Is the verdict of the child sony chief executive as he speaks out for the first time about the cyber attack prompted by the interview. Welcome to countdown. Lets start with the global selloff that is characterized at the start of the trading year. Asian stocks fell the most in seven weeks aided by the decline of crude and the fragility of the eurozone. In the u. S. , the price of wti crude fell below 50 a barrel for the First Time Since 2009. Energy companies have been the biggest losers in the selloff which is wiped out more than 1 trillion of equity verio value. The head of the election is in three weeks. It is fair today we had an oil induced route yesterday that is spilling over into today. Benchmark u. S. Oil gumbel of 50 a barrel for the First Time Since 2009 and a closed above 50 a barrel but a decline of 5 year to date in this year alone. It fell 46 last year. That is just two days. Already down by that much. After reaching that high last year of 100. It was not confined to the u. S. Oil, brent crude also slumped yesterday. At one point brent crude was down 6. 6 , the biggest drop in four years. It did just close down by 5. 9 to 53. This is a big line, the market faces more problems, surging supplies from countries such as iraq and russia but on top of those countries you have output from fields. We have about half 1 million a day if western sanctions against the country are lifted. We were talking just yesterday about the amount iraq is reporting. Despite the fact that many analysts and commentators saying this is going to be a positive for Global Growth or at least u. S. Growth this is seen as a negative in the short term by equity markets. We had to asian stocks down the most and bhp down by 4. 8 of that is echoing what we saw in london yesterday. Equity markets globally losing in the same two days, 1 trillion worth of their value in a couple days. U. K. Stocks yesterday down the most in three weeks. Oil stocks taking the brunt of those falls, bp and shell down by more than 4 . The telegraph saying they did not think the bp had any appetite for any kind of tie up. Greek equities down by 5. 6 yesterday their lowest point since 2012. The equity market in the negative in the shortterm. The currency markets are a risk off market, look at dollaryen. A cut of 5 in the past 30 trading days, this is the strongest over the past two days by nearly half a percent. The bestperforming currency out of the bloomberg 10 currencies we look at. The question is, did we run too far, too fast in terms of being long on the dollar . There is a story that the pace of dollar buying was overdone. They have raised the price of oil bear selling to asia. A little bit of an interesting nuance. Gold rises for the third day in a row, up nearly 2 as you can see over the position. The highest in euro terms since 2013. Hedge funds have gone bullish and they have doubled their long positions since the midnovember. It comes to again talking about the yen rising and gold rising treasuries 30 year government bonds in the u. S. Are the lowest in years. There is a consensus out there that inflation is not going to be torture in the United States of america and what you have here are all the hallmarks of fear. You have till gross, formerly at pimco saying no hike until late in 2015 if at all. Lets talk about Global Growth, in china 1. 1 trillion spent on infrastructure as it seeks to shore up growth. Bloomberg news from hong kong with more. The keyword we hear might be fast track but we are talking about 300 Infrastructure Projects, 1 trillion in spending. Sources tell us this will be part of a broader venture. It essentially started late last year and will rise through 2016. We do want to mention last year 1. 4 trillion spent on infrastructure in china. The government gave the green light to projects individually and we are seeing a much more targeted response as opposed to 2009 when the government allowed banks to lend out. As the move illustrates, concern among officials that the consumption driven economy china wants to shift to has yet to bring any kind of growth momentum. China hit by this double whammy slowing Property Investments as well as sharp decline in land sales and local government. We are starting to see china find as many ways to stimulate the economy without resorting to fullblown stimulus first. It was adding liquidity we ask how far 1. 1 trillion goes in an economy the size of china but talking about it these are funded by central and local owned governments, which sectors will the money go into . They talked about seven industries specifically, including oil and gas pipelines, clean energy, transportation mining and the National Development and reform. Again, if it is an additional one trillion dollars or a repackaging of existing projects we are not entirely sure yet that experts say this could provide some support to bring growth to china. Thank you very much. Lets cross from china to the u. S. Where economists cap toy 14 as capped 2014 as one of the best. Gmc 23 gain. The question is whether this is down to the price of gas i have been in the states and my brother has a hummer and his wife has one of these easterly suvs beastly suvs. To have a contest . What ive never had a hummer but there is one man who can tell us. Cheap gas means americans want to buy cars and theyre happy to buy large cars and the december Sales Numbers for gm, ford, all carmakers in the United States saw an increase in sales last month. Best year since 2006 and if you look at all 2014 a stellar year and a stellar month for gm and fiat. Playing to their strengths, they like to make trucks and 1. 5 million cars sold in the United States. Gm saw a 19 sales increase year on year. The yukon, up by 38 . That was as the oil price is falling. Still living better than december was november and thats when we started to see the price of oil fall and people say prices are coming down. It is not just that, it is low Interest RatesEmployment Confidence in the economy come a all of that coming together economy, all of that coming together. Chrysler sergio, a very happy man, up 50 . Rollsroyce, the car which i remember you drove almost a year ago to the day, had another record year. Its best in 111 years the you could say the same for 2013 2012 2011 all record years. Sales up 12 . We dont all own rollsroyce is like you mark. Thanks to the hoop that i was driving up 60 since 2009. Not just the sales of the cars that are up but personalized expressions of bling. People want more and more customize cars. A mountain of bling. This is the barometer not of the lower income bracket, the super wealthy. These people sell more cars than anybody for 200,000 euros. If you look at a car like the rollsroyce, you drive down the street and everybody sees you that is the whole point. You drive it yourself or does your driver or butler . The point is you want to be seen and it and you. Want to feel comfortable. That is something people were not in 2007 but that confidence to roll with bling is back. The United States, a huge market last year. Will the uae be such a great market for rollsroyce next year . What about russia . We are watching russia what happens to that market is important for us. Early days and maybe too early to make the forecast. On the other side is very hard for the market to forecast in russia this year. It is not just geographic spots that could challenge rollsroyce in the next year, you have to look at the other carmakers. Everybody sees the high income bracket is the bracket to target. Bradley coming out with the most expensive suv ever. They got rid of my voc as a brand maibach as a brand but they are gunning for some of that fund that rollsroyce has been enjoying. We will be speaking to the man himself, the chief executive officer of rollsroyce a little bit later. Time in london 6 13. What a start, the selloff continues and we will take a look at the things driving the market. Welcome back to countdown. Near the number of 1 trillion in a couple trading days i talked to you about yen rising and gold. There is a man to put it all in perspective, the city Financial Investment director. The world is weary of oil and is buying gold and yen. To put it in context you can probably realistically why in this hit but there is nowhere else to go and that has been the same for four years, it hasnt changed and there is more stimulus coming, a lot of this has been priced into china but throwing fuel on the fire, it is not good fundamentally. It has been that for a while like roadrunner you will run off a cliff eventually and you keep buying in the dips. I hate to be depressing for that theres. Bears. What are the fundamentals for equities . It seems like they are spooked by now. You have to look at it the ever way, it is not everything being toasted, it was Energy Companies taking the bulk of the pain and dragging things down. I would not want to be in the high yield sector, it is highly stimulative. It will stimulate and it will be highly stimulative over the next 12 months and eventually, does it reflect terrible fundamentals . No it reflects huge oversupply. The u. S. Are trying their best not to do this but old demand has been falling consistently it is actually falling. Why another 5 fall yesterday . What happened to precipitate a fall below 50 we seem to break these new psychological lows everyday. The opec producing companies have a huge message, to put the fracking out of business and that is the driving force. It will shut down very quickly because it can. It comes up in a week and can go shut in a week. It does not take months, it will be killed quickly. If that supply gets knocked out i think it will go 50 to 60 that will be the benchmark. Thats not good for russia and not good for highcost producers or fracking. If youre a lowcost producer you drive down the costs of the hidden agenda is that. No question. Saudi is in a game of chicken is the last month wasnt as big as the prior month it decided 50 or 60 will still kill the fracking. It is quite clearly a supply issue they will try to make it more constrained and they are playing along game as they can afford to. I wouldnt read the oil price as a cut to the economy, no one is protecting that, you have some skepticism and you are getting the bears out of the way. You will get slightly lush bullish. Im suggesting you have to play you have to play with the liquidity and that is how it is. What kind of negative fallout can we expect from the fall in oil prices . Yesterday you said there might be emergingmarket Oil Companies that will struggle a little bit is that the kind of place to look . Not russia and not brazil that is not oil but it is still very prochina and proindia and the obvious candidates. The beneficiaries in the asia pacific region, vast parts of the emergingmarket you dont want to be last. I know russia will get cheaper. Bill gross said youre not likely to see a rate hike until late 2015 if at all. Would you agree or disagree . The problem they have is the dollar rally, it continues to rise. It is very crowded but the euro is about to have some more printing going on and so is the yen. I will take an oldfashioned view that there will be less dollars and more yen. [laughter] why not make it simple back in a second, with the citi Financial Investment director. Peter is hair, the city Financial Investment director. Ive forgotten it, the possibility of a greek exit less than 25 , is that about right . It is to keep dangerous. Too dangerous. Im not merkel doesnt want to either. Theyve increased it is a stupid idea, it made debt will from 135 , it is a daft idea. Mr. Draghi gets a little pot of money to buy greek bonds. He has already alluded to the fact that greek could be included in that. At the end of the day he has all he needed, he has deflation coming. Does he lift qe in january . Im not sure, i hope he does but he might not be brave enough and he has the court ruling so we have to wait and see. Great to see you back, the investment director at citi financial. Could robots becoming to a bar near you . They werent around in my day but they do you are watching countdown. The yen market behaves and this is where you are seeing it gaining in strength and the dollar losing a little bit of momentum. It has rallied nearly 5 in the past month. It is the best performing currency out of a basket of 10 that we measure here in bloomberg. Euro at an eight week high. You are seeing big moves and it will continue with speculation about what the fed does. Flip a coin and have a look at the biggest oneday gain since november 11. As we said in our headlines china approves 300 Infrastructure Projects at 1 trillion. Nevertheless, ozzy dollardollar rising slightly. That is your moves. These are the Bloomberg Top headlines. Asian stocks fell the most in seven weeks. That extends a global selloff on the decline in the price of crude oil. The lowest level since 2009. Rollsroyce reporting record sales delivering more cars in 2014 than any year in history. The global sales had more than quadrupled since 2009. The u. S. Is rollsroyce biggest market but the chief executive remains cautious about prospects in russia. We are watching russia carefully, early days and too early to make a forecast for what happens in this market. The russian Opposition Leader has taken to twitter to declare an end to his 10 months of house arrest. He tweeted he has removed the electronic bracelet but says he has no plans to travel except for going to work. He violated the terms of his house arrest last week to defend attend an antikremlin protest. You remember we were speaking on Christmas Eve and we said one date to Pay Attention to was january 15 which is when we were expecting the verdict and sentencing of alexi. Actually, the russians moved the sentencing and verdict up from january 15th to december 30 and kremlin critics says that is because he did not want people to Pay Attention. They convicted him of money laundering, and that is going. And his brother. Both of them say those were politically motivated charges and they both the neither guilt. The unexpected twist in the story was that it was Alexi Navalny who was put in jail for three years and his brother got a suspended sentence, and went home under house arrest. You just said yesterday that the electronic tag he has been wearing he cut it off. Which is a symbolic move and a move that means that at least electronically, im sure there are watching him otherwise, they cannot follow mr. Navalny. One of the things to watch in two dozen 15, is this currency crisis . Is it a financial crisis and about to turn into a political crisis . Navalny is one guy to watch who is in a dance with the kremlin and how the kremlin response with this act of defiance yesterdays weather they round him up and throw him in jail for violating terms of his parole they could do that, there is room for that. He led demonstrations of more than 100,000 people two years ago a big concern for the kremlin and fastforward, the annexation of crimea and the russian president very popular with marginal support for navalny but a lot can change. The russian president is popular but why are people talking about the resignation of Vladimir Putin . It is a very trendy thing to talk about and the most recent person to weigh in is an 81 euro x strategist who made his 81yearold xstrata just exstrategist who said, this may be the year the russian president resigns because things will get so nasty with the collapse of the oil price. Made me think of one of Vladimir Putins favorite expressions which effectively is translated directly into english i will still be catching colds at your funerals. [laughter] prematurely forecast the demise of the russian president. [speaking russian] is the russian expression. As much as people in the west like to speculate, Vladimir Putin has been in power for 15 years. Everybody could sustain Lower Oil Prices for a year, it is what happens if we see more of that. I thought it was an interesting forecast. A little bit of media attention. It wont help you with a new years hangover but a group of entrepreneurs have created a robotic bartending system to allow you to create personalized recipes. Maker shaker is it robotic bartender composed of two arms that allows you to perform an infinite number of cocktails. You can literally create your own recipe and the actions the robots perform make your own cocktails and then share with your friends and then people are able to reorder your drink. It was an installation for the google i o installation and after the installation, it was so popular we decided to start a product out of it. We could have the first and only robotic bartender ready to be sold. We can we have our first order and it is not about replacing bartenders, it is about an interaction with people. I fancy one of those for christmas, 900,000. Not cheap. Do join us and follow us and let us know what you think. Your favorite recipes, russia is trending as is london. This is the three of us. Coming up micmac coming up after the break our next guest tells us why she thinks technology will be bigger than ever. Verizon has approached aol about a joint venture. That is according to people with knowledge of the matter. The u. S. Wireless provider primarily interested in the a a well Programmatic Advertising in the aol Programmatic Advertising technology. Sonys chief executive describe the recent Cyber Attacks against the company. He described the hackers as criminals. They were unfortunately the victims of one of the most vicious and malicious Cyber Attacks we have known in recent history, but i have to say that i am very proud of all of the employees and certainly the partners we worked with as well who stood up against the extortionists experts of the criminals. Samsungs shares in the electronic giant fell 4 . All of its products will be connected in five years. As th