and the asia pacific. that the u.s. needs to continually modernize its military force posture in the region and that china represents a significant challenge. i do not anticipate any major change. of course, if trump is elected, who knows. in terms of the major main stream republican establishment, there is a strong belief in the importance of asia. >>> gangs of men have attacked a group of pakistanis and syrians in colon, germany and are treating it as possible hate crimes after hundreds of men attacked a group of women on new year's eve. some 20 assailants attacked six pakistani nationals on sunday. two were taken to hospital. shortly after the first attack, a syrian man was assaulted and injured by a group of five people. the incidents come after multiple women were robbed and sexually assaulted on december 31st. german authorities suspect north african migrants involved. police in colon say they have so far received more than 500 criminal complaints about the incident. germany's interior minister harshly criticized

airlines are rising in asia pacific in reverse to what's going on in oil. pacific up a third of a percent. china eastern and sing air gains of about .75%. this is rat -- the rally the last couple days. some saying this is really short covering and now is not a time to be piling on into risk. as we head into the japan lunch break right now here is how things stand. this is a stock that is a real estate company selling condos in tokyo among other prefectures down 7.7% after they said that they cut their profit forecast by 45%, offerings for the nine months fell some 70%. sales also down. a very hot profit market in parts of japan especially in tokyo where average sale prices have surged to 24-year highs. so it really is knock go-to wind out of the property market right now and making it very tough for ordinary buyers in japan. toshiba falling 4.3%. we see at a 35, 36-year low on the shares right now after the company said they're studying a write down or to take a write down for its westinghouse business. earnings also coming out next week. we have to take a l

factors have been weighing on the asia-pacific markets. gene otani has more on that along with the rest of business news. >>> very much so, james. thanks. investors have been cautious with china's economic slowdown and lower oil prices. tokyo's nikkei average ended lower for two sessions in a row. for the details we go to our business reporter mayu yoshida at the tokyo stock exchange. >> we saw a bit of a recovery in tokyo on friday morning as investors bought back stocks at bargain prices, adjusting theiring positives. stocks wiped out those gains following losses in chinese markets. it was a very choppy day in here, the nikkei eventually fell 0.5% closing at 17,147. the broader topix was down 0.3%. this week, stocks were volatile on worries over china and falling oil prices. the nikkei fell 3% on the week, briefly dipping below 17,000 for the first time since september.

the managing director and vice chairman of asia pacific at jp morgan chase and she joins us from hong kong. good to see you. the reading not as bad as what it could have been. i mean, it wasn't a print of 6.5%. it could have been a lot worse well it was very much in line with market expectations. four year gdp 6.9% but reading beyond the headlines we find remarkable divergence between the service industry and the manufacturing sector so it's a tale of two industries. the service industry was at much faster pace accounting for now over 50% of gdp when the manufacturing sector experienced a lot of challenges now accounting for only 40% of gdp so i think you'll continue to see the service industry driving growth. the most important question to

have a presence in the asia-pacific region, not just to counter north korea but also the expansionism that is going on with china and the south china sea. adam: feels like we have been seeing headlines not just with kim jong-un but his father for so long. could we be stuck in this for another 50 years? how do we break out of the cycle of him throwing a temper tantrum and having to respond? sen. rubio: the dynamics are bizarre. it is a regime that does people, they have death camps. our responsibility is to ensure they cannot do anything to the u.s. they are increasing the capability of long-range rocket spirit we' ve never had a time in the world where a lunatic possesses long-range missiles and a nuclear warheads capable of striking the u.s. we need to act with urgency about having the missile defense systems that are necessary to prevent that from hurting our people. s game plan with an idea. north korea launches conventional missiles and south

and i used to say in the sixth long asia pacific trips i took him and as you all know, every trip you take is long to the pacific, or anywhere in asia, that the rebalance was not to crowd out china or to contain china or in anyway inflicted any damage, economic, security damage to china, it was to engage china as well as all the nations in the pacific, and asia. we all know that the united states has been a pacific power for more than a century, clearly a pacific power. in fact, the entire western hemisphere from north to south borders of the pacific. so our interests are very clear. china's interests are very clear. now, how we managed to those differences like the east china sea, south china sea, which really developed and came to a head during the time i was there, i think are the more defined, critical examples of managing through a very difficult set of circumstances. and i think what we've seen in the markets and it will probably get to some of us so i will hold any particular, i have on this, but the reflection of what's happened in china's markets the last week and how that ha

very significant alliance of nations that want to do business by high standards from all of the asia-pacific , the reopening of our embassy and the developing of a plan which offers the opportunity if people want to take it from assigned on dubai saudi arabia and iran and other countries and organizations. for ending the syrian civil war. we also saw major gains on the ground against this organization in syria and iraq by ancaps off by an impressive victory by iraqi forces with coalition supported romani. just this afternoon earlier this morning ii had a videoconference with our commanders as well as secretary ash carter from our ambassadors from turkey and iraq and we discussed the road ahead and securing the mahdi and moving forward and the rest of the campaign for which we have a clear plan and clear expectations. i should also.out that last year was also a good year for democracy and such countries as nigeria, sri lanka, burma, and there were significant elections as well in venezuela, argentina, the central african republic and elsewhere. all of this is not an end unto itself. ititself.

supportinganguage how we should be cutting forces in the asia specific -- pacific. how does cutting the only airborne combat team in the asia civic support this area -- asia-pacific support this area? think that will increase the number of soldiers overall? >> there are 100,000 today since 2007. >> if the army retained this at the full strength, would it send a strong message, strategic message to north korea, russia and our allies about america's commitment to protect our strategic commitment in the arctic and support our allies? >> i think that would send a strong message. the army last year had to balance cuts it had to make across all of the requirements and priorities it has. number.e get to the 450 i think it is low, way too low, strategically risky. >> i do think it is a risk. i have testified this. >> to his credit, and you have already touched on this, the general is working hard to balance the ratio, making sure teeth rather than the tooth category. >> in the 450, i believe the number is 1500. >> how many prisoners? >> 1100 are counted as prisoners. >> how

(jasper kim/founder, asia-pacific global research group) "what north korea really wants is a conversation, recognition, and respect from south korea, but even more from south korea, 3 friend of one of the san bernardino attackers will appear in court this morning. enrique marquez was a friend of sayed farook. he is accused of conspiring with farook to provide material support to terrorists. authorities believe marquez purchased rifles for farook and his wife to use during the deadly attack in san bernardino on december second. 3 3 lawyers for william porter, a baltimore police officer accused in the death of freddie gray, have asked the officer not be compelled to testify in another officer's trial. officer caesar goodson junior and sergeant alica white both face charges in the death of freddie gray. jury selection in goodson's trial begins next monday. white's trial is scheduled to begin january 25th. 3 3 tomorrow marks one year since terrorists stormed the offfice of satirical magazine, charlie hebdo... killing 12 people, including some of france's most famous cartoonists. five more liv

news today in aviation right here in the asia-pacific.king to vietnamese airlines later this year. the enemieser -- takingater this over vietnam means airlines later this year. how significant is this? is one of the world's fastest-growing aviation markets. the airports here are full of passengers in the know i and ho chi minh city. with --orts are packed annoi and ho chi minh city. they are seeing double growth every year. 49% of these passengers flew last year. it's a growth story. why is this japanese interested in vietnam in particular? john: it views it as part of its growth strategy in asia. something like one in five vietnamese in a country of 90 million are flying today. within two decades, virtually -- all enemies will be vietnamese will be taking to the air. for vietnam airlines, tying up an elite carrier will not only give it a larger market but help the airline increase its standards. it had a goal to become a four-star, five-star carrier in the future, and it is facing very tough competition from vietjet, which could overtake

for the year, the msci asia-pacific index is down by 6%. big currency move in the last five days has been the offshore yuan, which has made its biggest five-day gain. we have had intervention, china fixing the reference rate at a stable level for four consecutive days. peace reigns for now. coming up, crude dips below 30 and rebounds. we will discuss that next. ♪ the only way to get better is to challenge yourself, and that's what we're doing at xfinity. we are challenging ourselves to improve every aspect of your experience. and this includes our commitment to being on time. every time. that's why if we're ever late for an appointment, we'll credit your account $20. it's our promise to you. we're doing everything we can to give you the best experience possible. because we should fit into your life. not the other way around. francine: welcome back to "the pulse." live from bloomberg's european headquarters. , paolontroduce our guest scaroni. also joining us is bloomberg's chief energy correspondence, javier blas. thank you for joining us. g

five of those seven are in the asia pacific area. so we've had those treaty obligations for a long time. a long, long time. >> secretary cohen? >> if i can follow-up on secretary brown's answer. i think we have to be concerned what china thinks. we are up to, and also be concerned about what the asian countries believe is necessary. as seen, china is number one trading partner replacing the united states, we're number four. to say the u.s. is trying to contain china would be to sea all of the members of asean are trying to contain china, which is not the case. they want to continue to do business with china. but they don't want to be dominated, as secretary brown said. and that is a reason why this strategy on the part of the united states makes sense in the sense of how it's being pursued. to say we have 2500 marines in darwin, australia, is not a containment strategy against china although the marines think so. to say we're going to rotate four combat ships through singapore is not exactly a change in the balance of power. as you l

but when we look abroad into the asia-pacific region which is where the some of the largest and fastest growing economies are we face high tariffs and many barriers and t.p.p. eliminates or reduces barriers so we can keep production in the united states, grow production in the united states, export more and create more good-paying job in the united states. >> rose: stock markets, politics and the economy, when we continue. >> rose: funding for "charlie rose" has been provided by: >> and by bloomberg, a provider of multimedia news and information services worldwide. captioning sponsored by rose communications from our studios in new york city, this is charlie rose. >> rose: stocks tumbled around the world today. the drop is a part of a larger global slowdown. it come amidst concerns over declining oil prices and economic uncertainty in china. the dow jones closed down nearly 400 points, a decrease of 2.4%. the price of crude oil dropped to a 12-year low. today marks the worst calendar year start for stocks in u.s. history. joining me is barry ritholtz, chief investment officer at .rithol

but before doing so, let me remind us again that there is a lot more to the asia pacific than china. in addition to china's 1.4 billion, there are 625 million people living in the nations of southeast asia alone. not to speak of 127 million in japan, itself the world's third-largest national economy. 50 million in south korea. and of course 1.7 billion in the indian subcontinent. there is so much to offer in this region. china is vitally important. it is the largest economy in the region, by a long way, and there is much to gained from strengthened china-u.s. cooperation. progress on an effective global response to climate change could not have been achieved without president see and obama. the lasting resolution to the threat from north korea passes through beijing as well as washington. the united states, china, australia, all the nations, agree that the world has benefited mightily from china's rise. we all agree that the biggest risk to that continued peaceful rise is conflict and the disruption and instability that would bring. so central is the asia pacific to the world economy,

. >>> now, a downward trend is continuing in markets throughout the asia pacific region. let's turn to gene otani for the markets and other business held lionses, gene. >> thanks, james. >>> stocks saw gains early on thursday with a rebound in crude oil prices but the situation soon turned around. the nikkei average eventually closed at the host lowest level in 16 months. for details we go to our business reporter at the stock exchange. my ewe. >> first, we saw gains across the board one analyst said since this rebound was based on bargain hunting after they covered their losses in a downward spiral. nikkei briefly rose % but close 2.4%. i was staring at the monitor here in the last few minutes of trading because the nikkei was very close to dip below that 16,000 mark. the broader topix gave up all gains to 2.8%. and then closing out to october 2014. at the end of the day, we saw losses on all three subsectors on the broad ebb topix. japan dropped to a three-year low, mcdonald's after reporting that the american fast food giant is planning to sell up to 33% of shares in i

taking a look across the asia-pacific region we are seeing a pretty positive picture so far with australian shares up 1.2%. south korean shares up just about half a percent. >>> the slide in crude oil is one of the top issues in davos, switzerland. participants at the world economic forum say they are worried about possible effects on the global economy. new york university professor nourio roubini was speaking at a session on the chinese economy. >> the cost of oil prices if it's driven by a positive supply shock should be good for the global economy and instead it seems to be rattling financial markets, i think for a couple of reasons. one is that maybe it's driven not just any longer by positive supply shock but also about concerns about aggregate demand globally, weakness of growth in china, the weakness of growth in emerging markets, weakness of growth in the united states, so if the falling oil prices are reflecting weak global growth, it's bad news about the global economy. >> one of the contributing factors behind the slide is the lifting of economic sanctions by western countries a

the trade data out of china booftd sentiment in the asia-pacific region. in australia, the s&p asx rose for the first time in nine sessions climbing 1.27%. seoul's kospi advanced 1.3%, the sharpest one hu esest one-day g month. the hang seng rebounded more than 1% from yesterday's three-year low. >>> china's trade data for december was better than expected. as a whole, the figures for 2015 were sluggish. the overall value of chinese trade marked the first decline in six years. that was on the back of lackluster exports and weak domestic investment. customs officials said on wednesday that china exported over $2.2 trillion of goods last year. that's down 2.8% from the previous year. shipments fell for products such as clothing and shoes to japan and europe. meanwhile, imports fell 14.1% from 2014 to nearly $1.7 trillion. slow domestic investment led coal and copper exports to decrease. total trade stood at $3.95 trillion, down 8% from 2014. the latest figure is well below the official growth target of 6% per year. customs officials say they expect to see st

economic, security damage to china, but was to engage china as well as all of the nations in the pacific, and asia, we all know that the united states has been a pacific power for more than a century. clearly a pacific power. in fact the entire western hemisphere, north to south, borders the pacific. our interests are very clear. china's interests are very clear. now, how we managed through those differences, like the east china sea, south china sea issue, which really developed and came to a head during the time i was there, i think, are the more defined critical examples of managing through a very difficult set of circumstances. and i think, too, what we've seen in the markets -- and i know you are probably going to get to some of this, so i'll hold any particular comments on this -- the reflexion of what's happened in china's markets the last week and how that has reflected on everyone's markets consequences, reactions, and i think that should -- if we needed any other reminder -- should clearly remind us, again, of something my predecessors have all mentioned the inner connectedness of our int

." >>> and stocks in the asia pacific region have hd a brutal start to the year. in particular, the markets in china plummeted on the first trading day of 2016. look at those numbers. >> a live look at the region right now. trading on china's major exchanges has been halted. a circuit breaker kicked in when stocks tumbled. weak numbers from the manufacturing sector and uncertainties in the middle east are some of the reasons playing into this. >> we have paula hancock will more on how this is playing out. first let's go to matt rivers in beijing. trading has been suspended after the market fell nearly 7%. what's driving this selloff, exactly? >> reporter: trading was susp d suspended around 1:30 local time. the reason why it was -- why trading was suspendsed are the so-called circuit breakers. they were put in place in china to try to curb some of the volatility we saw last year. the rules surrounding them would be that if the stock market falls 5%, trading is halted for 15 minutes. if it falls by 7%, trading is halted for the rest of the day. as for the reason be

the appointment is a statement of continued investment in expanding in the asia-pacific.an, we see a great opportunity there. similar drivers to what we see in other economies. elliott: we have seen a lot of volatility -- and lower oil prices. you as a cyber security company, introducing a new layer of protection, are completely immune to the broader economy? >> there is a growing budget and information security. if they do not grow them themselves, they take or from other i.t. -- there is high demand for information security. i would not say anybody is immune, but this is a layer that every enterprise needs. elliott: there seems to be a lull in high profile data breaches. target and others. does that mean that less people are panicking and your phone raining off the hook? >> one thing that is very active security measures. our customers do not need to be breached for them to call and place. put a layer in they're also regulations that force these companies to put these kinds of layers in place. more and more companies are being corrected. there are continued breaches tha

this could have a market impact across the asia-pacific. andaw that divided wishon august having a dramatic impact devaluationrkets -- in august have a dramatic impact on global markets. the pboc move to create a broader basket of currencies. optimistic view or's insistence ability -- or the yuanstability, against the dollar has sunk to this five-year low. ist tells you that the yuan not necessarily as volatile as it seems. if we take that longer-term perspective be on these one-day moves,r one-week relatively the economy and currency are stable versus its major trading partners. stephen roach's would yell university in connecticut. he has been writing about the fact that this devaluation, or so-called devaluation, may not necessarily be a devaluation. is sparkingt china new currency devaluation is really a stretch he tells bloomberg. it depends on your position in the market. it is an active morning. we will watch it closely given this zigzag with the chinese currency. it is an interesting time indeed with respect to the currency. we're tr

have a look at what is happening if you supplies and dice groups in the asia pacific. we are up .5%. financials, brokers, consumers goods in this area. oil prices, which have taken a backseat to what is happening in chan. it hit a 2004 low yesterday. are we seeing this consequent rebound across airlines? not consistently. this of course travel and leash impacts us all. you are talking airlines, rail rates and so forth. no a consistent picture there. let me rap things up with gold prices. gold gold did get bid up to a two or three-month high. it was $1110 this morning. it has given back a little bit since this morning. back to you. >> trying to make sense of all this, joining us from atlanta is investment management. what is going on? let talk about equities first. then we move on to the currency side of things? how are you dealing with it, and how are you viewing it? >> number one, we don't feel surprised at all for such a sharp correction of the stock markets. you look at the mood, investor sentiment, at what is happening, the money outflows for consecutive 2-3 months

the s&p 500 lost 2.5%. >> let's bring in cnn's asia pacific editor andrew stooefbev. they're not a pretty site. >> it is basically falling the wall street selloff. wall street now down 7% to 8%. we saw oil flirting with $30 a barrel. trading wept to $29.76 at its lowest point. there's still a lot of downward pressure on oil. and that's hurting the markets as you can see. also the ongoing concerns about what's been going on in china as far as the strength of the economy there. the currency in china all adds into this caldron of concern. the wall of worry, as they call it. not just asia but globally where the economy is headed. and as a result, where stocks are going. this one they're saying could come sometime to come. >> there was one winner. it matches at least one ticket in california. >> and 12 other tickets matched five of the six number, making them $1 million winners. that's not so bad. but we're still awaiting to hear from more states. >> let's look at the winning numbers by the way. get your tickets out. people all around the world are entering for this. no do

asia pacific region, mostly negative pictures. south down 3/4%, australia, 0.10%. two major japanese companies about $150 million fine, that's more than 137 million euros for participating in a car tell and coordinating prices of auto parts. the european commission says the collusion took place between mitsubishi and high attach chee, among themselves carenin parts from 2004 to 2010, an trti trus rules. the cartel to the commission. the e u.s. competition commissioner criticized, saying it affected car manufacture ares in europe and ultimately hurt consumers. they stressed they'll crack down on acts and infringe on free competition in the economic area even if the collusion takes place outside of europe. >>> well, this week we've been running a special series on en tra pra nears, in our third and final installment, we sit with an innovative robot. cutting edge technology helping people to make better connections. nhk has the story. >>> this robot can communicate so naturally that you might think you're talking to a human. in fact, you are. the robot called ohemei,

let's look at what is going on across asia-pacific. equity markets are now in a fair territory. . have one falling after another. a bit of a domino effect here in asia. you can talk about the two major drivers of this selloff, one being china and the other being oil, but there really seems to be a third element where fear is feeding into itself and we are seeing this vicious cycle of losses across the region and we are seeing a lot of these market that are very sensitive to china during -- dream particularly badly today. ozzie and qe stocks down. these are coming ahead of the second quarter are rather fourth quarter even gdp numbers coming out tomorrow as well as the four-year economic snapshot as well. ahead of that, the chinese premier has said, surprise, the number will come in at around 7%. we are not expecting any surprises, but certainly anything to the downside will be seen quite a reaction in addition to the selloff that we are already seeing across asia. weterms of chinese markets, did have the chairman over the weekend saying that quite a lot of negative things about th

the assistant director, asia pacific department. previously served as the deputy commissioner of financial sfrss agency fr the government of japan. canada is one of the successful financial countries, i guess, right? >> you can always get better. she has had 13 years in the market department of the irs where she worked on financial crisis. tools to assess financial risk. she is known for working on the effectiveness in many ways of micropotential policies, which you know is one of the big topics in financial markt analysis these days. and we're up to sharing with cornell university and he's much more from the mentally anchored at brookings. he's an associate of dmbr. and he was with the financial studies division and head of the ims china division. i think we couldn't have hoped for a better time. which one of you wants to start? >> i think it's going to be me. >> okay. all right. >> thank you very much, mr. dirvish. good afternoon and welcome to this seminar. mr. chu has given you a very nice overview of the book. i would like to p

managing director and vice chairman of asia pacific for jp morgan chase. thank you. >> in corporate news, shares are experiencing the biggest one day rise since november with rumors swirling of a possible bid from amazon. this as the e-commerce giant is looking to expand it's online grocery delivery service outside of the united states. david grey is a retail analyst and joins us on the phone. thanks for being with us. would it make sense if amazon were to take over? >> i think it would. we have seen amazon expanding it's pantry service into the u.k. so that's their online grocery service and buying it or tying up would really allow amazon to get it's handle or expand into the very competitive online grocery business within the u.k. and in terms of amazon's further range, obviously they have been expanding into non-foods from a grocer base and amazon is looking to expand into food. so it's quite a good fit there if they can come to some sort of an agreement. >> people might be watching and might be thinking look we can understand why they would take the mo

sales rising 8% topping estimates but growth was slower than expected in china, europe and the asia pacific regions. also disappointing investors. shares falling 4% in after hours. particularly the news in china surprising given that howard schultz was talking up trade there a few weeks ago. slightly beating forecasts. the world's top oil services firm with a $10 billion buy back and cuts 10,000 jobs in the quarter. it's cut a quarter of its work force since november 2014 up 3% in after hours. >> american express fell 4%. the company plans to cut $1 billion in cost by the end of 2017 acknowledging efforts aren't paying off yet. >> other corporate movers to watch. boeing will be cutting production of the 747-8 jumbo jet in half. the 747-8 is mostly used as a cargo jet but will also be part of an upgrade to the air force one presidential fleet. reuters reporting yahoo! will decide it's next strategic steps. sources say the company spurned several potential buyers for its internet business this month including private equity firms. last month remember yahoo! said it would seek a tax free spin

not only that but overall you can see that in the asia pacific that the markets were taking their queue from wall street and were concerned about not only oil but japan was also hit by the strengthening yen. in china we had concern from investors about dipping below the 3,000 level. there was quite a bit of fretting. people also talking about the direction and there's also several reports here of bank employees telling the local press that they are having internal unofficial restrictions on selling u.s. dollars to individuals to the tune of about $1,000 per transaction per person. the government though did come out and denied those reports and said that there haven't been any changes to the overall restrictions here of 50,000 u.s. dollars per individual per year. now later in the day in china we did see a rally and that made it a stand out compared to the rest of the asia pacific markets. the chinese markets rallied because late in the day, about 100 companies, large shareholders of companies pledged that they would not reduce the share holdings for the next six months and in addition t

i also would like to exchange ideas on stability in the asia-pacific region. >> reporter: abe said he wants to seek a breakthrough with russian president vladimir putin in a long-standing territorial dispute and finally sign a bilateral peace treaty. he also said that he's planning another summit with china and south korea. leaders from the three nations met last november. another challenge, he said, is getting young people interested in politics. over 2 million teenagers will be able to vote for the first time in the upcoming upper house election. >> translator: i want to work hard to show young people that medical expenses and pension premium payments will greatly affect them. and both diplomatic and domestic issues are relevant to them. >> reporter: abe's three-year-old administration will face popular judgment in the upper house poll. until then, the electorate will be watching his performance closely. nhk world. >>> saudi arabia has severed diplomatic ties with iran the day after protesters attacked this embassy in tehran. tensions had been escalated over the sunni kingdom's exec

♪ hello and welcome to asia-pacific america. i'm robert handa.ere we have had a nice start to the new year, and we're ready to celebrate the lunar new year. we start out with the children's museum and the popular celebration. the friends will be here to talk about the cultural festivities that include art, crafts, as well as music and dance performances. if you like to celebrate with wine, why not find out the best wine around. we'll help with a look at the san francisco wine competition public tasting. celebrating the 16th anniversary and one of the judges is here to tell us why it keeps getting better with age. >>> we move on to the march of dimes and the pacific islander program. what the biggest and sometimes the least obvious problems are in the community, and how they're being addressed through march of dimes. finally, we'll wrap up with the calendar efblts and report on the vietnamese celebration with the help of our colleague and friend of the show vicky winn of nbc bay area news. that's coming up on the show today. >>> it's almost time f

to the asia pacific? >> yeah, well that's one element of the army's rebalance of the pacific. you know the army created a four star leader there and increased the number of soldiers and civilians overall dedicated to the pacific. i think the number is 77,000 over 100,000 today. since 2007. >> let me just, if the army retained the 425 at its full strength as you and i have talked about, wouldn't it send a strong message, a strategic message to north korea, to russia, and our allies, about america's commitment to defend our strategic interest in the korean peninsula, the arctic, and support our allieallies? don't you think that would be a strong message? >> i think it would send a strong message. the army last year had to balance the cuts that it needed to make across all of the requirements and priorities that it has. >> let me get to the 450 number. i believe and i think a lot of members of this committee think it's low. i think it's way too low strategically risky for the country. do you agree with that?

markets across the asia-pacific region, australian and south korean shares both down by 0.7%. aussie shares are lower for a sixth session today. we'll see where trading takes us throughout the day. >>> this week, "newsline" has been focusing on the outlook for the world's major markets. and in the last installment of our series, we looked at the economies of asean. some are call thing region the center of growth. i asked an economist what he's expecting in 2016. >> he's a chief economist at economic research institute for asean and east asia. i would hike to start with what kind of year it will be for asean nations. >> the average growth rate is around 5%. the fastest growing nations are cambodia, laos, they would grow over 7%. and then the philippines and vietnam are doing pretty well, too. malaysia is going slowly. maybe a little less than 5%. that's the typical forecast. thailand, still some political turmoil, so people say 3% growth. >> he expecting china's slowdown to influence southeast asian economies but the bigger risks come from within the ten nations. >> even if chi

. >>> other benchmarks also climbed across can the asia-pacific region. in china the shanghai composite rebounded 1.25% after two days of losses. investors look positively on the efforts to stabilize the market. shares in malaysia were up 1.5%. sentiment improved after the central bank unexpectedly decided to cut the rash for banks to improve lending. the sharpest one-day rally since early september. the hong kong index climbed. extended gains to a second day following a rebound in comodty prices. business and political leaders are gathering in switzerland for the world economic forum. many participants turned their attention to south asia and the serious agenda got some lighter relief with a feast of japanese food and drink. nhk world joins them live. >> the party has become sober in recent years, but it's still going strong. organizers of the world economic forum hosted a special event on thursday called japan night. the japanese government and private sectors bolstered the promotion of special cuisine. this year brewers from fukushima prefecture. fukus

that's where she used to be, and i'm from the asia-pacific department and this book is a collaboration of these two departments in the imf. so, we at the asian pacific department look at the countries and she looks at the financial sector globally, so this is the sort of horizontal versus vertical kind of assignment. and then she mentioned pretty much as the financial sector of the global asia, i mean, the asia in general. then our -- this book also contain the macroeconomic related chapters like asia's demographic challenges and the infrastructure needs or the asean association of southeast asia nations, financial integration and analysis of factors behind the capital flows. so, among these i found that the asean financial integration chapter is particularly popular among the region's policymakers because it includes the lessons learned from europe or, you know, something went well and something went not so well and what are the things we should be looking at when you're going ahead with the financial integration. so, this is the kind of thing that the policy advice is behind what we

jummy: the president will address specific issues like gun violence kernel justice reform and the asia pacific trade deal. you can watch the final state of the union address starting at 9:00 this evening on abc 7. it is probably best to stay far away from the capital. numerous roads around capitol building will be closed starting at 7:00 and parking will be restricted as far west of the capital as 15th street. we have a full list of closures on a website, wjla.com. , the drug lord known as el chapo, speaking out. what he says in the newly released full interview with sean penn. closing the gap. the latest on vote 2016 as we get new numbers out of iowa. the world's largest lottery jackpot has grown again. how high it went this time around. our forecast is not looking so lucky today. doug will be back with the latest track of all of that rain and snow, coming up after the break. >> you are watching abc 7 news at noon. jummy: we are learning new details about the dramatic raid and capture of joaquin el chapo guzman. an all-out shootout at the safe house of the mexican drug lord. this noon, rollin

and looking at markets across the asia pacific region we are seeing negative picture so far with australian shares down. in seoul down. >> the world bank cut global growth forecast siting concerns that major emerging economies are becoming a drag. the bank's global economic prospects report expects the world economy to expand 2.9% in 2016. that's down 0.4% from its previous forecast last june. the report says the u.s. will see 2.7% growth more than last year helping to drive the global economy. the bank revised downward china's growth to 6.7%. it the report forecast negative growth in russia and brazil. both countries are facing declines in oil prices and the value of their currencies. brazil's growth will be minus 2.5% in 2016 and economic activity in russia will contract by 0.7%. as for japan, the bank cut its projected growth rate by 0.4 percentage point to 1.3%. it cites weak recovery despite improvements in performance. the report warns that the u.s. monetary policy change in december increased uncertainty over the economic outlook globally. the u.s. raised key rate for the first time

let's look at markets across the asia pacific region. the south korea kospi trading higher. in australia, shares trading down 1.1%. >>> leaders of japanese security companies are confident. they gave their projection at a new tokyo. the top executive of japan's largest brokerage firm predicts an upward trend. >> translator: i'm expecting the nikkei to rise, it may approach 23,000. hibino is looking to see if china's economy slows down faster than expected and if the risk will affect the crude oil market. this week "newsline" is airing a five-part series about the economic outlook for major companies. today we'll focus on the world's second largest economy. china. i asked an expert what he expects in 2016. very nice to meet you. >> thank you. >> he is dean of the asian development bank institute. he first went to china in 1991 to promote policies for growth. he's seen the economy shoot up and slow down. what kind of year are you expecting for china in 2016? >> i think it's 5,000, 6,000. it used to be 7% and then many people believes it is 6.5% or so. i think that chinese expo

. >>> moving on to other markets in the asia-pacific region.in china, shanghai composite briefly dipped below the key 3,000 mark for the first time since mid-september. it ended the day up by a fraction, 0.2% up. analysts say some investors cheered the government's efforts to stabilize the yuan. the central bank set the midpoint rate slightly higher than yesterday's close. concerns over china weed on other benchmarks. hong kong's hang seng slid 0.9% to close at the low nest more than three years. sydney's s & p asx slid. a rout in oil prices weighed on the resource heavy market. japanese leaders are calling for calm in domestic stock markets as investors react to the slowdown in china's economy. japanese firms are on a solid fundamental footing. people are too excited about the situation. i urge market watchers to remain calm as they monitor stock prices. >> economic revitalization minister added caution yash advice, noting that chinese stock prices are volatile as the country transitions from fast paced growth to moderate expansion. he said he

and on other markets across the asia pacific region, gains in south korea. up 1.6% above 1,900. a australia's benchmark, currency traders they have gained their risk on oil prices. they sold the yen against major currency as a safer asset. the major pairs are moving without clear direction. analysts say many investors saking a wait and see, winds up its policy meeting later today. the focus is whether the fed will give some hints about the pace of rate hikes. >>> well, officials at the world bank are worried about the over supply of oil. they've slashed their price forecast. they're expecting an average trade price of $37 a barrel. their projection was $51. oil already dipped be low $37 this month. lowest in a decade. economists at the bank expect it to rebound, but only slightly. the .2 global demand in china's economy, as well as the iranian exports and high production of shale oil in the u.s. >>> well, the united states has announced more changes to its sanctions on cuba. they restored ties with havana after a 54 year break. officials the u.s. treasury and commerce department

and formerly approve a sweeping asia-pacific trade pact. the president will address the nation tonight... at nine. the candidates vying to be the next commander in chief are set to take the stage once again. the next republican presidential debate is thursday in north charleston. fox business network, which will broadcast the debates, said seven candidates will be on stage for the main debate. they are donald trump, ben carson, senators ted cruz and marco rubio, governors chris christie and john kasich and former governor jeb bush. and....invited to the undercard debate are senator rand paul, carly fiorina, former governor mike huckabee and former senator rick santorum. for lawmakers back here at home... it's a busy day across the street from us at the state house. today is the start of a new legislative session. the columbia, democrats and many republicans united to bring down the confederate flag that flew outside the statehouse for 50 years. lawmakers say they hope that unity continues. senate members worked last month pre- filing bills

. >>> the slide in oil prices also dampened midyear benchmarks across the asia-pacific region. in china, the shanghai composite dropped 1%, closing at 2,976. some investors sold shares after the country's securities regulator approved sevennitial public offerings under new listing rules. hong kong's shares plunged after its currency fell. the hang seng index was down 3.8%, closing at the lowest since july 2012. many other markets tumbled to multimonth lows. seoul's kospi hit a five-month low. shares in singapore closed at the lowest in more than four years. the s&p asx fell 1.3% to a 2 1/2 year low. >>> we asked an expert to give us his outlook for the nikkei. >> we expect nikkei to bottom out around 16,000 because the price is so cheap compared to other japanese countries. some investors find value, to support the nikkei at that price. >> abe says many investors are keeping a close eye on the bank of japan. >> i think the price of oil or the value will be stabilized in a couple months. and then expectation for the boj isn't going to strengthen to our -- first meeting in april.