26/01/2017 Asia Business Report

The Dow Jones scores 20,000 for the first time ever. Is this the Trump

effect? And why India's universities are banning some start-ups from

recruiting on their campuses. Good morning, Asia. Hello, world. It

is Thursday. Glad you could join us. We kick off with Wall Street, where

US stocks crossed a major milestone. The Dow Jones industrial average

finishing above 20,000 for the first time ever and you also have the

broader S 500 and the NASDAQ also at record levels. This is how Asian

markets are reacting to the Dow Jones 20,000. The Nikkei gaining

1.3% and the All Ords hired by 20 points. Basically Mr Trump's senior

adviser was quick to comment on the news, tweeting that the landmark was

down to the Trump effect, but is it? Let's have a look.

Earlier I asked our business adviser if it really is the Trump effect. If

you look at stocks, especially the Dow Jones, we have seen it is up

some 8%. That's since the election of Donald Trump. Really when you

look at some of the executive orders we've seen that Mr Trump put through

over the last few days, what it is really signalling to Wall Street is

that some of the promises that Mr Trump had campaigned on, things like

rolling back some of the banking regulations, making the tax code in

the US less, catered and making it easier for people to invest, it

would seem from Wall Street that in fact the president will be trying to

make those things reality. That said, you also have to consider the

kind of economy that Mr Trump has inherited. We are seeing that the US

labour market is doing well. The unemployment rate is at its laws

level in about a decade and we saw that massive stimulus programme by

the US central bank and the Federal Reserve. All of that help to lift

market to where they are today. Stocks have rallied, as you

mentioned. The US dollar is still putting pressure on Asian currencies

are like the Japanese yen, which is usually good news for major Japanese

companies who exported overseas. But did Mr Trump pulling out of the TDP

and renegotiating the free trade agreement means the weaker yen will

not be much help? I asked someone from the Bank of America what his

forecast was for the Japanese currency. I think given the policy

divergences between the markup in the bank of Japan and the Federal

Reserve, the yen will rise into the media and it should be about 120.

But then you have the US political pressure, which might talk things

down. So from the Japanese policymakers' perspective, the

dollar is high but not too high is how they feel. They could also see

at strengthening by the end of 2017. What does this mean for the local

and export companies? The weaker yen is usually good for Japanese

automakers and exporters, but at the same time you are seeing the US

president basically wanting Japanese companies to produce in the US and

reduce exported from Japan, potentially. So it's a difficult

situation. If you come to Tokyo you see many European but not so many

Japanese cards and that the preference. So I think this trade

issue is going to be quite challenging for the Japanese

government and Japanese automakers. In other business news, Facebook has

announced changes to its trending feature to tackle the growing issue

of tech news. In its latest bid it says Facebook will not be

personalised and the system will decide what is trending and everyone

in the same region will see the same topics. Shares are down 13% in Tokyo

and were untraded at one point, due to too many orders and that's after

the company's full-year profitability came in lower than

expected. Profit slipped at Boeing last year because of lower

deliveries of its aircraft, where the US company expects to deliver

more commercial planes and improve its earnings going forward. India's

start-up companies have become the biggest recruiters of new graduates.

The jobs on offer are amongst the most sought after banks to juicy

salaries and attractive terms. That's until this year. Many

universities have now blacklisted a number from recruiting on campus.

This man is slowly getting used to the demands of professional life. He

has been working as a trainee at a foreign company for the last six

months. Although the engineering graduate counts himself lucky, it is

not exactly his real job. He wanted to work for an up start-up and was

recruited by one before he even graduated last year. Only to have

the offer withdrawn within a few months. That left him with no

prospects to find another opportunity. I started applying the

companies and got some refusals because they didn't want to hire

someone who was initially hired in another company. It was a struggle

to find the next job. It is not a situation students from the

prestigious Indian institute of technology expect to be in. For

students in India, securing a seat at IIT is a big achievement. It is

the Indian equivalent of studying at somewhere like Oxford University.

Part of the appeal is a chance of getting a job offer from prestigious

company and these days employment opportunities and successful

start-ups are the most sought after, where people can do new and

innovative things. If you want to be posted as a sales office or in the

marketing division... Global investors have been pouring in

capital to fund Indian start-ups, but most are struggling to make

company Dimeck money, which means too many cutting jobs. -- struggling

to make money. In an effort to protect its students, the IIT

management has now and those companies from recruiting on campus

at 23 of its branches throughout India. Our approach to start-ups

this year has been more cautious. I also want to look at whether the

funding opportunities and sources these companies have are viable or

sustainable for a substantial period of time. The BBC contacted

companies, but only a few responded. One of them said:

More than 10 million young Indians enter the job market every year and

the ones who are in the start-up sector expected to absorb a lot of

them. But businesses can be risky. Both entrepreneurs starting out and

for potential employees, hoping to work with them one day.

The world's against human migration is currently under way this week and

I've been talking about the many people returning home for the

Chinese New Year holidays, or the spring festival. It is China's most

important holiday, yet a seven-day break comes to a halt. Except for,

as these pictures show, transportation systems and tourist

sites. I asked someone from a travel company whether there is a different

trend this year. Beyond the numbers we see a polarisation of traveller

preferences onto important dimensions. One is how self focused

they are and the second dimension in his how much control they are

looking to exit on their travel. For Chinese travellers we are seeing

more and more travellers, about 50%, getting much more self focused. It

is all about me and not about the family? About self-discovery and

wanting to exert more control. Let's have a quick look at the

markets. An historical day on Wall Street for the Dow Jones industrial

as Donna -- industrial and NASDAQ and SNP at record levels as well. It

is rubbing off on the Nikkei and the Hang Seng as well. Australia is

closed today for a public holiday. Thanks