. >> regulators in asia are taking a bite out of apple for limiting competition, apple asia was fined $665,000 for restrictive practices in contracts with local telecom subsidiaries responsible for the sales of iphone in taiwan. the agency said they restricted the carrier's ability to determine their own prices and price structure. >> how much should you worry about the if you tablet their children got for christmas? doctors are worrying children are missing out on physical play with toys which promotes brain development. experts say, used correctly tablets are a great educational tool and those who grow up using them are better with technology. the key, they say, is in moderation. >> if we ask the four-year-old with a tablet... >> mike nicco is ahead with the forecast. >> good thursday morning from the roof of the broadcast center. even those these are the shortest days of the year today could be the 5 the consecutive day with a record high around the bay and we will look at how much longer that will last, you can see it is hazy behind me and how many more spare the heirs can we get

asia and barclays. still shopping to do, the top five gadgets. get his view on the china mobile deal with apple. is next. ♪ >> the middle of the asian training day. this is hong kong. a glorious day. you are watching "asia edge." the top stories. snap thes -- gains to longest lucas -- losing streak in 19 years. apple's breakthrough in china. in shutting down timelines. demonstrators -- as shutting down in thailand. -- demonstrates. as well -- >>re we will hear as lawmakers talk about approving conceals. sales a japanese media. sent to is ready for the big day. -- santa is ready for the big day. the top five gadgets. that and more in the busy dishing of "asia edge." >> the u.s. story. taiwan and hong kong and philippines and china having seen a decline. totally recovered. that a bad run of nine days of declines. up 0.5%. you -- the u.s. gdp better than expected. very bullish on the

asia. for anrs are waiting official announcement of a deal between apple and china mobile.are still waiting. mia saini joins me from hong kong with details. that is right, they are still waiting. recall that back in 2011, china mobile told reporters that once it embarked on setting up its own four g infrastructure, they would be able to sign a deal with apple. currently, apple doesn't make a handset that is compatible with china mobile's three g debt arc. -- three g network. we do have reports from wall street reporting that the deal ,ould be announced last night but bloomberg reporters are saying that no deal was going to be into their. they don't expect a deal anytime in the next few weeks. what they do agree upon is that it is widely agreed that a deal is imminent. the format of the announcement, that is what is really unclear. as of the most recent conference, the china mobile ceo says they plan to sell as many as 220 million smartphones next year. that is compared to 155 million this year. you can imagine that that could be good for both sides. china mobile is the worl

apple has the iphone 6 at this time next year, 4.7. >> do you know that for sure? >> we are pretty sure. >> why not go for a galaxy, which is over five? itfrom asia's, is clear that they want a larger sized screen. with the iphone 6, we are seeing apple take a lot of market share. that is why the iphone 5 is number 5. great phone, people love the screenjust a smaller size. >> i am waiting for the iphone 6, whenever that is coming out. what is number four? >> it is a wearable. i have one myself also. it counts your calories, counts your steps. >> so it is like it did him and are on steroids. >> almost. >> but it is so light. i can wear this everyday. how does it feel? >> it is good. it is very light. when we came on set, i had to ask him, how do you turn this thing on? $150. >> what does it do? >> how does it count calories? how does it tell you anything? it looks like just a wristband. >> it is quite smart. it can measure your activity. when you move, it will know if you are walking or running. countes -- it can different points. >> canna tell that i am watching tv and eating chips? >> kind of. a little bit. the beauty with the iphone, it goes to f

asia but here at home. great to see some retailers doing well. david: apple has been on a run.'s a bull or bear. some people are thinking of shorting the stock at this level. we'll talk to one of the people later in the hour. it is a bull or bear debate. what is the consensus on wall street? >> consensus, seems to be apple in the fourth quarter. of course apple products are under the holiday tree and hanukkah and like. that's number one. we had a guest on air, wanted apple at 1,000. big picture you have carl icahn still looking for a buyback. has he taken it down a notch from 150 billion down to 50 billion. that gave apple a nice pop. apple moved to new highs today. liz: i want to point out ford at moment. it suddenly moved around quite a bit. it up 3/4 of a percent at 16.74. a few minutes ago, he told us for the mustang, brand new sort of reveal may be available at some point in electric, as he followed up with this, every single ford vehicle he wants to make sure will be available, whether diesel, regular gasoline or electric. [closing bell ringing] david: like an electric mu

apple which is building a new mac computer in texas. brooks brothers is now producing 70% of its suits in massachusets. the trend could continue as wages at factories in asia rapidly rise. it's the end of an era for general motors. the government has sold off its remaining majority stake in g-m, marking the end of a dark time. as part of the 2008 bailout, the treasury department acquired a 60% stake in the company. the government took a ten-and-a- half billion dollar hit from the bailout. treasury officials contend the alternative of letting the carmaker go bankrupt would have had devastating consequences to the economy. when you think of rent-to-own, big-screen tvs and leather couches might come to mind. but what about tires? tire prices are at all-time highs. and consumers short on cash, are fueling this booming business. jackie keenan reports from florida. when it came time for rebecca kelson to replace the tires on her mustang, she couldn't afford to pay full price. but she found rent-a-roll to keep her ride rolling. she's been coming in every two weeks to pay her debt. i like the payment plans they have for you, it's pretty reasonable. kelson isn't th

stringent and now apple wait to check their children for radiation exposure as they continue to worry about the partnership the nuclear crisis. the people negotiating a free trade deal for the asia pacific region say they're going to miss an important deadline. ministers from the top countries at the trans pacific partnership talks say there won't be any agreement this year. but don't push on with discussions in two thousand and fourteen. for the course of this meeting. we identified potential landing zones for the majority of key outstanding issues in the text. you'll continue to work with flexibility to finalize these texts issues as well as market access issues. izturis released a statement to say it made substantial progress during their four day meeting in singapore. they'll meet again next month after their negotiations told several weeks of intensive discussions. the statement says it's important to aim for a high level deal that will create jobs and spur economic growth the japanese official guest of sheepish and said that. negotiators from all countries are eager for a profitable outcome the momentum noble than disney the most of these will keep up this dimension. today

apple access to 759 million new subscribers. good morning to our viewers in europe, good evening to those in asia, and a very warm welcome to those up in the u.s. i am guy johnson. >> i am francine lacqua. it is pretty cold in london right now. >> let's talk about the big day ahead of us in terms of macro news. the ecb will publish its decision today following last month's rate cuts, no changes expected. all eyes will be on mario draghi's inflation forecast. today.rojections jonathan ferro joins us with details. out,will say rule nothing that is what we learned last month. not many people predicted it. a lot of people thought the ecb would wait for another month of data on the inflation side. another thing was they thought they would wait until he got projections from the ecb itself. if you look at the eurozone and compared to the u.k., it is night and day. but the forecast for the ecb, they're looking for growth of 1% 1.3%.flation up that could be revised lower. we have protection -- we have 2015, anns to indication of what might happen further on. baby steps with for guidance, rates will stay low. you might get more color if yo

apple is about to sign a deal with china's largest wireless carrier. they have more than 700 million subscribers which would be key to increasing the customer base in asiathe refreshed ipad and iphone are considered among the top holiday gifts this year. >>> a congress department announced the trade deficit dropped to 5.4% in october. the u.s. exported more soy beans, collectibles, and petroleum. the trade gap stands at 40.6 billion which is down only slightly from this time last year. >>> a plan to blow out the lights on electronic cigarettes. new actions taken against smoking in one bay area city but why the fight over the controversial cigarettes is not over yet. >>> plus santa is going to get some extra security when he flies to the skies christmas eve delivering presents. the surprising changes coming to norad. ♪ ♪ looks like you started to make something. ♪ oh, a green! ♪ ♪ [ female announcer ] cheerios. with flavors your heart will love. >>> welcome back. time is 5:54. treasure island residents are forced to move out of their homes for a cleanup of taxic chemical -- toxic chemicals. 24 homes recently sheafed notices. they will have to move out. t

when we come back, apple is beefing up plans to develop systems to search for quotas using voice tags. also, beer maker carlsberg with brewing opportunities in asiampany ending for breweries in china? ♪ >> here are your top tech stories from bloomberg west. based is adding on voice- photo sharing, filing a patent application in march allowing the searching for tagged photos on smart phones using voice tags and the new future -- feature may be integrated into syria. google has won a new battle claiming that street view violated federal wiretap laws. in may of 2010 the giant said they mistakenly gathered giant from -- gathered information from open wi-fi networks as they captured images of roadways and houses. audi, the company will be working to develop in car entertainment interim -- in car information entertainment systems based on their android software, it will be announced next week at the consumer electronic show. we are back in just two minutes. of course, you can get all of your latest news from "bloomberg west." we are back in two minutes. ♪ >> welcome back. you are "in the loop." 26 minutes past the hour, meaning it is bloomberg televisi

asia. iphone is terrific. we all agree with that. i am looking at hours on the table. dam's is in his pocket. everybody loves apple and iphone.t the end of the day, they are expensive. people in china do not have the advantage of the plan where they can get a new phone more cheaply. they did not have the advantage of an economy like ours with their well situation being far more distributed on both ends. the majority people are barely making enough to afford one of these phones. does it matter in the end, sales in the near term? >> i think it matters because of the scale. there are 750 million subscribers with china mobile. market is so's driven by luxury and brands like apple that they are going to eat it up. they can walk into a retail location instead of going to the gray market. it will be less expensive from china mobile in paying a couple of hundred moore's for the gray market imported from. >> morgan stanley thinks is only a mouse to about 12 million iphone sales per year. that sounds like a very small fraction of the 250 million you are talking about. why are people scaling the numbers back? >> i think it will be highe

apple of look at the fact. foxconn signed a deal with blackberry. the imf turns more positive on the u.s. recovery. good morning. markets trading here in the asia climbing half a percent. startas off to a lower fractionally. this is building on gains this morning. we are seeing an extension of gains rally there. this is your level there. just a reminder that japan is celebrating the emperors earth day. for a blackberry of shareholders, a rare rally. this can help turn things around. the packard is joining us with that story. good morning. >> this is a big deal for foxconn as well as for blackberry. it is a five-year deal in which blackberry will outsource smartphone production to the foxconn group. this is significant. if you want to get into the technical difficulties, here is why. it takes the inventory off. this has been a persistent challenge. it has so many phones that have gone unsold. people do not want to buy. on new ceo has focused cutting down that inventory. it is transformative because it takes the inventory off the books and books it on foxconn. investors have gotten used to these big write-downs and no longer. let's make no mistak

apple access to china's mobile subscriber base, which is seven times larger than verizon, the largest u.s. carrier. >> wall street with another rally, pointing to gains at the open. >> overseas european markets are higher, asiaen, chinese stocks rising for the first time in 10 trading sessions. holiday travelers will get relief at the pitch. gas prices fell for the first tile in a month. the price per gallon slipped 2 cents no last two weeks. the nationwide average is $3.26. the cheapest gas can be found in items you is a. long island, new york, be prepared to pay top dollar. >> division over the future of the n.s.a. lawmakers face off over what to do next with the troubled agency in the wake of the edward snowden scandal. >> charges have been filed in last year's deadly factory fire in bangladesh. a look at weather conditions. >> gay marriage in utah heading back to court. what a judge's decision could mean for the recently overturned rule. >> could have, would have, should have, post week 16 in the nfl. we'll have those stories layer in sports. they call it "vertical farming." these fields grow on floors on at industrial park and farmer john adel and his staff agrees user. >> my shipping proceed did you sa