08/08/2017 Asia Business Report

Wall Street, but what will it take for the rallies to spill over into

Asian markets. Mothers milk against formula. Why is the latter a

favourite option in Hong Kong? Good morning, Asia. Hello, world. Welcome

to another edition of Asia Business Report. It's a Tuesday. My name is

Rico Hizon. I am glad you could join us. We start the programme with the

markets. The Dow Jones industrial average posting the ninth straight

record, finishing the session like this. Much of the gains driven from

strong corporate numbers from companies like Apple and others. We

will look at is the positive sentiment is filtering through to

Asia. Unfortunately not. The Nikkei is flat. The All Ordinaries Index is

up a little bit. A mixed day. Earlier, I spoke to an analyst. We

are seeing a rotation out of Asia. It has become more attractive as the

US dollar has become weaker. There are low funding rates over there.

The Federal Reserve is tightening. In the first six months of the year

we have seen the US dollar at multi-year highs against the euro,

against the Japanese yen, and the pound! Are investors coming in at a

time when the dollar is weak so they can buy back into the US markets?

That is definitely part of the plan. It shows how much liquidity there is

around the world looking to invest the money. It also shows you some of

the distortions of the low interest rates are causing around the world.

It is not just the US with quantitative easing, it is other

areas, including the UK... Asia, several banks have not raised

interest rates, but the US has twice this year and there will be a third

before the end of the year! Does this not put a cap on US stocks? I

don't know about that. As we were discussing earlier, the market could

also stay longer than you could stay solvent. There is a lot going to the

top spot. Small caps are not performing well around the world.

You mentioned irrationality among US investors. President Donald Trump's

popularity rating is at a record low. US markets are up. It shows you

the effect of the presidency and day-to-day living in the US. It may

be that the underlying economy has a bigger impact than what any nuances

in the political landscape by shelling. Could the US markets be

flavour of the year? -- are showing. I don't see any reason why stocks

should be sold at the moment. If it is twice as high in a year from now,

we will be saying they look cheap today to be I don't see why they

will tap out. Other business news. The world's newsroom del Chan says

it will partner with Alibaba to tap into the growing number of Chinese

tourists. -- hotel chain. It will allow them to book rooms using the

travel website on Alibaba. They can also use Alipay on their

smartphones. Chinese tourists will take 700 billion trips over the next

five years. Prosecutors in South Korea want a 12 year prison sentence

for the Samsung previous CEO, JY lay. They say he was the ultimate

beneficiary of the crimes committed in the scanner which brought down

the previous president. He denies any wrongdoing. The court will rule

later this month. Tesla once $1.5 billion to pay for the introduction

of its new Model Three car by selling bonds to investors. That is

even though they have $3 billion in cash. They are expected to go

through most of their cash this year as they try to produce 100,000 of

those mass-market cars. They already have half a million orders for the

model, they say. Video streaming giant, Netflix, has made its first

acquisition, the Scottish comic book dumped me behind Kickass and

Kingsmen. And they specialise in science fiction and fantasy stories

similar to Marvel. They paid $100 million for the company as part of a

drive to produce more original content. Over to the week-long

series around birth. We dig deeper into the debate between

breast-feeding and formula milk. In Hong Kong, breast-feeding rates are

some of the lowest in the world. The government has set voluntary

guidelines limiting formula milk. They spend hundreds of millions of

dollars a year promoting their products. Will these guidelines be

effective? Here is the BBC's Hong Kong correspondent. Sometimes,

professional assistance is needed to help a new mother achieve that

perfect latch. Yes, that is correct. This consultant has been teaching

breast-feeding for 20 years. It is still an uphill battle. Many

breastfeed in hospital, on discharge the rate is very high. But then the

rate drops when they go home. This is how many discharge in hospitals.

That goes to a third when babies are four-month-old, one of the lowest

rates in the world. Globally, this is the average for babies under six

months old. One of the reasons for the low rates in Hong Kong is the

ubiquitous advertisement for artificial baby milk. Two years ago,

formula makers spent $370 million on advertising, nearly as much as the

Health Department spent on disease prevention for all ages, according

to a group funded by UNICEF. That amount is set to fall after the

official launch this summer of a voluntary code that restrict the

marketing of infant formula. The top health official in the city says the

goal is to protect breast-feeding. If there are problems running this

using a voluntary nature, obviously, we will consider whether or not that

legislation should be in place. This new mother welcomes the guidelines.

She is exclusively breast-feeding her one-month-old baby, but says

continuing will be a challenger. It is difficult as a working mother.

Maternity leave is just ten weeks. I have to work six weeks after birth.

At a pro- breast-feeding event, mothers here agree that short

maternity leave, long working hours, and a lack of sleep are all

obstacles. They say the new government guidelines will help, but

they are far from enough. BBC News, Hong Kong. Joining the conversation

on line, tell us whether you think they should be restricted. Moving to

technology. Uber or Lyft. They have been on a massive spending spree.

This comes as Softbank rose 50% to 4.2 billion US dollars in the three

months until June. That is mostly because of gains in US chip designer

Nvidia. The owner of Softbank became popular in America because of his

meeting with Donald Trump. He is very rich. Will he invest in Uber,

Lyft, or both? He is considering both. We don't know which one yet,

but he wants to crack that ride market because he has not presence

in the US. He has already done so in Asian ride agencies. He even has a

big stake in Brazil's 99. The importance of that industry has to

do with growth. They are predicted to overtake taxis and be worth

nearly $200 billion by 2030, the entire industry. It comes down to

this man, the son of Masayoshi. He is a technology entrepreneur who

started from small beginnings. He started with Softbank in 1981. Now

he is making big bets on an interconnected future. He has bought

many companies. The most interesting move he has made is to set up a $100

billion technology fund with Saudi Arabia. This is the world's biggest,

a huge amount of money. Through it he is investing in almost every

major start-up areas. Summer include the virtual reality company,

Improbable, and some others. Some are questioning if he is helping to

fuel a tech bubble. Thank you very much. With that we in this edition

of Asia Business Report. Thank you for watching. -- we end this. This

has been Asia Business Report. Sport Today is up