♪ shery: stocks falling for the dryth time in five session, down by media. a first quarter profit surge at sprint triggers shares -- plans for a buyback. and a long, winding road to the white house. happy friday. i am shery ahn.

let's kick off the morning with a check of markets in asia. stocks extending gains from yesterday, down .1% against momentum for three consecutive weeks. new zealand dollar heading for a weekly loss of $.55. we are counting down to the opens in australia, japan, and south korea. japan has rebounded for two consecutive sessions. nikkei futures pointing to a lower open. at 124.71. u.s. stocks fell for a fourth time in five session, dragged down by biotech and media. su keenan is watching the action in new york. su: very big declines in the session.

the thursday session was all about the drop in media. this is the fourth decline in five sessions. we are getting to the tail end of earnings seasons. earnings are driving sentiment. it looks like panic buying and selling. some of the action in these companies, dropping 9% or 10%. that type of action does not give you a warm and fuzzy feeling as an investor. let's look at media, where some of the big declines came in. disney in a second day of declines. a 9% drop for the biggest in six years. 21st century fox, down 7% on top of wednesday's 10% drop. viacom down 13%. cbs, erased a gain of 5% drop. it fell on second-quarter

profits lower than forecast. that is really the story for the sector. it is starting to dawn on the investors they are not getting returns on ad revenues they originally got, which had a lot to do with younger viewers moving to netflix. in terms of other focuses for investors, it is all about the jobs number on friday. that will dominate trading. money manager says the question is whether the jobs number will alter the message from the fed. a lot of people think the rate hike will come as early as september. this could really tilt debate. in the short term, a lot of investors taking guidance and future forecast from management, which has been mixed. the tally in terms of earnings, 85% of companies reporting profits beating estimates.

that did not include media and biotech. back to you. shery: su keenan in new york. other headlines this morning, the bank of england has cut the chances of a rate rise this year. the governor predicted what he calls unit inflation and says prices may decline. -- pound isround depressing prices. one of the nine policy meetings wanted to raise rates this month. no question the sterling is having an influence on policy. it is one of the factors, but it has to persist. we will take it into account. shery: goldman sachs says asian nations will not lift rates despite weakening currency.

the bank says it is unlikely that central banks wilhite rates because risks and trade are limited. the worth of 11 asian currencies have slumped against the dollar this year. atirst quarter profit surge softbank will see a share buyback. billion,e was $1.7 ahead of estimates of $1.2 billion. they see signs of revival at sprint and is committed to turning the mobile carrier around. shares finished 6% higher in new york. >> you may think i am being overly optimistic about sprint, as there is no concrete progress at this point, but i have the same positive feeling as i had with yahoo! broadband.

i believe i made the right decision to buy sprint. i have no intention to sell. myth: amid continuing draw -- drama in mainland markets, china railway signal makes a debut after raising $1.4 billion. saly is covering this. this is the first listing since the rout began. what can you tell us? juliette: china railway signal has raised $1.4 billion from its ipo. at theillion shares bottom end of what analysts were expecting. but the ipo market has been heavily subdued since the equity rout. this is the first ipo we have seen since the downturn in the

chinese market. quite an exciting ceremony at the hong kong exchange. hours. be there in two the china railway chairman will make a speech, followed by a ceremony and a traditional gong ceremony at 9:00 hong kong time. there will be a short media conference in mandarin from the chairman and cfo. 20% of proceeds from the ipo are going towards domestic and overseas acquisitions. china railway signal has benefited from china's initiative announced by the government in 2013 to replicate the ancient silk road trading route. values the company at $55.1 billion, hong kong dollars.

it is looking like it could be a win for those that got in on the ipo. track1, there was a real that killed 40 people. that was blamed on mismanagement on the train. said it wasy signal partly responsible for the accent -- accident but it has taken steps to improve internal control mechanisms. this company manufactures rail transit systems. a lot of ceremony on the stock exchange at market time. shery: we are looking forward to updates from the hong kong stock exchange. regulators said to be resuming examination of private shares from today. they were suspended a month ago during the stock rout.

david has details. -- we aret we know is -- a bigbout the csrc step towards normalcy. weekow that, starting this , we have no more than five applications being reviewed. no more than 10 starting this week. it will be fairly slow. that means it is encouraging. ss, private share sales was really the most popular way for chinese companies to raise money. valuations were very good. potential investors were flush with cash. it was almost like speed dating.

a speed dating session where everyone had cash, wanted to raise money. a very cheap way to raise equity. then the channel was shut down. it is very encouraging news between today and next friday. we are looking at a maximum of 15. not a lot, but a good step towards normalcy. shery: throughout the year, we have seen billions of dollars of shares sales. how much was that and how much are we expecting? david: obviously, when the market is piping hot, everyone wants to tap the market. whether it is an efficient use of cash is another argument. the we are talking roughly $80 million, according to the data on the csrc website.

the ball through private through private placement. a little over 220 private placements. the rest was ipo's. that is from january up until when they said, no more. 192 ipo's. in the pipeline, we are looking at 1000 applications. the bulk are ipo's. sales.l be private share 168 billion. no figure for the ipo yet. a lot in the pipeline. compare the 15 to what we are waiting for, not quite enough to get through the pipeline. shery: edit a big step with china railway signal. david, thanks a lot.

, big birthday for singapore marking 70 years of independence. we talked to a former ambassador about its transformation. ♪

shery: checking headlines around the world, the japanese prime minister told world war ii leaders bear a heavy responsibility for reckless conflict. shinzo abbe received the message ahead of a statement marking the 70th anniversary of japan's defeat. later today, he will speak about his visions for the future. his desires to beef up the military has raised alarm from china. tens of thousands of people in seek shelterh to as a river begins to burst dams.

four parts of the country are declared disaster zones. 74 have died, and 300,000 are affected. people in low-lying areas should leave. happy.oyd fans should be nassar releasing animation -- nasa releasing animation showing the dark side of the moon, which receives as much sunlight as we do. the pictures were taken by satellite orbiting one million miles from earth and show the moon crossing the pacific near north america. ♪ shery: singapore marking its

golden jubilee on sunday, celebrating a transformation from outpost to financial powerhouse. it is having challenging economic times with gdp contracting 5% last quarter. the question is how it will position itself for the next 50 years. haslinda amngapore, in. haslinda: good morning from the lion city. the city is abuzz. lion city is on its way to celebrating a 50th anniversary. center,e is a financial testimony to its success over the last 30 years. since could be rained on

the slowing economy is no longer enough. it is no longer enough to just tweak what has been successful. it has to continue to think out-of-the-box. what does that mean in terms of its relationship with neighbors, trading partners, the u.s.? let's get an insight from frank levine, former ambassador to the lion city. singapore and the u.s. have always had a close relationship economically and strategically. can the relationship continued to be the case? >> my guess is it is likely to grow. likely on the financial side. as asia's importance grows, singapore's attractiveness as a platform for business grows. that is destined for good news.

on the political-military side, it is more of an open question. there are very close political relationships. as india comes on stream, china shows more muscle, what that means for singapore has yet to be determined. haslinda: it used to be the case there was job creation. now it has to be value creation. attract u.s. cities to create jobs. how can the u.s. contribute to future growth? been wage model had rates were reasonably modest. companies need a secure working environment. the model needs to be upgraded. we are looking at higher value added activity. pharmaceuticals, aviation. higher value activity and regional platform activity. assuming the transpacific partnership goes ahead, american business will want connection to india, the philippines.

haslinda: you talked about tpp, which is being negotiated. is u.s. credibility impacted short the tpp lack support? >> if it does not come to pass, it is a huge setback for everyone. must absorb the bulk of responsibility. but i am a mystic. there is a -- optimistic. there is a broad consensus we need this. what we saw last week was people , had too aggressive pull back and recalibrate. i think we will get it. haslinda: singapore is a huge ally of the u.s. but is trying to establish good relationships with neighbors like china. relationship be copper must?

-- compromised? the u.s. has shown over time it is a good partner for singapore. but singapore is legally non-allied. it is always welcoming to chinese ship visits. singapore has done a good job of respecting neutrality, welcoming all parties to the region. haslinda: you said before that singapore needs to preserve strength. >> economic efficiency. singapore has a strong economic integrity. cronyism,orruption, market distortion. a huge emphasis on the best possible outcome. secondly, internationalization. if you have multi country activity, you need people in singapore who can speak

different languages across borders. they have that human capital. haslinda: because of the economic challenges, countries tend to be nationalistic. do you see that happening? >> be careful. it is a very natural instinct. we see it in singapore. pressure because of job sensitivity. we have the exact discussion in the united states. it is an understandable instinct, but be careful. open societies and open economies move ahead. once you put up walls and lock your self out, you are going to lock yourself into an economy of a given year. you want to be future-oriented. find the balance between people in your home country and being open to new ideas. levine, former u.s. ambassador to singapore.

singapore is waking up to a public holiday that comes once in 50 years. shery: has, thanks a lot. next, the white house is 16 months away, but the republican race is up and running. we are live in washington when we return. ♪

shery: the long list of republicans who would be president have begun the race to the white house. the 10 leading the polls are facing off in the first debate of the campaign. , margaretwashington talos. is it safe to say donald trump is the biggest story? >> not if the rest have anything to do with it. in the hours leading up to the debate, several advisors for candidates like john kasich or chris christie have really downplayed donald trump when asked about him. there are two reasons. he hits back hard. and there is something else at work. they want the debate to be about them, not him. they want to raise their

profile. going after him bolsters the idea he is the front runner. many are shaking their heads at that. if they have anything to do with it, trump will not be the lead story. jeb bush will be interesting to watch. he has been strong at fundraising by not able to get his sea legs in terms of campaign personality. also, because he is perceived as a centrist were even liberal among many conservatives in the contest, many would try to go after him to bolster their own conservative credentials. trump may be story if he controls the narrative, but if the candidates have anything to do with it, you will not. shery: many disappointed in jeb bush's performance. but what about the seven candidates that did not make the cut? did anyone stand out? >> they just finished the debate shortly ago. carly fiorina has wanted to set

herself apart as the woman in the race and make herself the alternative to hillary clinton. she cannot strongly against donald trump. for down thent list candidates. she also came out swinging against the clintons. lindsey graham is worth watching. he came out strongly in terms of more ground troops. shery: margaret, thank you. that is all the time we have. up, a different space. why asia is key. shery: it is 7:30 in hong kong.

happy friday. from trading in australia, japan, and south korea. you are watching "first up." ♪ shery: the top stories this hour -- chinese markets heading to the end of a tough week, having fallen five times in six sessions. government intervention failed rout.p a $3.4 trillion

health care and telecoms led declines. the shanghai composite may face more pressure with economists predicting traded data will show exports fell last month. hong kong sees first ipo since the stock rout began two months ago. raising 1.4y signal billion by offering shares at the low end. the company plans to use 20% of proceeds on acquisitions. 10 republican white house hopefuls in cleveland for the first debate of 2016. billionaire donald trump taking center stage as he leads the polls. he and his rivals will make the case for a winning nomination. six.is the first debate of the election is 16 months away.

a sixthude heading for straight week of the kleins with no end in sight. dan in houston. any chance of a turnaround in the near term? >> you know, it is probably pretty unlikely. the crude market has been oversupplied since last year, wide prices have crashed to under $50. goldman sachs is estimating that supply is 2 million barrels a day over what we need. every day, the world has 2 million barrels going into storage. they think eventually, we run out of storage space and prices could go lower. the u.s. is producing the most crude it has in 40 years. saudi arabia and iraq have produced the most ever. automata of supply and demand

of supplyen -- a ton and demand has not been able to keep up. in the u.s., people are driving more than they do the rest of the year. teenagers have jobs, families are taking road trips. that stops in the fall. middle eastern countries are burning crude to run air conditioners and fight the heat. all of that slows down in the fall. is, if we areg oversupplied in peak season, what happens in september, october? shery: a bit scary. we are talking about losers. what about the winners from the falling prices? a surprise winner is petrobras, the brazilian state-owned oil company.

they have been in trouble over the past couple of years. scandal involving the government. an interesting, counterintuitive thing that happened is petrobras has refineries that sell to the country, but the government mandates certain prices so that people do not have to bear the brunt of oil prices. costices have fallen, the has not hurt the company. the refineries made more money than expected. with theirstimates profits. shery: you talk about the possibility of oil falling further. does anyone believe oil prices could rebound? thereyou are an oil bull, is a knight in shining armor named andy hall. he puts out a monthly note to investors.

fears ofhat he thinks an oversupplied market are overblown. he thinks demand in the u.s. and china are growing faster than people in -- think. all oil needs for a bounce back is for people to find the low prices will cut supply. few thinks we will see those signs soon. at least there is one person out there. from: dan murtaugh houston. let's check in on the markets in asia this morning. asian shares seeing some momentum lately, but another weekly loss. new zealand falling .2%. $.65 u.s.ollar at to opens ining down

australia, japan, and south korea. japan has rebounded for the last two sessions. nikkei futures pointing to a lower open. at 124.67. the bank of england kept rates at a record low as they marked the release of data thursday. it has been dug super thursday. for the first time ever, the bank of england released not just rate decisions, but minutes fromits meeting, the votes the policy committee, and the outlook for inflation and the economy. the rates were as expected. hold,nchmark rate is on .5%. what was unexpected was one member of the monetary policy committee voted to raise rates.

economists expected at least two would vote for tighter policy. a bit more dubbish stance. it also cuts near-term inflation to lower attributed energy prices and a stronger pound. they were more upbeat about near-term inflation. downdid stress there were side global risks from the eurozone and china. time for a look at the top corporate stories. reporter: hutchinson holdings combining holdings with vim pelcom. guest: it will pull the

windngs of 3 italia and telecom. profit despitea the biggest product recall history. income was $25 million. they also raise sales forecasts. the airbags can rupture and fire shrapnel into the cabins. costs rose 22% last quarter to $400,000. row,he second month in a or cedi's defying a slowdown in china, seeing a 42% search in deliveries. global sales of 15% on year despite a warning from bmw that china is becoming more difficult. that is a check of the top corporate headlines.

our next guest runs the asian operations of aviva, the u.k.'s second-largest insurer with 3 million clients in the recent. they released results yesterday with first-quarter profit up 9%. chris, welcome to the program. congratulations on earnings. how about asia? >> pretty well. we are happy with the progress we are making. hismetric we focus on business, up 18% year on year. the protection business is the one that grew the most. what led gains? >> our biggest contributors are singapore. we have multi-distribution channels. in china, we have a fantastic

partner in costco. we have built face-to-face distributions and moved into digital. a new contributor has been in asia. this is a brand-new joint investor with -- venture with astro. we are on the list of leaders and are happy with the progress. dbsy: we have to talk about punishment that will expire this year attributed to a chunk of your earnings from asia. now that the partnership is over, what makes up for it? >> they contributed about 20% of our new business in singapore. we will miss the partnership. it has been long-standing. but we have moved on. in singapore, we are number one in group benefits. digital.et is

last week, when the british prime minister was visiting southeast asia, the u.k. singapore signed an agenda to move forward. we will house a lot of digital capability in singapore. promotes digital distribution for its own people to maintain a leadership position for the region, we see fantastic opportunity. shery: it is similar to what you did in london. how about other partnerships? anything coming up? >> we have a lot to work on already. fantastic joint ventures in the region. costco has 400 million consumers. your peers have been doing well in china. aia.

how do you plan to strategize in china with a slowdown and stock rout? is big enoughal for everyone to participate. we have a very specific strategy. it is building some of the traditional face-to-face. we are in 50 cities, 12 provinces. having said that, our big investment and focus is moving ahead of the traditional players into digital. we have an end-to-end platform in an early test phase. 150,000 users already. a complete virtual branch allowing people to fulfill purchase criteria online. new regulations that removed geographic restrictions over the internet. youy: in india, you stated

would increase her stake in india. how great is the opportunity? what would make you commit to putting more money there? >> we are definitely committed. it makes sense given where we are. india at the moment is a tough market. but it is emerging. moving to a free 49% stake is helpful for aviva. we have to think differently about how the business was done traditionally. as the market continues to transition and shift towards a commercially enterprising environment, we are making a long-term bet. shery: looking at asia, are you thinking of more mergers and partnership or growing organically? >> we will consider organic opportunities, but we have a lot to do. do,thing we are going to

the group has capability around the world. historically, that is something we did not tap. a macro factor is the aging population. you have a one child policy in china and a big retirement issue. in the u.k., we are a leader in retirement planning and pensions. those are capabilities we do not have in the region. we think that is a strategy for us. shery: chris wei, asia chairman of aviva. coming up, htc feeling the heat from xiaomi. details when we return area --. ♪

shery: checking stories making headlines, relatives of people 70 voicing flight mh3

anger at mixed messages about the wing found on reunion island. the malaysian prime minister has said it is from the plane, but french investigators only saying it is likely. china's foreign minister has mpur to be more open with families. more debris has been found on reunion. taiwan has issued emergency flood warnings ahead of a typhoon expected to hit the island today. the super typhoon, seen from the international space station, was the most powerful storm on earth this year. it is weakening somewhat and could be category 3 when it hits taiwan with winds of 180 kilometers per hour.

some flights have been canceled or rescheduled already. stolen property from a polish violinist has been returned 35 years later. the instrument was handed to the fbi by the wife of a former suspect. the family will sell the violin to another violinist, not a collector. the record price for this violin is almost $16 million. htc shows not signs of ending. is smartphone maker expecting a quarterly loss five times greater than estimates. aegon man has been following this. how bad is it? yvonne: htc was the sole provider of the android phones and we are seeing it squeezed by big players. samsung, apple.

on the low end, chinese makers , and xiaomi.huawei quarterly sales wants talked $4.3 billion. million expecting 600 dollars. nearly half of what analysts are forecasting. they were estimating $1.2 billion for the third quarter, the lowest in a decade. third-quarter loss like this -- about five dollars 51 per share -- $5.51 per share. 117 per expecting share, but sales have plummeted in four years. the ceo has stated she will not consider mergers despite the fact that htc is no longer in

the global top 10 smartphone maker list. stocks dropping 51% this year. some analysts are expecting things to go even lower. shery: how does htc plan to tackle this? yvonne: they want to focus on newer models, focus on profits as opposed to making shipment figures. there will be no one-time operating items. they are expected to cut costs. you can see those effects in the first quarter of next year. of course, we will be watching softbank when trading kicks off in tokyo. it has announced a share buyback after surging first-quarter profits. biggestsoftbank's

buyback, and it seems there are signs of a revival at sprint. >> that is right. sharesback has bolstered of softbank in germany and is likely to help them this morning. there are reasons for optimism for sprint. hemorrhaging after for the longest time, it is finally showing user growth. losst still reported a six in seven quarters. masayoshi son has urged investors to look at past successes. vodafone was a money-losing company and is one of the biggest contributors to profit. he did admit earlier this year he considered selling the company three years after the $22 billion acquisition, but

that is no longer the case, because the company has planned for recovery by reducing capital expenditures without sacrificing network quality. corporationuct of between engineers in japan and sprint's engineer corp. son also said immediate needs would be taken care of with a handset leasing plan. theirl not make them sell precious spectrum, one of the few things that sets them apart from competitors. but he said the recovery may take one or two years. pavel, thanks so much. coming up, the sale of an experimental cancer drug could boost shares of a japanese company. we look at possible market movers. ♪

shery: welcome to the stock exchange. we are looking ahead to the opens in australia, japan, and south korea. our reporters tell us which stocks they are keeping an eye on. that was a long bell. >> sounding the alarm's>>. shery: who is coming out on top? david: it will be mean. is only risk i run of losing the stock have not met yet. astrazeneca is paying one of its units over half a billion u.s. dollars for the rights to

develop and sell a cancer drug. the cancer drug is called htl 1071. i am not a medical expert, but it is designed to harness the patient's immune system to destroy tumors. $10 million, and then if it works, further. we are going shopping. running.oing stock up 28%. but they are losing steam. net income falling 36%. 36%.t dropping sales dropping 16%. they kept the annual targets below what analysts were expecting. shery: we are excited. it is friday. thank you, guys.

that is the verdict from the stock exchange. stocks highlighted are based on news events. we will be back to see how the stocks have done. coming up, buying back shares. all the details when "first up

al: i am al hunt. john: and i am john heilemann. and "with all due respect," we stewart, tonight, we are getting our laughs here in the land. -- cleveland. ♪ john: happy thursday, sports fans. in our lineup tonight, the suez canal gets an addition. but firshe