:00:00. > :00:15.Now on BBC News all the latest business news live from Singapore.
:00:16. > :00:21.The latest victims in the fall of commodity prices. Japan's biggest
:00:22. > :00:31.conglomerates are expected to report their first ever lost.
:00:32. > :00:34.Goodbye Siri and hello Viv, we look at the next generation of artificial
:00:35. > :00:45.intelligence that is exciting technologists. Good morning, Asia,
:00:46. > :00:49.hello, world, it's Tuesday and glad you could join us. I'm Rico Hizon.
:00:50. > :00:54.The fall in commodity prices is claiming another victim, later we
:00:55. > :00:59.are expecting to hear bad news from two of Japan's biggest
:01:00. > :01:06.conglomerates. Mitsui and Mitsubishi. They are what's known as
:01:07. > :01:11.General companies and they trade in a wide range of products including:
:01:12. > :01:17.They have traditionally helped to control Japan's natural resource
:01:18. > :01:22.imports by making large investments in raw materials, but the collapse
:01:23. > :01:25.in oil and metal prices have meant the two companies have already
:01:26. > :01:29.warned investors they probably lost money for the first time since they
:01:30. > :01:39.were founded nearly 70 years ago. Earlier I asked an expert why they
:01:40. > :01:40.have so much exposure to the energy sector.
:01:41. > :01:46.The fact of the matter is they are the quarterback or the core nucleus
:01:47. > :01:51.of these two very big conglomerates in Japan and their role as a trading
:01:52. > :01:55.company has ceased to exist given Japanese manufacturers can now trade
:01:56. > :02:02.on their own. They have diversify, which was a good thing, but they
:02:03. > :02:06.have gone into energy and the diversification has caused problems
:02:07. > :02:09.and that's why we are seeing this excessive inclination towards
:02:10. > :02:15.energy, resulting in this massive lost. What about the appreciation of
:02:16. > :02:19.the Japanese yen? You have the negative interest rate policy
:02:20. > :02:23.implemented in February, does this help or is this disadvantageous for
:02:24. > :02:34.these major trading companies? Considering they do use bogus of
:02:35. > :02:38.occasion into infrastructure for Mitsui and life science for
:02:39. > :02:43.Mitsubishi... It should benefit them -- diversification. But we need to
:02:44. > :02:47.wait six months minimum to see the saturating effect of these negative
:02:48. > :02:51.interest policies. It's too early to tell. The most important thing for
:02:52. > :02:55.these two companies in regards to the policy is their utilisation of
:02:56. > :02:58.value chain and networking which you might think is their biggest
:02:59. > :03:03.strength within the Japanese conglomerates. Basically
:03:04. > :03:06.diversifying away a bit from excessive inclination towards energy
:03:07. > :03:08.is their biggest hallmark right now.
:03:09. > :03:14.The ongoing debt crisis in Europe continues to affect markets around
:03:15. > :03:18.the world, but a deal may finally be reached later this month. That's
:03:19. > :03:22.according to the head of the Euros group of Finance Minister is. Talks
:03:23. > :03:27.were held in Brussels on Monday when Greek lawmakers also passed
:03:28. > :03:31.controversial new pension and tax reforms but it was met with large
:03:32. > :04:13.protests. Let's have a look at the reforms.
:04:14. > :04:19.Moving now to other business news making headlines. The people who
:04:20. > :04:26.co-ordinated the leak of the so-called panama papers have put the
:04:27. > :04:31.whole lot online. A searchable database includes more than 300 and
:04:32. > :04:34.thousand names of individuals and companies who have used anonymous
:04:35. > :04:40.shell companies, including relatives of several Chinese leaders as well
:04:41. > :04:43.as some Asian chief executives. China's search engine Baidu has been
:04:44. > :04:50.told to reduce the number of adverts it includes in its search results.
:04:51. > :04:53.It came after a student died from an experimental cancer therapy that
:04:54. > :05:00.came top of the list in his Baidu Web search. The US doughnut company
:05:01. > :05:05.Krispy cream, which has over 1000 shops in more than 26 countries, has
:05:06. > :05:12.a new owner. It's agreed to be bought by Germany's J a B Holdings
:05:13. > :05:18.for $1.3 billion. They own coffee brands as well as the luxury shoe
:05:19. > :05:23.company Jimmy Choo. Tata Steel has confirmed seven bidders have shown
:05:24. > :05:26.interest in buying UK operations. Tata and the industry blame cheap
:05:27. > :05:32.Chinese imports for a collapse in steel prices. Now to the Big Apple,
:05:33. > :05:37.where a huge technology show is taking place. It is called Disrupt
:05:38. > :05:42.New York which highlights the technology that aims to shake up the
:05:43. > :05:46.way we live. We asked Michelle Fleury to check it out and she found
:05:47. > :05:47.a lot of excitement is about the next generation of artificial
:05:48. > :05:53.intelligence. I'm at the cruiseship terminal in
:05:54. > :06:01.Brooklyn and instead of tourists, as you can see, the room here today is
:06:02. > :06:05.filled with technologists. Welcome to Tech Crunch Disrupt. A lot of the
:06:06. > :06:11.buzz has centred around the creators of Siri, Apple's digital assistant,
:06:12. > :06:15.they did a demo a short while ago showing off their newest creation,
:06:16. > :06:19.it's called Viv, and it's what they say is the next generation of
:06:20. > :06:24.artificial intelligence Assistant. We think there will be a new icon
:06:25. > :06:29.that will be very recognisable, as recognisable as Bluetooth and
:06:30. > :06:40.Wi-Fi. Will it be warmer than 70 degrees near the golden gate bridge
:06:41. > :06:48.after 5pm the day after tomorrow? Sent Adam $20 for the drinks last
:06:49. > :06:52.night. It knows who Adam is, it knows what it's about, we are going
:06:53. > :07:01.to go ahead and send that. That's it. One of the questions that came
:07:02. > :07:07.up is whether or not Viv could potentially replace search, Siri
:07:08. > :07:11.routinely directs queries to search engines when it can't answer the
:07:12. > :07:15.questions it self. This obviously wouldn't be the case with Viv but he
:07:16. > :07:19.still thought there was a role in the future for search engines. And
:07:20. > :07:21.when asked about whether artificial intelligence posed any dangers, he
:07:22. > :07:29.said he didn't think so. Michelle Fleury in New York. Where
:07:30. > :07:33.should you set up shop if you want to sell luxury goods? According to a
:07:34. > :07:38.new report, Asia is your perfect destination. It is home to seven of
:07:39. > :07:43.the top ten cities with the highest presence of luxury retailers. Hong
:07:44. > :07:47.Kong is second only to London in its popularity, especially among
:07:48. > :07:51.mainland Chinese shoppers. But look closely and retail sales in Hong
:07:52. > :07:52.Kong have been falling for over a year and they were down almost 10%
:07:53. > :08:07.in March from a year ago. The market is certainly down
:08:08. > :08:10.particularly in the luxury sector for the hard luxury sector with
:08:11. > :08:15.jewellery and watches being the most hit. Hong Kong has a market is still
:08:16. > :08:21.fundamentally very good and it's an exceptional opportunity for the
:08:22. > :08:25.luxury retailers. 30% of all the global luxury spend is done by the
:08:26. > :08:30.mainland Chinese and 80% of that is done outside of China. Hong Kong is
:08:31. > :08:33.in a position where it's a very attractive market for these people
:08:34. > :08:38.to come to. And while there are still lots of global brands here,
:08:39. > :08:43.that big presence of the global brands means it's an exciting place
:08:44. > :08:47.to shop. The landlords in the major shopping districts, such as Causeway
:08:48. > :08:53.Bay, Admiralty have also lowered their rents to attract some of these
:08:54. > :08:56.big, luxury retailers. With the downturn in sales, the landlords
:08:57. > :09:02.have had to be very proactive and be quick to adjust to the market. We've
:09:03. > :09:07.seen a downturn in the market in Causeway Bay particularly and also
:09:08. > :09:10.in Central. It's at a level now where it's affordable for retailers
:09:11. > :09:16.so that's encouraging them back. Were also seeing a different sector
:09:17. > :09:20.of retailers, not just luxury but more affordable and sports brands.
:09:21. > :09:24.Apart from Shanghai and Beijing you have Singapore, Isaack and Tokyo
:09:25. > :09:30.being centres for luxury retailers. Tokyo is still the second biggest
:09:31. > :09:34.luxury market in the world -- Osaka. With the weaker yen over the
:09:35. > :09:38.last 18 months we have seen a big increase in Chinese tourism and
:09:39. > :09:39.we've seen an increase in sales for luxury retailers and more interest
:09:40. > :09:53.from the real estate side. Let's have a look now at the
:09:54. > :09:58.market. Asia heading in separate directions in early Tuesday trade
:09:59. > :10:01.after stocks finished higher as games for drug companies were almost
:10:02. > :10:08.cancelled by sharp losses in metals and energy companies -- gains. The
:10:09. > :10:13.Nikkei 225 up 84 points due to a weak yen against the US dollar,
:10:14. > :10:21.benefiting exporters. The warlords lower by 23 points due to falling
:10:22. > :10:25.prices. -- the warlords. The Hang Seng will be opening in about 15
:10:26. > :10:29.minutes. Those are the markets in Asia, thank you for investing your
:10:30. > :10:32.time with us. I'm Rico Hizon. For now.