Questions about the future are growing. Right, 7 00 a. M. In riyadh. I am yousef gamal eldin. Yvonne i am yvonne man in hong kong. Markets, a word of caution before donald trump takes to congress this week. If we dont hear any concrete details on fiscal spending coming out of the trump administration, markets could be right for a correction. There is plenty going on, as always. Thehighlight has been market jumping 18 in the first day of trade. This is part of vision 2030 and the kingdom, pushing ahead with a series of reforms and want to make Foreign Investors part of the story. You are looking at 4 foreign investor participation in the tadawul. Open it up further, and that is that latest in reforms. In my conversations with ceos, they were telling me that this is great news, but the reality is that performance of a lot of these companies will be closely tied to sentiment, and specifically how oil prices trade, and that will not go away anytime soon. The other big thing is the story around saudi aramco and the valuation. You have no idea. This was front and center of the discussions on the side, how bible is saudi aramco . You take your pick. Plenty of numbers thrown out there. You mentioned market reforms. Market reforms in china as well the Securities Regulator talking about how they want more companies to list. We will talk about how that affects the ipo market in the mainland. Market comingdian back from a holiday. Foreign investors returning to up. 1 . Ket, we are extending six days of gains, the longest winning streak since july. Aboveng seng did break 24,000, but then right back below again. Running market could be on fumes. The last time we hit the hang. Eng fell 10 japan as leading those losses. Dollarin looking heavy at 112. We are two hours away from the start of trade in the emirates, dubai and abu dhabi. Upixed picture, gains and by. 25 . Weaker blinds for the most part. Saudi arabia benchmark tadawul Energy Stocks under pressure, industrials as well. Foreign investors in focus could lets cross over to first word headlines with sophie kamaruddin. Sources in washington say President Trump is proposing major defense spending increases and cuts. Two white house officials tell us the outline could come today for the president to address Congress Tuesday evening. Steven mnuchin and says the budget want touch programs such as Social Security or medicare. U. S. Governors have been told that millions of americans could lose their Health Coverage under republican plans to replace obamacare. Briefedulting firms state leaders at the weekend. I around 20 Million People gain coverage under the aca, that channels billions of dollars to the state. The white house says President Trump nobody to lose coverage. The south Korean Constitutional Court holds its final hearing today on the impeachment of president park. She was suspended over a scandal about undue influence involving a confidant and some of south koreas biggest companies. The court will rule in two weeks. The Prime Minister has rejected calls to extend the investigation into the scandal. Police in malaysia say the airport where the halfbrother of north koreas leader is safe of any toxins. The Health Ministry said autopsy nerves suggest the vx agent caused the death within 15 minutes. Deny any roles in the attack and has demanded malaysia stop the investigation. Global news 24 hours a day powered by more than 2600 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. This is bloomberg. I am sophie kamaruddin. The London Stock Exchange said the European Commission is unlikely to approve its planned moisture merger. They said the board will not commit to divesting its mts unit. To see you. Talk more about what nts is and if this is a real dealbreaker for this merger. It is a platform for trading government bonds in europe. They said they would do best some businesses, including the french clearinghouse, but then they unexpectedly made additional the mans about selling nts. Me, how dead is this deal really. Historically, we have seen some failed attempts and they have been resuscitated. How likely is that in this case . Both Companies Say they want to do a deal and are trying to find a way to make it work with regulators. The official decision probably will come until the end of march from the European Commission. Both sides say there are still in gauging with regulators, but it is looking unlikely at this point. Yousef we will leave it there. Thanks a lot for that update. Lets check in and see how the asian equity session is holding up. Plenty happening there. Juliet has the details. Juliette a bit of a risk off session to kickstart the trading week good we had another record high from the dow jones index on friday, but markets in asia for now are waiting on that Janet Yellens speech and the tax deals from President Trump later in the week. We have had some data out of shanghai showing that shanghai home prices over the week rose signs oft showing any a slowdown in the properties tightening one a property curbs, but shanghai off. 3 to start the week. We are seeing the hang seng really try to stay above that 24,000 point level. It does seem to be a litmus test for the market. It was higher a couple of hours ago, 40 points higher come up falling back below that at the moment, so some resistance at that level. Looking at the nikkei down. 6 . This is all about the yen story. There have been big movers, mitsubishi up 3 , and disappointing numbers coming from australia, the sx 200 off by 2. 5 . Mixed, but mostly to the downside. Firm oran won is for a fifth consecutive session through this is the longest winning streak since august last year. This is seen as a proxy trading against the u. S. Dollar as we see movement into reflation and in terms of the President Trump administration, so one to watch this week ahead of President Trump speaking in congress. Right now fairly flat against the dollar. Having a quick look at the japanese yen, very much stronger weaker, i should say against the dollar. 112. 24, a lot of people saying the resistance level is 111. 6. If we break that, then watch the yen go backwards towards at 100 level. I will definitely watch that. Thank you. Lets get you a preview of what is still to calm. We take a look at the story and china, because they are considering allowing more ipos to support the economy. We will discuss that and more later on. Yvonne plus, investing in saudi arabia. They plan to attract more capital. The interview is next. Yousef you are watching Bloomberg Markets middle east live on bloomberg tv and radio. I am yousef gamal eldin in riyadh. Yvonne i am yvonne man in hong kong. The Container Company that rose from the ashes of hanjin. Initially workl with customers in thailand and vietnam, as well as korea. Start work on the u. S. West coast in april and has secured 12 ships to provide those services. Korean airlines talking to delta about a joint venture, but the president declined to offer details. The deal would strengthen existing ties, helping korean and raising deltas presence in a should. He wants sales of 10 . 16 this year, a rise of more than 340 million. Dynamicmanufacturers of random access memory chips coming under pressure for moderating price increases. 2. 1 percentquoted a increase and Contract Prices in february from a month earlier after they searched by 33 . Hynix is extending its worst loss in 16 months. Nomuf saudi arabias surge. A big part of the story will be foreign investor participation. This on the sidelines of the announcement yesterday. I spoke with the vicechairman and here isrity, what he had to say about where that is going to go. We take the same benchmarks that the tadawul in setting up the markets. Most global benchmarks well show that on average within a year from launch that you would be targeting 3035 companies. Is aboutation level that number. We may exceed that level given the interest we have seen. Yousef i was looking at a chart of the items on tadawul, and they are not where they used to be back in the day. What are you doing to bring in more Foreign Investors and bring liquidity to the system . A similarlse is in race, relaxing Foreign Investment restrictions, trying to offer yield to a yield hungry investment world . Markets, by far the largest and most liquid market not just in the gulf region, but the largest middle east region. We are the 13th largest market in the world in terms of traded volumes, even with the traded volumes that you are mentioning today, and if you take the majority of the region, the saudi Capital Market is larger markets combined, so we can see the markets playing a role as a de facto gateway to the region, not just Foreign Investors, but for issuers looking to issue in the local market. Is one the qfi regime step towards that, changing the technical parameters and the cycle will be the file no requirement that would lead to most International Investors wanting to invest. Your expectation, is this the catalyst for those capital inflows . Last summer,forms the amount of Foreign Investors has not really jumped massively from before, so my new percentage of total market cap or total transactions . The percentage of Foreign Investors today is still about 4 from the discussions we have had with a lot of International Investors. While they have been extremely encouraged with the change in regulatory iegimes, in terms of qf investors, most of them still require a change in technical infrastructure in order for them to invest in the saudi Capital Markets, because that would bring it in line with what they are used to. Therefore our expectation is it moves to a settlement cycle, that that would be the conduit to attract more Foreign Investors, and from what we have seen from investor interest, that has been the key timeline or key milestone they are looking at. Key targetyou have a in terms of percentage of total transactions, 10 , 20 . What is a healthy percentage . Much larger than what it is today. Yousef 40 . Much larger. Much larger than what it is today. Yousef the other big story we are watching is the listing of the saudi aramco company. What are you doing to help facilitate and bring it home and roll out the red carpet as it were . Terms of Regulatory Infrastructure, and that is our domain as a Capital Market authority, the Regulatory Infrastructure is in place to accommodate the listing of saudi aramco or any other corporation for that matter, stateowned or private. Independent regulator, we approach privatization or the listing of saudi aramco as we do the listing of any corporation, same rules and technical parameters apply. That saudi aramco chooses to have a dual listing in other Capital Markets or exchanges, there may be some additional requirements that will need to be made in terms of linking up the local exchange with the other exchanges that will have a dual listing, but that is mainly at technical parameter and not a showstopper in terms of the listing or revelatory requirements. Yousef no conversation would be complete without discussing the impact of the new u. S. Administration. Here is what the vicechairman had to say. I think our plans have really not change materially. We have been running on the strategy that we developed, and we believe if anything that timing is actually opportune. One of the things that is ironic is that saudi arabia has been opening up to Foreign Ministers and foreign issuers and Foreign Investors in a context where the rest of the world is closing down, and we believe that if anything, this gives countries that do open up like saudi more access to opportunities. Up, the newcomers hoping to elbow in on some songs mobile dominance. We will look at the headlines from barcelona next. This is bloomberg. Yousef you are watching bloomberg television. I am yousef gamal eldin in riyadh. Yvonne i am yvonne man in hong kong. The latest tech goodies on show in barcelona. Asianget to our technology managing editor live from tokyo. There is no new shiny handset from samsung this year. What are the key takeaways, and who is trying to steal the spotlight this year . It is interesting to see on the smartphone maker stepping up in barcelona to try to show off their latest wares. The smart phone Market Growth has been slowing. It is a very competitive market right now. You see some companies we have not seen a lot from before, huawei, lgwhile electronics, also taking this opportunity. As you mentioned, nokia. The brand nobody thought would come back is back with the retro phone that is getting some attention. Yvonne what is at stake for samsung here when you have newcomers like huawei and lg stealing the show . Samsung has a lot at stake. They had the note 7 smartphone that had battery troubles leading to fires. They had to pull the whole line of smartphones off the market, so they left of this wide open market for competitors to rush in. They did say today they will come out with the next phone come the galaxy s8 by the end of march. The note 7 had great technology. They got strong reviews. So if they are able to come out with some of that technology in they may gain ground and help the reputation after that setback. Peter, in terms of newcomers, who is making a splash . Are you suggesting im old enough to know the 3310 . Yvonne i am too. A device. Uite expectations are low for nokia, a brand that vanished from the market, so they could gain ground. Done well within the china Smartphone Market against xiaomi, strong competitor, and now huawei once to take that technology and take it globally and win more Global Market share. They said they want to overtake apple and samsung, so High Aspirations for that company. Theef lets go back to 3310, making a comeback what is the latest on that . Is interesting. It is the form factor that many of us got to know when we first got digital smartphones after the first analog phones from motorola. It has been such a tumultuous market. You see brands come and go. Nokia is a brand that people have nostalgia for, particularly europe. It has the old form factor, but able to run apps like a modern smart phone. Technology asian managing editor there from tokyo. Lets talk more about gopro. They have a new mobile app and a is about to become part of maker of smartphones. Here is the story. Su keenan has the details. Gopro is betting that integrating its app into huawei s will make a difference in terms of boosting sales in the asiapacific market, that the app may be a gateway for users to buy more of gopros products, and possibly their cameras. Check out the stock chart. Gopro stock has come way down from three years ago. Once at the peak is wall street was enthusiastic about the start of a Media Company where this maker of action cameras had users who were posting incredible videos, what it has been few to a recently as more of a Camera Company and the sales have been weak from asia is 18 , and analysts say this quik in the asia market is seen as a way to reverse sales slowdown. You will see the chart price has come up a bit, but nowhere near what it was years ago. Meanwhile, analysts say the china market is unlikely to move the needle for gopro. Its recent forecast missed targets. Analysts question whether whether within the asiapacific market where cameras are available from rivals cheaper will want to pay more for gopro. , it sells inuawei 170 plus countries. It began making carrier toipment, then branched out smart phones and wearables. If you look at the bloomberg chart we have for you, the white line shows an upward trend, even though down from its peak, is the sales and the americas. The blue line at the bottom is the asiapacific sales. As you can see, they pale in comparison. We have some breaking news out of hong kong right now. Hkex earnings of miss at 5. 77 billion hong kong dollars, 740 million. The estimate was 6. 0 6 billion hong kong dollars. They are saying the operating environment is to remain challenging. Those lines coming through for hong kong exchanges, seven. 6 6 billion hong kong dollars as well. Coming up, china imploring companies to list on the stock market, but does it list oversaturation. We will have more on that story next. This is bloomberg. Is 12 30 in hong kong. I am juliette saly. These are first word headlines. The London Stock Exchange says the European Commission is unlikely to approve its planned merger with deutsche boerse. It says its board will not commit to divesting its mts unit. An electronic Trading Platform for european government bonds. The 13 billion merger would have created europes dominant trading operator. Regulators will rule by april 3. Deutsche bank cut its 2016 bonus pool by 80 according to reports. Banksa quarter of the 100,000 staff will be affected, with some workers being offered a longterm incentive as a consolation. Deutsche bank told employees that bonuses would be reduced amid low Interest Rates and rising legal expenses. The independent french president macron has emmanuel won. The is seen challenging prime llon for a place i