reporter: it's 9:00 a.m. in hong kong. i'm david. this is "bloomberg markets: asia." ♪ david: the security council, imposing new sanctions on north korea, but short of the oil embargo the u.s. was hoping for. hong kong's finance chief warns of renewed properties if the feds surprise them. sentiment among chinese consumers at a two decade high.

lots to talk about in the markets. a lot of data coming out in the asia-pacific. we are waiting for the trade numbers out of the philippines. markets in manila are shut down on bad weather, but they will be coming out with trade data. we are getting exports coming through. is your year on year increase in july. expecting.t we were we are now looking at a drop of 3.2%. we were expecting and improvement of 6.5%. let's wait until they do the math. we are expecting a $2.4 billion deficit out of manila. to put this into context, it is one data point. have a look at a broader term picture in manila, 2017 has been a special year, to say the least. massive trade deficit out of manila. that comes down to the fact that

the economy is improving. they are importing big-ticket items into the country. from $2.1 billion to $2.4 billion. it is now at $2.1 billion. it is a little bit less than the current -- the last reading in june. a massive deficit out of manila. apart from that, there is obviously north korea in the mix. before we got into today, we weren't expecting the vote anyway from the u.n., default risks. is it a little bit too much when you have a country like south korea, which is one of the highest-rated countries as far as debt ratings are concerned in the asia-pacific, is not in the world, now looking at being more insure debt on

chinese and philippine papers. let's see if this suggests slower. 30 minutes away from the open markets in china, hong kong. manila is closed -- closing. sophie, what are we watching? sophie: i want to highlight what you mentioned about concerns around sovereign debt when it comes to korean notes. when you took it -- take a look at the action, investors are not shunning it. the korean won resuming gains for a third day. korean bonds are catching a bit today. local -- global stock rallies continuing today. despite the risk on mood we are seeing, asian currencies are mostly under pressure.

the ringgit is leading the drop in asian, while the aussie and kiwi are the biggest g10 letters aggers-- ladders -- l today. i want to check out what is helping the climb in asian stocks this morning. those are asian financial players. they are leaving the region higher today. after hitting a pick -- peak on august 1, the regional index dropped 2.9%. given the slide we are seeing in treasury yields, but after u.s. bond yields, that might help for a rebound in asian banks and insurers. we are seeing that so far today. when you break it down for they benchmark, japanese insurers among top performance -- performers. i want to point out the key themes about what is capturing the investors attentions.

korean auto-parts maker on the rise. is benefiting from the global growth in the electric vehicles market. rightout hotel shilla, 26.most since july tourism stocks like schiller had borne the brunt of china's displeasure over the missile korea,ent in south losing about 24% this year. for now, it is on the up. to the latest in north korea given the sanctions we saw from the united nations security council, it could be positive when it comes to sentiment, because the u.s. would not want to further antagonize china. david: and dollar-yen barely moving as well. we have yet to get a response from. . thank you. to paul allen in the first word news. an update on brexit. paul: thank you.

u.k. government has one casket the first fight on the key major legislation by a majority of 36. the guardian is reporting senior measures of theresa may's conservative party will demand significant changes before becomes law. bill allows ministers to change existing laws without consulting parliament. despite ongoing uncertainty, london has retained its ground as the world's largest financial center -- center. hong kong leapt into third place behind new york. london fell only two points, the smallest decline among the top 10. people are making contingency plans. at the moment, they can only make them on the basis of an expectation of a hard brexit. that is the only prudent thing as a board of directors you must

tell your staff to do. the longer it goes, the more likelihood it is the brexit plans will be prevented. america's second major hurricane in 15 days has soft and to a tropical storm, but irma is still threatening torrential rains in atlanta. a storm surge has been lifted in florida, with the miami beach mayor saying that they dodged a cannon. 7 million homes and businesses remain without power, with schools, services, and transport still disrupted. china plans to ban training of -- trading of bitcoin on domestic exchanges, during a new blow to the $150 billion cryptocurrency market. last year, it blocked initial coiner fairings. china is home to many of the world's biggest bitcoin miners. the changes come as beijing clamps down on financial risks ahead of the communist party congress next month. global news 24 hours a day,

powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. i'm paul allen. this is bloomberg. you for the update. the un security council has unanimously approved new sanctions against north korea over the latest missile and nuclear test. washington had dropped key demands to win support from russia and china, the u.s. ambassador nikki haley came out stressing that these are the strongest sections ever imposed on kim jong-un's regime. >> we don't take pleasure in further strengthening sanctions today. we are not looking for war. the north korean regime has not yet passed a point of no return. if it agrees to stop its nuclear program, it can reclaim its future. if it proves it can live in peace, the world will live in peace with it. david: let's talk about what the sanctions are.

our asian government editor is here in our studios. we get started with the nature of the sanctions. what are the main components? reporter: headlines are textile exports, $800 million, a significant chunk of the remaining exports that had not been banned so far. since the beginning of the year, the u.s. has 90% of north banned.exports now textiles, seafood, iron, and coal. a lot of what they have been doing in the past years is now blocked. another highlight was stopping guest, fromers, sending money home to north korea. they did and then oil sales directly, but they limited the amount of refined products and that the amount of crude can go into north korea from china. we knew the chinese and

russians were not in favor of the initial package from the united states. much?s it watered down so they also left out a freeze on kim jong-un's assets. reporter: the first draft the u.s. put out was going for the home run. from the chinese and russian perspective, it would have regime. the if you cut off oil, if you take all the steps the u.s. wanted to the gas stations would not have fuel, they would not have basic things. from china's perspective, it could have led to a collapse of the regime. they don't want to see that. they want to make sure north korea stays as a buffer state. china is also not happy with what's going on. they want to express their displeasure, try and get north korea to stop provocations so it doesn't rattled to vote too much in the region. david: they will keep jabbing,

but not really unleash a knockout punch. we did hear from china and russia it is still a diplomatic route they want to pursue, but did they increase sanctions with the likelihood of bringing north korea back to the table? reporter: remains to be seen. the consensus seems to be north korea does not want to talk. andants to perfect the icbm make sure it can actually reenter the atmosphere and target a city in the united states. there is a feeling kim jong-un still wants to do more missile tests, until he has a proven capability where he can say, i have this, now we can sit down at the negotiating table. whether he's willing to sit down now and accept a cap on the program, a lot of people in the usa now is the time to sit down and talk, stop them in their tracks, limit what they have. they still have not mastered the icbm that can target los angeles or new york city.

david: in layman's terms, they can get it there, but they cannot make it enter. reporter: right. they can shoot it there, but to stop it from ending up in a cornfield versus targeting it is the question. david: thank you for the update. our asian government editor. coming up continuing the conversation on north korea,. how hard north korea would actually be hit by yuan sanctions, and the reaction. we will be joined by a financial sanctions expert out of d.c. forr that, words of warning buyers in the world's most expensive property market. and exclusive. an exclusive interview with hong kong's property secretary. this is bloomberg. ♪

let's get a quick check of the latest business flash headlines. we start off in china with amazon.

if you are looking for a job, the company is hiring by the hundreds on the chinese mainland, trying to recoup market shares it lost alibaba in the world's largest online shopping market. the careers website listed almost 400 openings in the country with another 900 on linkedin. market share in china dwindled to less than 1% last year. citigroup is expecting trading revenue to fall 15% in the third quarter from a year back, and says it remains subdued. the chief's financial and -- officer says there was activity ahead of the u.s. elections. the drop was roughly $3.5 billion, which would be the lowest figure since the final three months of 2013. foxconn says the $19.2 billion trip -- chiphiba's

unit has yet to be matched by another bitter -- bidder. the bid is backed by apple, softbank, and sharp, which was bought by another listerine 2013. rival bidders who have offered pose an antitrust risk. geopolitics again in the mix. tough sanctions against north korea.my next guest is a former government sanctions expert at the foundation for defense of democracy. joining us is anthony ruggiero. anthony, the u.s. did not get the initial "package" they wanted. they had to water it down for russia and china to come on board, but in your opinion, how far does this get them? ? will this actually work? >> this was you knew we actually

got to see the initial draft, and then we saw the final draft. we don't usually get to see that. this happens all the time.you have a tough draft at the beginning and then china and russia water it down. on the question of whether it will be effective, you and sanctions are the foundation, as they were with iran. sanctions that will push table.north korea to the we need more u.s. sanctions against china and russia in particular. david: i want to understand where we go from here. we can go two routes. you can hit them on energy imports. what would be more effective and realistic? do you think the u.s. goes the china route, or go towards

energy? with thencern i have energy angle is that russia is really stepping up and shipping more and more energy supplies to north korea, so that could be, unfortunately, a dead end, even if you got china to comply. financing is everything. if we go after chinese banks, i don't mean cutting them off from the u.s. financial system are freezing assets -- i mean go after what we did with a run -- iran, fine them for their lack of control. they may not be complicit, but they are not asking the right questions. in the era of know your customer and know your customers customer, they need to do better. david: we did see that. a lot of the banks are still paying for fines in dealing with iran. from what i understand, there is

only one chinese bank that has been levied sanctions. what type of sanctions are we talking about specifically, and do you have any idea what other chinese banks might be next in line? >> that think is the only one but thereargeted, have been five other actions from the treasury department and justice department against chinese entities or individuals. i think banks like bank of china, that have a couple of examples of working with north korean sanctions, china merchants bank, shanghai pudong, and many others that are in the middle of this. requestsbeen listed as for asset freezes or forfeiture, meaning they were involved in these transactions and did not ask the right questions. if you are on the sea level suite of a bank in china, you should be thinking about what is

. coming next what is likely coming next is a significant fine. david: what do you think would be the trigger for the u.s. to unilaterally proceed with sanctioning chinese banks? >> the trigger has already happened. we have had two icbm tests in the span of one month. we had what likely is a weapon.clear north korea is getting closer and closer to not only threatening the u.s. homeland, but are go -- and their goal of decoupling the u.s. from south korea and japan and taking over the korean peninsula on their own terms. we don't have a lot of time left. the chinese banks' excuses are running out, unfortunately for them. david: i would imagine the chinese would push back on that option. would that stop donald trump from pursuing that option?we don't know the energy route , because the russians are pushing back, but the chinese

will also push back when you go the financial route. >> that is true, but that is what people said before bank of dingdong -- bank dandong, the u.s. called the main chinese bank a money laundering for north korea, and the chinese basically shrugged their shoulders. the chinese have done basically strong rhetoric. that is nothing. becausel not retaliate, they know these banks and firms theindividuals are doing wrong thing. it is a question of why the leadership in beijing would even cover for this regime in pyongyang. , chinaould go to dandong and start clean up this mess, which they could do easily. we would not have to do this if the chinese could do it easily.

david: what would this sanctions -- response be to the sanctions? >> they will probably have a strongly worded statement. they might do additional publications. the pop -- additional provocations. the problem is we have to break away from the provocation response cycle. north korea does a provocation, the u.s. and international community does sanctions that look tough on the face but are not implemented, then we rinse and repeat and do it over and over. the way to break that is to enact robust sanctions on a regular basis and increased diplomacy with like-minded countries. that's important. david: i think we have to leave it there. thank you for coming on our program. how is anthony with the foundation for defense of democracies. next, the free market.

this is bloomberg. ♪

david: we are coming up to the open of markets in china and in hong kong. in the futures, back to 28,000. most likely just a few more points, this year's high of 28,094.61. the you kfc is calling in the bank to talk about bribery allegations in indonesia, inappropriate payments. the investigation is widening. fraction. up a these are hong kong listed shares that we are following. this is on the website and the bloomberg.

a stock we are following closely is in shenzhen. it is a chinese solar cell maker looking to explore a future in electric vehicles. at some point, it does plan to phase out combustion engines cars.t comes to we have seen a lot of reactions when it comes to these solar cell and lithium-ion battery makers. looking at the index on the bloomberg, what this does is it tracks lithium related companies. run the mov and get a list of the names in that index. tesla is in there as well. it's a very interesting index. i would imagine this is a trade

gaining momentum. coming up, china's confidence. we look at what has driven consumer sentiment to a 20 year high, plus the open, next. this is bloomberg. ♪

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david: it is 9:29 in the morning in hong kong, under a minute away from the open up markets here and the chinese mainland. not tooy, not too hot, cold. speaking of goldilocks, let's look at valuations. lots to talk about. let's look at the bloomberg chart. back to normal. despite the index climbing. we are very close to regaining this year's high. there we go. we are looking at forward pe. 2005.akes you back to the blue line is the 10 year mean. we are at that level. not too hot, not too cold, not

too expensive or cheap. some major markets are at about times.vel, 18 to 19 hong kong, so far so good. open. points at the to get more on what's happening at the open in hong kong and shanghai let's go over to sophie, following the markets. sophie: sounds like you have been reading goldilocks of late. we do have asian stocks on the rise. hang seng joining that uptick, back,g 4/10 of a percent rising for a third straight day. chinese large caps are halting a forward day start -- four days slide. this morning, we got the yuan reference rate, set weaker for the first time in 12 days. we do have the offshore yuan set for a third day of losses, while the onshore rate is falling half a percent, extending losses for

a third day so far. i want to check on what's going on with stocks in shanghai, rising for a second straight session. energy and materials leading gains in that market. those, particularly having to do it electric batteries or lithium, those have been gaining and china looking to rank -- ramp up electric vehicle production and shift towards that. let's check out what is moving in hong kong. carmakers and electric battery makers were among the top gainers. i also want to point out that real estate stocks, we have a little bit of weakness coming through in that space. this is after finance chief paul chan warned against risks to the property market. i want to show you early movers in hong kong.

optical gaining after the audition metadata. aluminum corp. of china up almost a percent in hong kong. keep in mind, a-shares have been suspended trading today. wang on-- lastly, group. let's check out stocks rebounding amid relief over watered down sanctions on north korea. they are rising to the strongest level since july 2016. we have some movement when it comes to hyundai motors. that has had a rough day in china. sales have plunged amid the backlash around bad deployment. david: s k entertainment, you know something about that stock, managesthe company that psy. thank you for the update.

a lot of apple players out with strong numbers out of the gate. we will get to that apple event later tonight. let's get an update on the first word news with paul allen. let's start with an update on north korea. thank you, david. the un security council has unanimously approved sanctions against north korea, punishing the regime for its latest nuclear test and missile. the u.s. had to drop key demands to win support from russia and china. u.s. ambassador nikki haley says the sanctions will cut 55% of gas, diesel, and fuel sanctions -- fuel to the north korean regime. committed to the denuclearization of the korean peninsula, to appease, and -- to peace, and dialogue. paul: meanwhile, the north

korean regime appears to be stepping up efforts to secure bitcoin and cryptocurrencies that could be used to avoid trade restrictions. regime hackers are increasing attacks on cryptocurrency stocks and collecting bitcoin ransom payments from victims of malware.cry an order issued by justice anthony kennedy puts a lower court ruling on hold until the high court decides whether to grant the administration request for a longer order. this affects 24,000 refugees who had been assured basic services. itsphilippines posted smallest trade deficit in more than 18 months in july. exports jumped 10.4% from a year earlier, beating estimates. imports fell, confounding

expectations of a 6.5% rise. that left a chassis -- trade deficit of $1.5 billion. global news 24 hours a day, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. i'm paul allen. this is bloomberg. david: thank you for the update. in china, income growth and robust job markets are fairly stable and have driven consumer confidence to the highest level in more than 20 years. our economy editor for china joins us out of beijing. talk to us about what is behind this underpinning of household confidence on the chinese mainland. reporter: that's right. things are looking up here. consumers are feeling it. the index we are looking at, there are two of them. one is from the national bureau of statistics. the one did back down into level that would be the pessimism side last year, but it has been on a tear since then.

now it is at the highest level since late 1996. the other one we are looking at is a private indicator from nielsen. they are tracking with their own surveys. there is the highest since it began in 2009. there are three main components to the nielsen one. good job prospects and personal finances, and willingness to spend are the main components. david: i'm guessing that's what we are getting at. you see this kind of behavior, you have positive sentiment, i'm guessing it translates to more spending. forrter: this does argue continued stable, strong, economic growth. it speaks well to the governments long game of rebalancing the economy away from factories and more toward , and supporting goods and

services have been more than 50% of services for more than two years and growing. that is a source of strength for the economy. possible --g is personal disposable income is rising. indicator this will be in place for a little while. david: i'm guessing household that isn't too high as well in isn't-- household debt too high as well in china. the question is, does this continue? does the party congress derail our support that trend to continue? reporter: the party congress is the number one most important thing on the calendar this year in china. that will be coming up on october 18. we have seen a lot of stronger than expected economic performance this year, and the doubters have been proven wrong.

there has been fiscal support aimed toward the front half of the year this year. economists do expect a little bit of slowing from that 6.9% in the first half, but if you look across estimates for the longer 6%m, estimates are above going out through 2019. it doesn't look like anything is on the rise in that would shake the confidence yet. david: let's keep our fingers crossed. pleasure to have you. our china economy editor. in hong kong, the financial secretary says when you look at the housing price situation, it has shown improvement. earlier this year, paul chen sounded the alarm on what someone say is an overheated market, calling in a dangerous situation. he spoke to our hong kong bureau chief at the summit. >> in the past two or three months, the market has quieted

bit.a little in terms of volume, it has come down from april and may. in terms of price level, it is the same. basically, moderate increase from 0.1% to 0.3% per month. my assessment of the property market remains the same, meaning that in terms of future supply, it is abundant. -- past supply and demand imbalance situation has been properly adjusted. the number is about 98,000 units in the coming years. , the mostrical high historical high since the publication from 2004.

the only factor that may be a little uncertain when compared with the situation in june is that the u.s. interest-rate normalization seems to be slower than expected, but the scaling back of the balance sheet would also have an impact on money supply. we have been monitoring the situation very carefully. our basic assessment of the situation remains pretty much the same. reporter: do you see property prices going down in the near future? >> the timing is really difficult, but our past experience indicates that if the u.s. interest rate goes back to the increase trend, if you definitely have an impact on the price,t rate on asset this coupled with the increased supply in the coming years, i would not be surprised if there

is an adjustment in the market. this is where we see our assessment. david: that was paul 10, the hong kong financial secretary speaking to our hong kong financial bureau chief. if you want to get more on that story and other stories on chinese consumers, run china on the bloomberg. the consumer stories number two. we employ that monetary policy from the fed, that story, along with other things related. coming up, equity exposures. we talk about markets and x -- we talk about which markets will feel the most heat from the north korea fallout. this is bloomberg. ♪

david: there has been a change

of two since the start of this month when you look at how badly the dollar is. we have sort of delineated where the lower end of the range so far, at least of the past six months or so, has been. since the start of this month, and we know what happened when north korea had their nuclear test, yields fell almost below 2%. we are sort of holding steady at about that line, currently at about 2.127%. for more on the market reaction, of fiiccs is the head investment management. is written -- determining where the yen is.

the range could be lower. we broke below the range the tenure had been at for some time. i suppose from a directional perspective, let's not right off the possibility that yields can go higher. we have been through a number of events that have conspired to bring these lower, but it looks like we are hitting a bit of a bottom in the last few days. assets,the correlated the yen, the gold, showing similar behavior. we believe potentially this may be lower range, but we should not write off the possibility or the risk that yields could turnaround from here. we think investors should be positioned for that. david: before we move on to asset classes, i want to get where the market appetite is at moment. we did almost fall below 2%. you get a sense of what appetite is like when the yields fall. is there still demand for debt at these low yields, are do you

start to see other investors move up the spectrum ? >> in the last few years, there is always demand, regardless of where yields go. if anything, there are concerns this would be a good time to lock in yields while you can. i suppose there's nothing wrong with that argument. it's not like we are looking for them to go significantly higher, but it is important to be careful about how you obtained the yield. there is a huge temptation to sacrifice quality for investor protection to gain a little more yields. we think that could be a wrong approach. we think it pays to think about the yield, making sure it is protected, not getting carried out on the quality

spectrum. that's where we need to be careful. david: when you look at the spreads, they are tied at the moment. in your view, do i lean towards u.s., or looking for something in the 4% or 5% range? >> the target yield will always vary depending on what kind of investor you are. in our space, investors can go down and quality, but the basic argument is the same. we know what the quality and yield is in the region they sit in, but how we get the yield is the most important conversation today. it may mean sacrificing a bit of yield, but keeping the quality bar high enough, we think that is still important and it is not a sacrifice we should make trying to get that .5% or 100 business points. david: i was looking to your

research notes. interesting that you have noted equity is still managing to do so, inand rightly the event that the equity market does well. talk to us about what markets you would want to be exposed in case inflation does pick up moderately. >> our biggest preferred regions globally are asia japan and the euro area. inflation really isn't necessarily a bad thing. what is great about equity and in ourbally preferred region, there is clearly a benefit when interest rate is low, but when the interest rate picks up, you have to look at fundamentals. what margins can they offer, what sectors could benefit?at the end of the day, you go back over the past two decades, fears of moderate to moderately high

inflation are good for equity markets. you get a short-term reaction from the potential bump but you should not worry. in the euro area, it is no longer just a weaker euro supporting exports. we have seen improved margins and basic fundamentals. korea,s expectations in they have been on a strong streak. it comes back to focusing on fundamentals. we do see inflation move a little modestly higher back around 2%, and equity markets should continue to perform. david:. i'm glad you brought of europe. we have a chart. . global markets rallied. when you look at the stoxx, it is at a crucial juncture. we are now back above the 50 day moving average on the index. it is broken above the downtrend we have seen before -- for the past three months or so.

is this a technical improvement we have seen in this market, specifically? >> in this market, yes. that is an interesting chart. is beginning to mirror patterns we are seeing across many equity markets, where we went through a bit of a wobble on the technical front. we are seeing renewed breakout back to the top site. the euro is interesting, because the chart you run-up it was in local currency terms for international investors. for people in indonesia, that looks even better once you look at the fact that euro strength has been added to the equity market returns over time. absolutely. technicals cause near-term worried, but we see improvement, and we're focused on fundamentals. at the end of the day, it brings up the point that we think ,mproving growth outlook improving company fundamentals, and yields that are still pretty low is actually good for equity markets.

that is why we think at this point it is important to stay invested. david: is it too late to get into europe? when you do adjust and look at it in euro terms, it is at that expect -- expensive if i have not invested yet. is it too expensive to get into europe? is the currency to strong? >> i wouldn't say that, but i think it is important to answer -- if you don't own equities, it is not too late. how do i build that exposure over time? not necessarily go in on one day. think it is about staying invested and to get opportunities to add a little bit around the sites. you should. equally an allocation question as it is a simple outlook question. david: appreciate you coming on

the program. still europe, still japan. seems to be credit -- crowded. one feature on the bloomberg we bring to your attention is our interactive tv function. tv , you can watch us live, and watch our interviews. we are talking about india and -- you can ask questions. you can look at the functions and charts we talk about. this is for bloomberg subscribers only. check it out. tv . ♪

david: let's have a quick check of business flash headlines. .ots of talk when it comes to

electric vehicles volkswagen announcing sweeping plans to build electric versions of all 300 models. the world's largest automaker wants to accelerate a shift away from combustion engines and draw a line away from the emissions cheating scandal. vw will spend $24 billion to bring the models to market by 2030. another $60 billion will go to developing batteries. >> volkswagen has learned from the past.over the past two years, we understand what people understand by sustainable mobility. this roadmap that we announced is a self commitment. it is going to be our yardstick going forward. china is planning a mandatory cap and trade credit program for electric cars, starting the countdown for rules in the fuel economy. state backed auto associations announced it may be as early as this week.

-- they will be required to reach a minimum credit score. richest man has agreed to buy an indirect stake in a japanese maker of electric cars. he and other investors are buying a stake. it is a distributor of watches and jewelry, in the process of acquiring a sports car maker that plans to license in china. let's stay on team here. is lithium the new crude? have a look at my chart. we showed this earlier in the hour. it shows this global listing index tracking companies in mining and the downstream part of the business, lithium battery production. it is doing very well.

up in the next hour, the yuan has new sanctions against north korea. will that impact the dollar? that is next. this is bloomberg. ♪

♪ announcer: from our studios in new york city, this is "charlie rose." charlie: we turn to politics. there was a rare instance of bipartisanship this week in washington. president trump blind-sided congressional republicans with a surprise deal with top democrats chuck schumer and nancy pelosi. agreed to raise the debt ceiling and finance the government through december. the announcement came a day after president trump's controversial decision to end daca. joining me now from washington is jonathan swan.