Benchmark Interest Rate at 0. 25 . That is expected. We had the debt maintaining it will continue with the policy of 0. 25 for the beginning of next year. They are maintaining the benchmark Interest Rate. This meeting coming after four new cases ending new zealands 100 today virus free run. Perhaps more later on. Auckland back in lockdown. A lot were surprised about the resilience of the economy. They have to weigh the global risks, as well. The qe purchases are interesting, as well. Most werethey have to weigh thel a bit historic pick for joe biden, the first africanamerican. Pick for Vice President. And the first asianamerican. And some say it will help propel joe biden to the white house. Lets bring in Jodi Schneider to talk more about this decision. It seems this was a no surprise pick from joe biden. What does it tell us about the Democratic Party . First of all, joe biden said he would pick a woman, so thats not a surprise for his Vice President ial running mate. It was thought he would pick someone of color, given the attention on race in the u. S. Harris willenator be the first black woman and the first asianamerican on the major Party President ial ticket. She is also known as a tough campaigner. She is a junior senator from california. She won the statewide election in california. Three times. So she has a lot of credentials that joe biden and the democrats think will help in november. She does seem to think that implications for Foreign Policy, relationship with china, what are we anticipating . She has been on both sides of the china issue. On one hand, she has been tough. She didnt do a lot with china when she was District Attorney in san francisco, attorney general of california. That part of her career did not touch on Foreign Policy. It has only been in the senate where she has that type of experience. It may come up, how much experience she has on Foreign Policy. She has also been tough on china, in terms of intellectual property and saying they steal intellectual property and ship substandard products to the u. S. At the same time, she has also counseled that the u. S. Should cooperate with china, particularly in fighting Climate Change and handling relations with north korea. This is somewhat a different stance, certainly than the current administration, who has been tough on china and escalating the relationship. Be a mores may conciliatory approach. We will have to see. She really hasnt been tested much on the Foreign Policy front. This will be an area where there will be a lot of questions, and she will be questioned a lot on this. Trump we heard president responding to bidens pick with harsh comments about Kamala Harris. Does the bidenharris ticket, what does it mean for november . What are the chances of them beating President Trump . That will be very interesting. Sident trump has known been known to attack women, particularly when they are running against him. As we saw with hillary for years ago. It should be interesting, particularly with the atmosphere in the u. S. , given the theersation on race and death of george floyd and people turning out in big rallies. If President Trump attacks her on a racial basis, and a gender basis, there can be some serious blowback to that. We will really have to see how this plays out. Shes known as a tough campaigner. One of the reason joe biden chose her is her toughness. He also chose her because he really wanted to look for somebody with whom he thought he could have the kind of open, collegial, very close relationship he himself had as Vice President with president obama for eight years. He said thats important, and he things he can have that kind of open kind of relationship with Kamala Harris. We will have to see how this plays out. President trump attacking her today right off the bat. It will be interesting three months before the election, which will be a very different election, largely male in. There will certainly not be anytime soon on the Traditional Campaign trail. And the Democratic Convention coming up next week, as well. Jodi schneider, thank you for recapping the biggest story today. Some lines coming through the fed. The central bank giving rates unchanged. No surprise. Boosting their qe program up to 100 billion kiwi dollars. There is totals that they are weighing right now, including negative Interest Rates. Activee rates remain in preparation. They are looking at Something Like this. Extra tools can be deployed if extra stimulus is needed. They agree any move to negative rates could be effective. Getting one step closer to this alternative type of monetary policy. Haslinda thats right. And it is something that rbnz has maintained they will do whatever it takes. Lets get the first word headlines. Coronavirus continues to spread around the world, with the u. S. Accounting for a quarter of all cases. Florida reports another day of record deaths. Hong kong may bring its outbreak under control, reporting the lowest number of new infections since the resurgence one month ago. The city south32 new cases, down from the the city saw 32 new cases, down from. No talks on the table of stimulus in washington. They have not spoken for days, with the white house demand democrats refuse the demand they must double the current 1 trillion pending commitment. Markets have been content to let the issue run. The late session at tuesday indicates some. Yvonne the coronavirusyvonne is dragging on indias recovery. It down a fourth straight month in june as the economy struggles to reopen. The index of Industrial Production fell more than 16 . Less than a 21 decline seen in a bloomberg survey. India is heading for the first fullYear Contraction in more than four decades, with the imf seeing gdp shrinking 4. 5 . Two years after President Trump abandoned the iran nuclear deal, his administration is threatening a crisis at the United Nations by reimposing sanctions on tehran. It could push traditional u. S. Allies, germany and france, to side with russia and china at the Security Council. Members will vote on the u. S. Demand to make an arms ban on iran permanent. The current resolution expires in october. Yvonne coming up, we speak to the ceo for asean in south asia to hear how shes promoting diversity and inclusion. She joins us later on this hour from singapore. Next, our exclusive interview with the head of one of asias Fastest Growing private banks, the bank of singapore ceo is up next. Dont miss it. This is bloomberg. Haslinda at the moment, gold is down about 1. 4 . 1885. 0 level, kind of the biggest drop in seven years after bond yields spiked. 1894. T down about 2. 7 right now. Global markets are facing important crossroads in the second half of this year. No clarity when it comes to the virus pandemic and economic recovery. If thats not enough, we also have the ongoing u. S. China tensions and upcoming u. S. President ial elections to contend with. Lets bring in Bahren Shaari,eo of bank of singapore southeast asias second largest bank. Give us a sense of the mood among your clients. Are they keen to invest . How do they view risk right now . Declines continues the clients continue to remain invested. In case of additional volatility in the markets. Otherwise, they remain invested. Spoke in when we last march, you said you were advising clients to sell. What are you advising them to do now . Continue to maintain the stance to make sure the pandemic is not over yet. We have seen the sign of some recovery, but it is too early to say whether it is going to be the outward direction of recovery. Best to take a conciliatory stance, build a portfolio, maintain sufficient in case of volatility. Haslinda do you buy more gold . Not really. It is unique to have you need to have a diverse portfolio, a strong call portfolio. You need to have quality investments, diversify between the growth of stocks, as well as the value and cyclical stocks. Portfolio,ur court you have to have a bond investment portfolio. Gold is one of the Asset Classes that you should have exposure to, but yo should not be exposure overly exposed to gold. There will be price movements that you need to manage. Banksa what about the credit line to customers . Are you giving them full leverage at normal time . What are you doing with that . We do give leverage to our clients against their portfolios. We have not changed that. But we need to make sure they line and not to overexpose themselves in the current market environment. We know from the latest numbers from the big banks in singapore, they set aside a bigger provisions for npls. What are they doing at this point in time . A differentess is business. We lend to clients on initial assets, we diversify across all Asset Classes. We are managing that based on the daily market. We monitor clients margin and ce going close to the marching levels, so they can in the eventelves of volatility in the market. Are your clients worried about the National Security law in hong kong . People themost situation. They are looking to see how this will pan out. Like many others in the industry, we are looking how this will go. Peoplea are more looking to relocate out of hong kongs . What are you hearing from your clients . No, i think most people are still sticking with the wait and see approach. Most people see the situation will get better. Theyrey are making sure they can position themselves in the situation in the event that it is worse than expected, or better than expected, most will have to prepare themselves. Haslinda are you then saying you are not revealing your growth plans in hong kong . Yes. We are not revealing our growth plans in hong kong. We still see a lot of opportunity in the Greater China area. We are still continuing to focus our growth on that region. Aum,nda looking at your it rose over 2 from a year ago end of billion as of the june. That is still off of your high, 190 billion. Any insight on this . Because we are impacted by the market valuation. That has an impact on the aum. We do see continuing flow from from acrossecially the region, more from the middle east, north asia, and south asia. Not as much as it used to be in 2019. See, ia when do you guess, the time when you can start growing your aum . What kind of targets are you setting . We dont set any targets. We are taking advantage of the situation in the markets. With ourntinuing clients now. Not as fast as it used to be. We have to work with clients to see how they can continue to preserve what they have and make sure they strengthen their portfolio. It will be the First Priority we need to make sure we achieve for our clients. Forward, theng virus is expected to stay with us for some time. That puts a lid on travel and facetoface interactions with clients. Theres concerns perhaps the Current Situation will make it more difficult to onboard other clients. Yes indeed. What we are doing now is we are working with more partners on the ground who have a Good Relationship with clients. We work with them to see how to provide the solution to their clients, as well as looking for other ways for onboarding clients, other than through facetoface meetings. Haslinda where do you see the biggest growth . Which markets would that be . Is still a good growth opportunity. We see growth in the middle east market. Coreeast asia is our market. Singapore is still growing. That will be a market we continue to focus on. Go, a before we i think this is to make sure we remain relevant to our clients to come out with good advice, strong solutions, understanding our clients demand. Making sure we continue to build a strong platform that can support the demand and needs of our clients. I think that keeps me awake at night. , ceo of Bahren Shaari bank of singapore. Thank you for your insight. Yvonne lets take a look at gold prices. Continuing their tumble for a second day. 2. 7 after we saw the biggest drop in seven years, close to 5 . The Precious Metals really following. Silver futures down from 9 . We broke below the 24 threshold. After a 10 drop we saw yesterday. This falls on the backdrop of the rotation we see in markets, where things that were the darlings, like treasury yields, they are picking up again. Its definitely impacting the gold price today. The dollar also seems to be gaining footing. I think its more about the really old story at the moment. Lets take a look at real yield story at the moment. Lets take a look at gold. It seems we may have gone too far. We may have further to fall. We could be a little ways before we hit the support levels. To8 is perhaps the next cue watch. Around 1881 at the moment. Plenty more ahead. This is bloomberg. Yvonne youre watching Bloomberg Markets asia. Tesla stocks surged after they announced they are splitting elevated shares in a 5 1 exchange, making a stock less expensive for individuals. They have been at record highs, making it the Worlds Largest automaker by market cap. Each shareholder will get four additional shares of common stock on august 21. Tesla will trade on an adjusted basis 10 days later. Commonwealth bank is to pay close to the maximum permitted dividend, even as surging debt provisions push profits to a sevenyear low. Australias largest lender will pay 98 aussie cents a share, down from 221 a year ago. They hold the dividends earlier this year, u. S. And european regulators are capping or suspending payouts and buybacks. Boeings hopes of bringing the 737 max may be hindered by regulators outside the u. S. Eu and canadian officials are concerned about software revamps. Fears Global Certification may slip into next year. Last week, the faa launched a process that can see as soon as october. The jet has been grounded globally for almost 18 months. Haslinda asian markets mostly lower. Extending the times to about. 40 . Have a higher open, after the s p 500 ended lower over the timing of the stimulus package. Tracking the dollar. Gold futures currently down by 2. 6 . Gold heading for the biggest drop in seven years after u. S. U. S. Dollar,nd the 1183. More to come. This is bloomberg. Yvonne 10 29 in hong kong and shanghai. Here are your first wood headlines. President ial contender joe biden picked, let harris as his running mate, hoping her africanamerican ties and self branding as a progressive will protect propel him to the white house. She ran against biden in the primaries and is the first black woman and the first asianamerican on a major party ticket. Harris has 13 california elections, having started her career as a District Attorney. A Hong Kong Media tycoon, jimmy bail. Has been released on he and others were held under chinas security law, reinforcing fears beijing will suppress dissent and antichina views. His apple daily newspaper is were now for its condemnation of authoritarianism. The Trump Administration is tightening the screws on beijing by labeling all goods from hong kong as made in china. The move will begin from september 25 although the likely impact on the city may be limited. The majority of puncture hong kong shipments to the u. S. Are. Xports only about 1 were domestically made. Uptok is beeping beefing in lobby in washington. The chinese owned video sharing app must find an american buyer by the middle of next month or shut down to make amid claims of a National Security threat. It is advertising what it calls Government Affairs positions and seeks to boost its influence in washington. A look at the markets, investors looking for the rally to proceed but not finding it today. The dow, due to the timing of test ofulus package, a the market coming with a phase one trade deal review ahead from larry kudlow that china is meeting obligations for the trade deal. The msci down zero point 4 , the benchmark in china low whether lower for a second day. Lower by almost 4 and the hang seng in negative territory. Some of the stocks we are watching, cafe, tencent cathay hascent, slumped about 40 since its march lows but today it is up buys by 7. 5 percent, tencent lower by 1 . Cba paid close to med maximum dividend as profit declined and net income for the Second Quarter of 196. 8 million, and 97 slump from a year ago. That is how it is looking for some of the stocks we are tracking. At livetake a look pictures out of taipei, the u. S. Health secretary alex azar on his fourth day of his trip to taiwan. You are seeing him visiting a factory that makes face masks in new taipei city. We talked about how controversial this trip has been between the u. S. And taiwan and further escalating tensions with beijing. We have heard china condemn this trip, as well. That is what we are seeing at the moment. Lets talk about geopolitics. In hong kong, jimmy lai has been released on bail after his a rate arrest on monday. Lets go to Stephen Engle, joining us for the latest. What is next for mr. Lai . He has to go through the prosecutorial process in hong kong. We heard another act to vest who was arrested activist who was arrested monday, 10 people were arrested under the National Security law, including agnes work who says she has to surrender her passport. Fory lai was in detention 36 hour