stocks today. we did have u.s. stocks capping their best we can more than a

year, but it really is that market reaction to the jobs data , nonfarm payrolls that they came out on friday telling us that the fed is likely done for the current tightening cycle, so that has been playing out across those equity futures. currency wise, feeling range bound, the aussie dollar in focus. more for the lack of action so far, because we have had china once again vowing to further increase imports, but very muted reaction, so a telling sign of what investors are thinking about those goals or claims. let's change on, because in the bond space, we are tracking that retreat in yields across the curve this morning. it is the reaction to nonfarm payrolls data, vonnie, the other thing to watch as well is any geopolitical risk. vonnie: let's start there because the israeli military says his troops have entirely encircled gaza city. this comes as u.s. secretary of

state antony blinken made an unscheduled stop in baghdad, expending u.s. diplomacy with the goal of preventing the spread of the israel-hamas war. let's bring in bloomberg editor ian fisher. what this top in baghdad and what came of it? >> it is unclear. what they would like is a cease-fire and end to the large number of people being killed. antony blinken has said a cease-fire would allow hamas to get a grip so what they have as for our humanitarian pauses. unclear what the difference is between a pause and a cease-fire, i guess the extent of it.

those disagreements were very publicly display this weekend. haidi: we know when it comes to the latest in the ground conflict incursion that they have effectively split the gaza strip into two. i do wonder how this is being viewed at the moment, given the scenes in previous days leading up to now, really a lot more international pressure and from the u.s. too to look at the humanitarian side of things. >> well, there is. today a bunch of u.s. senators including bernie sanders said this is not acceptable, there must be another way. israel's responses and we are after a hamas in gaza city. we want people to leave. we are giving them core doors -- corridors to get out.

i think this cutting off from the north from the south is like trying to wall off the conflict. that seems to be israel's position. haidi: ian fisher there with the latest. the chinese premier has kicked off the china international import expo with the promise to boost imports and vowed to protect the rights and interests of foreign investors in accordance with the law. this event is aimed at providing global exporters with the opportunity to increase their trade with china after border closures due to the covid-19 pandemic, and china has been as we know seeking to attract more foreign investments to aid the economic recovery. >> on the global front, transformation is advancing at a faster pace. the world economic recovery and

economic globalization is facing headwinds. against this backdrop, china sincerely hopes to work with all countries for major success on a vast, open platform. haidi: we are also looking at the foreign relations between australia and china, and that will take an important step when prime minister albanese meets with president xi jinping on monday. paul allen joins us now. we are seeing the prime minister may first visit to china by a prime minister and seven years, and there has been a warming not just in the bilateral relationship, but as we gestured prior a seemingly renewed willingness in terms of boosting bilateral trade as well with china's partners. >> that is right, alban he's saying it is -- albanese saint it is everyone's economic interest in the key of that is

dialogue. he was touring the sixth china import expo in shanghai and told chinese tourists that they have been greatly missed as well, but you can see there just how far this relationship is calm. this is the first time in seven years and australian leader has been on chinese soil. things got very dark when huawei got banned. then prime minister scott morrison called for investigations into the covid pandemic. most of those have been went back. anthony albanese hoping those get one to back next and it the case of an australian citizen and writer who has been detained for four years intranet when he meets xi jinping later on today. vonnie: what will china be hoping to get from this visit, paul? >> as well as normalize

relations, there is a longer-term desire for china to join the trade pact that donald trump pulled the united states out of spec in 2017. it continued without the u.s., and it is 11 pacific countries generating a combined economic output of more than $30 trillion. china interested in succeeding to that fact. albanese was very careful in his language and said any country must demonstrate he could the highest standards of the agreement. admission to the trade fact requires agreement of all members, estrella included. japan for its part is opposed. the chinese premier said if china would join it would follow wto rules, if you just remember what is going on between australia and china and all of those trade strikes, there is no skepticism about how china would behave should it be admitted.

vonnie: paul, thank you for that. we will get more on prime minister of aeneas -- albanese's trip with the politics said. she says they should take advantage now of the warming ties. first, an exclusive interview with the atlanta fed president raphael bostic on the fed's rate path and the fight to curb inflation. this is bloomberg. ♪

haidi: let's take a look at the week ahead, watching the rba rate decision on tuesday, inflation has been increasing recently. australian own prices rose for an eighth straight month in october, so most economists expecting the rba will deliver a 25 basis point hike to stay on top. bloomberg is making an out of consensus call and expect to hold.

speaking of inflation, we will be getting cpi and ppi readings from china. economists think consumer prices fell back into deflation in october. weak inflation figures would add uncertainty to outlook. we will also be getting inflation data from thailand and the philippines. over in the u.k. a week after the bok -- boe meeting gop -- gdp is expected to drop. a contracted will likely start a monetary induced -- payments are due, current account numbers, entry numbers out of china that we are watching. vonnie: and it is another big week ahead for earnings. keep an eye out for ubs at report due on tuesday with a focus on how the bank is winding down assets and implementing more than $10 billion in cost savings. we will also be watching earnings across tech, banking,

and auto companies throughout asia. and that is your week ahead. haidi: atlanta fed president raphael bostic says policymakers have time to watch how the economy is evolving and be patient when it comes to interest rate moves. he told us what watching the data he is also using other sources to gauge the effect of monetary tightening. >> in addition to looking at the data, i do a lot of on the ground intelligence. in eight period that was really unusual for me, everyone was saying the same thing. things are slowing down. we are seeing the economy, quote normalize is a term people of saying. when i get unanimity, that tells me there is something happening on the ground that is probably stronger than what i might see in the data. in the data, even though they

came in a very strong over september, if you looked over a longer term trend it still said the economy was moderating, and those two things together made me very comfortable with the notion that we still have time to watch, be patient, be cautious. do not overreact to any single data point. >> would you say you were basically at the peak now? you do not need to raise rates anymore? >> what i would say is this. there are three possible outcomes. either inflation is going to sell out and to this trajectory will continue to so instead he or he will go off a cliff. i have all of those possibilities and play, and i'm going to stay on that. today my outlook is we will take slow and steady. if we continue to do that, that i think where we are not will be speech of the restrictive to get us to the 2% level for inflation, but there was a lot that is going to happen between now and the next meeting. we will get a couple of jobs

numbers, a couple of reasons for inflation, and that will tell us and give us more signals as to what is going on in the economy. >> you mentioned talking to a lot of people in your district to tell us things are slowing down. can you characterize this? because not too long ago the question was did the fed go too far? others are saying the soft landing narrative. where do the business people see it? >> the business people are in an area of moderation, back to normal. they understand they have gone through a period where they had sales at levels that frankly they did not expect, and the decline in the sales and activity over time has come and slower than expected, but it is continuing, and that is really the dynamic the really governance. vonnie: fed president raphael bostic speaking to michael mckee . our next guest is the was economy is weaker than people think and bonds will rally from here. the kramer capital research cio

joints me now. we were just listening to raphael bostic there. he did not sound too concerned about the economy and its growth trajectory. you see slowness as do some other high-profile money managers. where is it if it is not in the data? >> it is with the consumer. when you have a percent on mortgages, when suddenly we have loans that are starting to crack and banks are tightening up and not extending any kind of credit to the consumer, small businesses, that is why we see that weakness. that is why the economy looks really bad and white we are pessimistic to some extent, but remember, we think that the fed -- they are setting themselves up. they can come in and slash rates 50 basis points, 100 basis points if we have in the bed december. vonnie: jerome powell

maintaining optionality is not worth it? >> the reason that we had the s&p 500 up 5.9 percent, 6% on the week, it was amazing, but it had to do with the fact that officially friday with the big bump up. it jobs, we only saw 150,000 in growth and there were not the right kind of jobs, which means bad news is good news. it gets complicated as we know, but it is simple as that. it looks like even though inflation is that the 2% level, we are really close to a time period where we are going to see the tenure go down to 3.5% into your. vonnie: the market did start bracing and cuts were next year, up to something like 75 basis point to the first nine months of the year. is that warranted? >> it is warranted, because the economy could crack. especially some of the real estate, investment trusts, these

mortgage rate companies. if energy happens to weaken, that is been a strong point but in the last week it was one of the weakest performers. we have to really be mindful it is a balancing act, but anyone who is invested can do very well, and there are a lot of opportunities out there, because so many great it's stocks have been thrown out, the baby with the bathwater. vonnie: you mentioned the five point 9% rise for the s&p 500 although it dropped quite substantially in the weeks leading up to that. are we at levels where it could go much higher still by the end of the year? and you mentioned a bunch -- bon ds. the tlt has seen huge amount of money going to it as well. >> we can have a bond market rally bull market and an equity bull market rally. we can have both happen and have them happen simultaneously.

it has just been a miserable four investors and miserable for most equity investors, because obviously not everyone knows to have bought the magnificent seven. they were not magnificent when they were down in low, but we can definitely see a rally. there is money out there to chase the performance. i watch one of my great oil services companies that i have always loved, which is tried-and-true in the permian base income and they just keep getting a new 52 week highs. they are breaking up. the other one that is so interesting, dezk, i have to bring that up because of the new york city marathon, which was on sunday, and everyone was wearing hokas, and we are talking about a stock to five years ago was about $90 and is not going to had around $600 this week.

they also had uggs. it was standing room only. vonnie: it is that season. i noticed he is one of your conviction buys at the moment as well after the hulu acquisition or at the beginning of it. what makes disney a buy? >> iger has pushed through so much of it takes time to turn the titanic. to turn a big crew ship around, ending is finally done it, and of course there might be some disappointment with the disney+ subscribers, that will probably be flat. first of all this hulu purchase which will be between $8 billion in my billing dollars between comcast, so dizzy will have that, but also what about espn, bet? this is a 17 state cutting operation to is launching, so they are getting with the times,

because they have always tried to maintain the integrity across the board, including with abc, and including with espn that they had with disney, but that is a different consumer market than espn, and to betting. vonnie: you mentioned disney. these are consumer stocks though. >> they are consumer stocks, but i'm looking at the hot ones, disney, which is tried-and-true putting great mechanisms in place, but vf, the stock has just fallen so hard. it was founded in 1899, and that is your north face. timberland, dickies. every aspect, smart wall, so skiing season is good, vf is going to turn itself around, but that jan sport come at the

backpack they own, it is the right price point because the consumer is not spending. wall street and big money will make big money. the consumer it is squeeze will be buying vf products. vonnie: you do see a recession next year in spite of europe's of the consumer buying certain goods of the. where does the tenure end next year? if you would ask the fed we are at 5.25% now. you would not have been expecting 100 basis points by this time next year, but that is what the market is pricing in. 3.5% is another 100 basis points below that. >> i see that 3.5%. we have to look all the way back to volker in 1979 coming into be the fed german, and we are talking 22% inflation, a fed funds rate over 20%, but this is a new time, and this fed will

not let us run so high. we have a consumer, we have people all around the world that cannot withstand interest rates on their borrowing, and they will crack, and the consumer does not have the same ability to kind of get themselves out, so what that said? as soon as we have a drug on day of down 5% or 6%, the fed will have a surprise cut. the innerworkings of wall street will know ahead of time, but there will be this fed cut. vonnie: so dramatic, all right, hilary. we will hold you to it. that is creamer capital research c.i.o.. to a roundup of the stories you need to go to get her to coming in today's edition of daybreak. terminal subscribers go to dayb . customize your settings so you only get news on the industries and assets that you care about. this is bloomberg. ♪

vonnie: here are some of the stories we're tracking through daybreak. berkshire hathaway's cash by out to the first record, 15 $7 billion boosted by elevated interest rates and a lack of meaningful deals. it surprises to previous i sent two years ago. berkshire hathaway has largely parked in short-term treasuries. the company a struggle to find big-ticket deals despite ramping up its acquisition strategy in recent years. south korea will prohibit stock shortselling until next june to without regulators to improve rules and systems. it's financial services commission said that ban kicks into monday. at are seeking stronger

punishment on illegal shortselling activities after recently discovering similar activities by some global investment banks. haidi: take a look at the set up this monday morning in terms of the trading that we are seeing across fx. one of the big focuses will be the direction of the aussie dollar with most economists expecting the first rate hike in the top role as inflation proves more servant than expected. a tight housing market as well as elevated housing prices returning to the floor -- fore. the aussie on the backside but wondering if that will get more of a booster forget the basis point rate hike from the rba. the greenback is make so far against the g10 space, it really trading in a pretty tight range of the early part of the session as well. even those comments were in china pledging to expand access to markets imposed imports in the prime minister's visit failing to please the aussie

dollar at this point. also watching dollar-yen just shy of the 150 level. when it comes to japan, we are digesting to bigger than expected stimulus package unveiled by kishida as well as watching support levels that have continued to really fade alongside the equity rally we have seen across japanese stocks, so that is the theme we are watching at the start of this week. coming up, the australian prime minister gearing up to meet with the chinese president xi jinping as part of his visit to beijing and shanghai. we will be speaking on bilateral ties and some of the challenges that they see remaini the power goes out and we still have wifi to do our homework. and that's a good thing? great in my book! who are you? no power? no problem. introducing storm-ready wifi.

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vonnie: the leaders of opec-plus have reaffirmed that they will

stay with their land will supply curve until the end of the year. there oil supply curve until the end of the year. su keenan joins us now, we have seen oil prices retreat for a second week at this point? >> no surprise that the two leaders of the opec plus group would extend their voluntary supply crunch. if you drop into the bloomberg you will know by not only oil and other commodities have pulled back for a second straight week. this has to do with the easing of the premium over the weekend, the leader of the iran backed hezbollah group said it did not know about the october 7 attack. this is one of several factors that his attic into a growing view that this war in the middle east is unlikely to spread and it would will not go to other

regions that would be a huge risk for oil. it is look at how oil prices have moved and -- let us look at how oil prices have moved, a complete pullback in a big way in both nymex and crude, west texas intermediate was down almost 6% for the week the leaders of the opec coalition are announcing a separate official statement on sunday that they are extending their supply cuts in the situation with saudi arabia they are slashing production by a million barrels, moscow is curbing exports on top of earlier cuts made with the fellow opec-plus nations. not really a surprise here. it is interesting to note as the war premium has faded and you are seeing less of a jump in the price of oil, what is now rising to the forefront a concern of

traders and investors that amanda supply situation, the huge user of oil, china, economic data has continued to show weakness coming out of china at a time when we are seeing inventory in the u.s. continue to climb. the change in supply demand dynamic is bearish at the current moment for oil. haidi: has been at -- there has been a big verge in hedging? >> who was behind this surge? the open interest had tripled in the past week, it is very niche, they call, a combination of very bullish calls with bearish inputs and a lot of the speculation is that this could be a large unnamed producer trying to lock in price. that shows the volatility in the

oil market continues even as we the oil prices pullback. the fact that there could be a disruption. we have not seen one yet. that is what a lot of oil users and producers are concerned about. meanwhile it is not just brent crude west texas intermediate that is pulling back, we saw gold and silver surge 10% during the october month. when it was not clear what was going on with the war situation and they continue to be volatile as well. gold had hit a 2000 the past week, pulled back and we can see there is a bit. very volatile market. traders continue to be on edge. looking to the latest news to come out of either opec-plus or the war situation. very focused on what the supply demand inflation is. tricky stuff.

haidi: we will bring the latest to you, the latest on the energy space. we are getting earnings in singapore as well in terms of the banks, dbs' numbers are crossing the. bloomberg. a small positive, net interest margin is higher than expected at 2.9%, the estimate was 2.16%. allowances for other losses coming in at 215 million saying ing dollars. a tick higher than expectations. the net income is 2.6 3 billion. a narrow beat of expectations as well. 2024 net interest income at around the 2023 level as well, the interim dividend share, 48, higher also than the 45 expected. a lot of focus when it comes to the regulatory penalties that

have been announced when it comes to the repeated disruptions to the digital banking services, there were concerns about what the longer-term impact as well as a short-term impact to earnings from the monetary authority of singapore's actions against the makes potential risks and the nearer and medium-term. in the longer-term, that improves the quality of service. a quicker service in terms of a recovery and delivery improved availability when it comes to services. they are seeing the four year net profit to be maintained at a 2023 level. we will see how the stock trades. we did see a bit of downside, one person after we had the action that included dbs not being allowed to acquire the business ventures, paring back the local branch and atm networks for six months ahead of a review of progress at the end of the period as a result of those fallouts from the banking services outage that we have seen. these numbers are from dbs.

looking pretty solid at this point. we are watching for those comments on the compensation for senior management as well. let us get back to geopolitics and the foreign relations between australia and china, prime minister of us really is meeting xi jinping on friday. they spoke in shanghai where he sounded optimistic on ties between the two nations following years of friction. >> it is a mature relationship and a complementary nature of our economies. along with the other economies in our region, australia and china have prospered thanks to the certainty and stability that is made possible by rules-based trade. every country has a role to play in advancing trade that is sustainable and inclusive. bicycles we can achieve there are policies and through a of open and inclusive regional and

international architecture. vonnie: our next guest says the interest of both china and australia have not changed with the visit but businesses should take advantage of these warming ties. let us bring in a geopolitics director at kmg b australia. this seems to be a temporary aspect to how you are viewing this. haidi: is this warming of relations may not necessarily be based on fundamentals changing at all? >> thank you. that is right. what we are talking about is a stabilizing rather than normalizing of a relationship. the australian government is not using the word recent, we are creating a new kind of relationship that reflects the current circumstances. so much has changed in the last seven years during which time an australian prime minister has not visited beijing.

this is rather different and it is moving forward. vonnie: i suppose this is one aspect where things have changed for the chinese economy. haidi: the expectation going forward is that we will see lower growth for longer, structurally. economists have raised recession odds, in a lot of ways we are back to where things were preopening up from covid zero. does this give trading partners like australia and businesses here a bit more leverage? >> that could be one of the reasons we are saying this warming up of. relations. that are challenges facing china including economically and they need to just put those relationships back in place to ensure that they are in the best position possible to face those economic challenges. they are in a lower difficult position economically than they were going into covid. 5% growth are similar is not something australia will be upset about in china that is

relatively low. it is possible that is part of the story and why we are seeing stabilization with australia at this time. haidi: what do businesses need to be cognizant of? what are your realistic expectations as to deliverables from this visit? >> it is important to note that this is an incredibly important moment and a positive step forward in our relationship. we have not had an australian prime minister visit china in seven years. having these conversations is wonderful. it is great for australian businesses and exporters and workers. we are seeing good moves and positive steps in the trade restrictions being lifted and we are hopeful that the trade restrictions which are now expedited by beijing will also start to lift in due course. over the next five months or so.

businesses need to be very aware that this is a stabilization, not normalization as you mentioned, this is not a fundamental change. the values australia has and the concerns australia have are the same. the chinese perspective and the chinese approach to the world is still the same. businesses cannot control those geopolitical trends. they cannot do anything about what is happening in the geopolitical space. we must be prepared for the unexpected and prepared for surprises and we must build that kind of resilience to our strategic plan. haidi: how hard is it to do that to diligence and have that resilience when transparency unpredictability have not been easy to have when it comes to business in this market? they have talked about opening up market access, mutual benefits, even in recent days and weeks we have had foxconn, the most important trading

partner in foreign business operating in china at the moment and arrests and uncertainty over orders? do these two things line at this point? >> that is the challenge, the fundamental challenge. for australia, china is an enormous market. we have no choice, they feel they have no choice but to stay involved and engage in china. they want to stay engaged and involved in china. very sound business reasons. when he to make sure that we take the time and make the effort to do the due diligence. it is not necessarily easy and that is true. there are ways to do it and this is the moment where we all need to make sure we are really paying attention to doing a good job of that. it is not as easy as we think. it is really important to take the time, build the relationships, dig into the business practices and make sure we are doing it properly. it is not easy but it must be done.

haidi: where are they lower hanging fruit, what you see opportunities -- where are the lower hanging fruit? where do you see the opportunities? >> this is something china has said there interested in doing, with australia, that is something that is that china is committed to achieving that zero by 2016. they are committed to improving the well-being of our people in china. they want to work on clean energy solutions. australia and china have complementary and competition where we can work together and i think that would be an excellent starting point for us to cooperate. haidi: always great to talk with you, geopolitics hub director at kbmg australia, as the sterling feminist request to beijing on this highly anticipated china

visit. you can catch all of those headlines and see our pastor to be his own interactive tv function, tv go, burke functions that we talk about and went in on the conversation -- tv functions that we talk about and join in on the conversation. this is bloomberg. ♪

haidi: the largest shareholder in argent energy is said to have a billion-dollar takeover plan, australia super contained its commitment to scuffle the deal. let us bring in our reporter for the latest. is there any pathway for this to get done? >> it is looking less and less likely, as you said, we understood that as of the end of last week when the opposition from our super -- aussuper to rescue this, they were rebuffed over the weekend or late last week. it does not leave a lot of room

essentially, effectively, it means that the start of the deal is going back behind closed doors. it is not going to go back behind closed doors and any attempt to do this behind the same area in a public campaign, going all the way to the vote is looking less and less likely. we are going to see this go all the way to a shareholder vote on november 23 where they need to win 75% of the votes on the day to get this which is an uphill battle. vonnie: is turning into a marathon for brookfield, a year this week since the first takeover offer. you told us the next steps. what will be the crux of any disagreement? >> has a reason that they are not seeing eye to eye is there are a few interesting elements. and underlines the growing power of the australian industry in the takeover space. on the first time that brookfield and aussuper had a

run in. five years ago when aussuper was a shareholder in hospitals operated and brookfield had to actually up their offer to get their deal across the line. there is something amorphous and a bit hard to explain, a genuine factor where aussuper's funds have been treated as quite large. unsophisticated. they have only ever been lps and limited partners in private equity and they have been scaling up and doing more on their own but the industry has been slow to wake up to that fact and this is one of the first demonstrations showing that and showing them how we are doing deals of their own book as they expand offices globally and start doing mega deals of their own. vonnie: our thanks to a reporter, harry. sticking with the acquisitions theme, berkshire hathaway's cash

pile scared a fresh record -- scaled a fresh record. but as discussed berkshire's results with annabelle in hong kong. this surpasses the previous highs two years ago? unbelievable. >> it is not a great signal for the markets because warren buffett, one of the most or the most famous value investor is struggling to find value in the current market. the cash pile is sitting near hundred $60 -- $160 in the latest quarter. struggling to find the acquisitions has been a pretty interesting couple of years for berkshire hathaway because they have held back from the pandemic by than over the past few quarters we started to see them i turned back into the markets, key transactions like buying up shares of petroleum for instance and then they had $4 billion deals which was an insurer. now the latest quarter that came

out is that cash pile and that lack of ability of where the cash is, that is showing up and some analysts are saying they can feel the pressure and put it to work, where it is now, the cash flow, a couple of key places, a lot of it is parked in the or for data security, and they have continued to put more money into buybacks. they have spent more than 1.1 billion dollars on buybacks in the latest period and that brings the total for it sharing purchases into around a $7 billion mark. haidi: what else did we learn from those numbers? >> a couple of extra takeaways to note, there was operating income earnings of just shy of $11 billion, a jump on the prior year, berkshire hathaway showing the benefits of high interest rates because as i said, the money is in short dated

securities, that helped it out. gains and insurance business, and also the other key factors as well, the net loss coming through for the quarter. the company is saying it should not be paying too much attention to that because it can be in terms of accounting, accounting factors playing into that. what else to note is really the investor appetite or interest in destocked because we have continued to see it showing gains -- in the stock because we have continued to see it showing gains. because of that, it does really have diversity of power and that does bode well in an uncertain economic environment. the key take is from berkshire hathaway's earnings and the results that came out on saturday. haidi: annabelle in hong kong with a look at berkshire and be sure to tune in to bloomberg radio to hear more from the

day's they newsmakers and get in-depth analysis. we are about costing -- we are broadcasting live in hong kong and on bloombergradio.com. plenty more ahead. this is bloomberg. ♪

haidi: wesco will back $180

million of its own shares as strength in mortgages lift. linda skim on the bank earnings. it is the buyback, super interesting, it was a bit on expectations in many ways. >> i think that is fair, broad results are positive in the sense that we have had the follow-through of hiking that dividend, looking at goldman sachs expecting 70 australian cents for that increase. we i-72 on the final dividend. -- we got 72 on the final dividend. for the buyback. they want to make a statement here that they have enough on the balance sheet to be able to continue to deliver back to shareholders. it is quite interesting commentary and cost position

continuing that kind of long crisis. we had at the bank of trying to really simplify the bank, sell off assets that are non-core in the same time, bring down expenses across the bank which looks like it is continuing to -- the big thing here is how much of this is already baked into the stock price and westpac has been a big underperformer relative to the market and the backspace. it is interesting to see if investors give it the benefit of the doubt or if they look more to the cautious times ahead. vonnie: what did the ceo say about the economic outlook that might tell us about the bank's profitability from here? >> on one hand he is saying we are probably positive on economic outlook. he is pointing to a couple of things we already know, one being first that intense

competition in the local mortgage market which of course westpac has been a beneficiary, taking market share away from commonwealth bank with more discounting. into next year, that looks like a tough place to be. looks like times are getting a little bit tougher from here and further pressure on their stress margins. haidi: thank you very much. vonnie: that is item in signaling -- adam in sydney. we are getting ready to open up markets across the region. stay with us, this is bloomberg. ♪

that first t you take a step back. i made that. with your very own online store. i sold that. and you can manage it all in one place. i built this. and it was easy, with a partner that puts you first. godaddy. vonnie: