07/02/2018 Asia Business Report

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That's all from me for now.

Stay with BBC News.

And our top story here in the UK:

Former executives of Carillion have

spoken publicly for the first time

about the collapse of the firm,

which went into liquidation last

month with debts of £1.5 billion.

And now on BBC News,

all the latest business news

live from Singapore.

Asian stock markets surged this

morning after Wall Street bounces

back. Bowling touches down at the

Singapore airshow. What deals will

they make?

-- Boeing.

Good morning, Asia. Hello, world.

Glad you could join us for this

edition of Asia Business Report. I

am Rico Hizon. We start off with

Asian markets and they have opened

higher after the mulch will stay on

Wall Street, which saw the main US

indices plunge for making record

gains. Here is where things stand

right now. The Nikkei is up by 3%,

that is 660 points. The ASX All

Ordinaries index is up by 1.2%, and

the Hang Seng index, according to

the futures markets, will be opening

in positive territory. We will have

the initial numbers for you in about

five minutes's time. It is important

to keep this wild ride in

perspective over a longer period

because the markets look very

different. The Nikkei has gained 14%

over the last year. Hong Kong's main

share index, the Hang Seng, is up by

31%. Australia's all ordinaries

index showed a 4% gain. However,

there could be a lot more volatility

in the markets, so is it a good

market for retail investors?

Earlier, I put that question to the

head of trading Asia Pacific.

It is

a difficult market, there are a lot

of sophisticated algorithms move in

this market around right now.

Sometimes, it is better to take

caution and keep your cash ready,

take some ships off the table.

Ultimately, I think this market is

coming back. I think this is going

to be a short surge low and I think

we could have a rebound, are quite

significant rebound over the next

few weeks. It is very difficult to

tell right now but economics, the

economic indicators are all proving

very positive. The economies are all

doing well, that could pretend that

equity markets remain strong. Over

the long run, the equity market

should remain solid.

So we should

investors put their smart money

during these times of volatility?

I

think it is always wise to diversify

your portfolio. I think one of the

problems we had with the equity

markets is there was too much froth

in the equity markets and perhaps

investors were putting too much into

equities and not enough into perhaps

gold and bond hedges, I think what

we are going to see is a little bit

more even Stephen type investors

going forward, we were going to take

quite a bit more even keel here.

They are going to actually balance

their portfolios out of heavily

weighted in equities, more towards

bonds and also towards gold assets.

Everyone is talking about the

positive economic fundamentals in

Asia. We saw China grow by 6.9% last

year, we are none 6.8%. What are the

risks involved in the Asian economic

story?

Obviously China is the leader

here and as China moves, the rest of

the region's economies move. I think

a lot of the reform policies that

China is putting in place should

portend well but ultimately, the

wild card in the overall argument is

going to be what the US interest

rates are going to do. This has been

the biggest obstacle and the biggest

near-term risk to our regional

assets.

Uber's founder and former

chief executive Travis Kalanick has

testified that his company stole

self-driving car technology from its

rival, Alphabet. Earlier, I asked

what they hope to gain from his

court appearance.

What the lawyers

are trying to do is basically

suggested Travis Kalanick was at the

centre of an orchestrated campaign

to steal these secrets from Google,

and so today when he was on the

stand for the first time, day two of

the trial and he will be back on

Wednesday, the story that has been

fiction of him is that he was

meeting with the former Google

employee while he was still at

Google, it trying to create this new

company that would later then be

acquired by Hoover and form the

basis of its self-driving division.

-- Uber.

In the process, Google alleges that

that former employees stole 14,000

that former employees stole 14,000

confidential documents and they

later formed part of their

technology later down the line. They

are saying that this is the kind of

character Travis Kalanick is,

showing notes and e-mails,

reportedly quoting what he was

saying in meetings, that he wanted

to get pounds of Flash is the phrase

that he used off Google. They have

not been able to show that there is

a direct connection between those

14,000 files and what eventually

became Uber's self-driving car

technology. That is likely to come

in Wednesday's session when Travis

Kalanick will be back in court

again.

That was Dave Lee in Silicon

Valley. In other business news,

Mickey Mouse and Cinderella are

helping Disney's bottomline. The

company's quarterly profitability

bit Wall Street's forecast. The

media and entertainment conglomerate

reported earnings per share of

$1.89. That was ahead of analyst's

expectations. The company has also

announced it has hired the creators

of HBO's it Game of Thrones, to

write and produce a new series of

Star Wars films. -- Game of Thrones.

And while there are many planes and

high-tech gadgets on display at the

Singapore airshow this week, one

thing that is conspicuously missing

so far other big-ticket deals. To

tell us more about this is our

report on the ground at the

Singapore airshow. Look at that jet

engine right behind you. What are

some of the big deals?

Well, you're

right. We have not really had as

many major announcements this year

as previous events. Of course, it is

only day too, so let's see if we

going to get more throughout week.

It is curious though because as we

were saying yesterday, there is this

unprecedented demand for air travel

in Asia, which means carriers do

need to keep more planes. I caught

up with someone from Boeing, I was

trying to get him to break the news

for us especially about the reports

that Singapore airlines's Indian

subsidiarity is really in talks with

them to sell 60 planes right now.

I

can tell you that the market is

very, very keen for the new

airplanes. Are we talking the

markets in India? Absolutely. Can I

give you the specifics? No, they

choose not to share. When we look at

India, one of the fastest-growing

markets around the world. Entire

Asia-Pacific region is a huge market

for single aisle airplanes, the

biggest market we see moving

forward.

Does that mean we're really

starting to see a shift towards

smaller planes and jumbo jets like

the A380 are pretty doomed?

Know,

when we look at the wider bodied

market, it is really about larger

aircraft. When we think about

aircraft with four engines, we think

about the 747. When you think about

passenger traffic, you think about

for engine airplanes crossing the

Pacific, it is really going to be

about twins in the future.

Let me

have another go at getting you to

break some news for us. The

Brazilian newspaper reporting that

Boeing has presented a deal to the

government to essentially take over

and -- another aeroplane

manufacturer's business.

We'll find

some way to work together in a

tighter relationship in the future.

There you go. I did at least try to

get him to break some news for us

live earlier, which I obviously

failed to do. It was also

interesting because we spoke to

China's state owned plane maker

yesterday, they are now partnering

up with the Russians to start

producing planes in the near future.

I asked them about that and he said

that he considers it to now be a

potential threat because there is a

growing demand, he thinks that

everyone has room to grow further

and potentially even a new player in

the industry as well, so that was

very interesting. Of course, they

will be looking at the shortage of

pilots as well. It is not just about

planes and airports, but the

shortage of pilots.

Thank you so

much for joining us from the

Singapore airshow and hopefully more

deals down the line because she will

be at the Singapore airshow all week

on the Asia Business Report. Let's

have a look at the Asian markets,

currently they are surging. The

Nikkei up by 3%. Taking up almost

half of what it lost yesterday. --

making. The All Ordinaries currently