Halliburton abandoning plans with baker hughes union regulators were not happy with Loretta Lynch saying no merger is too big to challenge. Let us know what you think of our top stories on twitter. The yen dominating what is going on with japanese equity trading. The markets are closed today. Reporter talk about first trading day of may. Markets. As reshot pointed out, have a look at japan. They are down 4 . A lot of that happening with a stronger japanese yen. Australia, just about every stock on the nikkei underwater at the moment. When you take the losses back on thursday, we are down about 7. 5 over just two trading days. Lets break it down across sectors. Down onngle sector is the nikkei. Have a look at the nikkei volatility index. We are looking at a sharp jump. It up there . There we go 18 higher. That is something to watch. A lot of people are starting to downsize. When the yen starts jumping around, expect people to be riskadverse. Volatility is higher than usual. We are watching shares of takata. At u. S. Authorities are looking to to all cars that use their airbags. Nitrate. Nium we understand based on the report that the plant is going to be announced sometime toward the end of the month. Shares are on the way to record lows. Let me wrap up with an update on the japanese yen. Hear low, theto same levels as midoctober 2014. Boj are the rishaad absolutely. Yen the u. S. Has put japan on a watchlist for Foreign Exchange practices. What is this all about . Shery japans finance minister media he will carefully watched the currency market to ensure that speculation does not continue in that he will take action if needed. The yen is at an 18 month high, refraining going against market expectations. This is the first time the japanese policymakers have tried to talk down the yen. Analysts do not think this is the right time for the finance ministry to take a move. Drawing a line in the sand is very difficult, particularly is a that the last surge totally logical response to what the boj did on thursday. It would be a strange place to intervene. They are worried. Shery the dollar weakness and a narrowing gap contributing to the yen strength as pressures inld in the u. S. Participate japan. The comments are coming at a time when the u. S. Is stepping up rhetoric on markets. They say japan is among countries put on a watchlist to gauge whether therefore exchange practices provide an unfair trade vantage over the u. S. The report says it in no way restrains japans abilities to respond. The treasury pointed out it is important that japan use all quality lovers, including fiscal policy and structural reforms. They have been under fire japans Opposition Leader telling the ft that halloween Amex Abenomics is failing. That he agrees that the investing ow of the problem was that shinzo abe was not doing this. Ut a terracotta takata diving deeper. Rishaad and also talking to Dominic Schnider about that. Tweet us your thoughts. Chinas factories exhibiting more encouraging signs of stability, if buying that further stimulus may not be needed. Stephen engle is is looking at the latest index. Previous it indicates easing has worked into the chinese economy. Property and construction has recovered on a surgeon credit. The cmi stated above 50 for the second consecutive month in april after seven months in a row below 50. Aprils reading, we can say the economy may have stabilized are oftenrch numbers distorted because of the lunar holiday when many factories are close in february and the negative assertive orders for march april stall stability but new exports and imports dropped and employment showed factories continue to cut workers so there are some storm clouds on the horizon. Pmi alsonmanufacturing showed continued positive conditions heard it slid slightly from march. At 53 point five, it still shows optimism. The stabilized readings eased the urgency to add monetary stimulants which risked fueling housing prices are further flooding cheap credit into sectors of the economy with overcapacity Traditional Industries like steel and coal. Thateconomists say Monetary Policy will remain supportive in general but they do not see another rate cut into the Fourth Quarter at the earliest. Prudent and a watch and wait approach are said to be the priorities after six rate cuts, the benchmark lending rate now stands at a record low of 4. 3 5 . Economists expect that could be cut to four point 1 but in the Fourth Quarter at the earliest and only if conditions deteriorate. Now we areght, looking at the death of the multibilliondollar merger and indeed some of the other stories out there with heidi. It is now official, halliburton and baker hughes have called off their 28 billion merger citing the challenges from Industry Conditions as a reason. The proposed union between a second and Third Largest firms have been causing antitrust resistance. From margin craig and that is solution could not be found to appease concerns. Halliburton says that obtaining the necessary approval as well as general Industry Conditions damage the economics of the deal. To payrton will have baker hughes three point 5 billion by wednesday. Common lynchs determination of victory saying that it shows that no merger is too big or complex to challenge. She reiterates the that it would have resulted in higher prices in decrease output. Jc Morgan Jpmorgan grace says that the justice Departments Division is among many regulators investigation practices in asia the lender is also facing the fcc. Jpmorgan said this on friday now regulations are seeking to work out whether the bank violated antibribery laws by hiring children and other relatives of wellconnected politicians and clients in china. That would be in exchange for having business that was people familiar with the matter in 2013. They have not named the agencies disclosed in the matter. The bank says that it is responding to and collaborating with investigations. Australian Bank Earnings are off to a great start. , 3 rise in cash property. Trailing estimates by around 3 . They saw some growth and mortgages incorporate loans but bad debt they almost doubled on the year, soaring to the highest in six years. It is still a peep at the output for the australian economy. The morningstar and sydni says that bad debt remains the world card john just for well back but all aussie lenders who says the childhood of thought across mining, agricultural, dairy sectors lead to increased as take a liquid the stock is doing this hindi session, close decision though down by 4. 5 to this point. Rishaad [indiscernible] firm to law form be listed on the history of the market. This is after they agreed to. Ank amendments reaching agreements with their bankers and therefore avoiding bankruptcy. The company said it agreed to administer the terms of this existing Facility Agreement that ensures that loans do not have to be repeated until 2018 at which point they will be due to repay the 400 80 million of debt in the Financial Year in 360 Million Dollars the following year. Its are now in the form of term loans. Session there in sydney, right. Millions of dead fish found on the beach. , of caution, over banks in australia. Lets look at events across the asiapacific. Hsbc has been cutting jobs to save money. They posted a loss in the last quarter. Tuesday, the imf releasing the latest report on the Economic Outlook for asia. It will address growth concerns in the china slowdown. We will hear from their head once they make public its findings. Alibaba Fourth Quarter results on friday, sales expected to jump 33 . Revenues expected from rising china retail and mobile shopping and advertising. They may surpass the revenue the liver in the previous quarter. Friday also seeing a rare party. Ongress in north korea the first since 1980, in the first under the leadership of kimhn them king jongun. Order Nuclear Testing around the event. At what isa look going on investmentwise. Indeed, thewith, change of sentiment after that inflation reading from australia, making them more likely to see the reserve bank cutting rates sooner rather than later. What does that mean for the banking side in the lenders in australia . It is a very unusual time. We have the reserve bank meeting tomorrow. There is also the federal budget tomorrow. We are in an election campaign. The central bank has to respond to the most recent fix of Inflation Numbers, showing deflation. It is also constrained in terms of option analogy because we are looking at an early july election. We think that the cut tomorrow while not being priced by the market as a likelihood, it is probably 5050 depending on when you look at the actual market. That is probably an 80 chance. If you look at what the banks are actually doing, some of them have priced it into their standard variable rates late last week. The National Australia bank moved its variable Interest Rate. We think the reserve bank will move because one of the things a of the keyto do, one mandates is to target inflation. Nflation is no longer an issue they can further stimulate the economy. Rishaad what does it mean for marginal rates . And the Balance Sheet of those banks they have not been passing on cuts. Have done, andy you touched on it, is that over the past year they have moved outside of the bank cutting cycle to dictate their own pricing. We have seen them pass on what the reserve bank has announced. They have increased that time. The standard variable rate for most mortgages in australia is between 4 four. 5 . Different things are doing Different Things based on volume, pricing, and competition. If we see a cut, it at least 1520 basis points will be passed on by the majority of banks because they wanted to drive volume. Westpacsaw today is coming out and missing market estimates because of the compositional earnings in the only way you get to beat the market is to crozier topline and the only way as a bank to grow your topline is through volume. Rishaad a quick read on the budget tomorrow. How the be . Guest probably 95 political, probably 90 prereleased. I do not expect anything to come out that would be shocking. There will be more of a fiscal stance to start spending more money on infrastructure. We spoke about Monetary Policy. The impact is very marginal. Both sides now see the importance of fiscal policy. Rishaad you are suggesting avoid industries which have a heavy weighting toward apple . Guest if you have a look at the , each asstries exposure to apple stock but a different way. If you see large shareholders moving out of the stock earnings starting to plateau, there is a case for what happened to microsoft 10 years ago, just towing out. Plateauing out. Rishaad peter david nasdaq will be rishaad thank you. Other stories making headlines per china says it sees signs of improvement in relations with japan but there is still a lack of trust. Beijing commented after their visited the japanese minister. The shared trade relations worth more than 340 billion but ties have been strained by territorial disputes and by japans decision to beef up its military and allow forces to serve overseas. Tycoon expected to be expelled from Parliament Today for leaving the country and not paying debt. He owes more than 1. 3 billion for his kingfisher airlines. Is he is living in the u. K. He has already lost his diplomatic passport. A ban on the registration of large vehicles as part of an attempted to tackle pollution. The band was initially imposed in december. It has cut sales of two leader and greater cars while lifting the demand for strong smaller engines. Toyota says sales in india fell 41 in march. Journalistsver 2400 , this is bloomberg news. Next, nothing seems to be slowing the rally when it comes to gold. Rishaad this is trending business. Nothing seems to be able to dull golds shine. It is still in fashion. We have seen momentum continue to build. Take a look at the dollar index and compare it to the gold price. We have seen this divergence widening. This is when it all happened on thursday. We saw that double whammy on the dollar. The boj decided to do nothing so the u. S. Data has been pretty soft to the fed has been cautious about the second rate hike. The boj did absolutely nothing, the end spikes, further pressure on the dollar. 12. 99 ang to about ounce on friday. We have come down a little bit since then. This is huge when it comes to supporting the gold price. At the raw material space altogether, we have seen a resurgence. Take a look at silver. Eight is beating gold in terms of advance. We have seen a 15 spike. We are now back to levels from one year ago. Some analysts saying it is just a rocketing. Look at gold, though. Gold recently. If you take a look at what happened, we saw the futures and options contract fall to about 184,000 last week. Dropyou are seeing is a 2 in those holdings. That is the most that we have seen since hedge funds turned bullish on the metal. So, the long wagers have fallen but the short bet have also declined. Not everybody is to bearish on metal. Rishaad there is a feeling that there is too much optimism . Yvonne this could do the reverse. If you look at what Goldman Sachs said, the expect gold to fall for the next three months. They think that the stronger labor market is going to be the trigger for the fed to raise rates. They are sick about three rate hikes this year. They are thinking about three rate hikes this year. China could be said for a technology shakeup after new laws. Stocks dropping again today for the fifth time in seven sessions. The yen is strengthening past 107. The earnings outlook for exporters. The finance minister said the government will intervene if the currency continues to appreciate. Chinas official factory gauge has manufacturing pmi coming in at 51. 8. Just below the average forecast. The dividing line between a contraction and expansion. That makes the case for restraint when it comes to additional stimulant. Releasing a flood of cheap credit. Calling off their plan to 28 billion merger. Meeting stiff antitrust resistance in both the United States and europe. Attorney general Loretta Lynch has called to the termination of victory. Say no merger is too big or too complex to challenge. It is a range day out there in the stock market. David what is typically not exactly the best month for equities, may. I go to the equity markets tummy tuck about that business survey. Monthly indicators coming out right now. Seeing a drop from the previous month. These are april numbers. Business confidence in the region. A lot of that has to do with the strength of the Australian Dollar. Indicators down led by japan. South korea is having a typical down day. A lot of that has to do with the japanese yen and its relationship to the dollar. Let me get you the exact levels of the major benchmark indexes. The nikkei is just below 16,100. Pushing into negative territory. The biggest decline is in japan. The United States might be expanding the recall to all airbags in the United States. Nippon electric is down because of earnings. For this current fiscal year. A very abrupt change. About the nab Business Confidence survey. Very strong Australian Dollar. Ins is what is happening anticipation of the Central Bank Decision tomorrow. Rishaad lets have a look at these shares. It did post slightly weaker than expected. About 5 down. Lets go over to sydney and joined paul allen. Paul it was amiss although a very narrow one. Now up to 10. 5 . It was bad debt that really hit westpac this time around. That is the highest figure in six years. Four main impairments. They declined to name who the foreword. And 252he bank million. Part of some broader malaise. We dont see a broadbased deterioration in credit. If anything, it is the opposite. Companies are using low Interest Rates to pay down debt. Paul hes saying it is just a pocket of stress. Rishaad market may not share brians optimism there. Paul we have a rather informative chart for you. You can see that short bits on australian acts are up 41 . Since the start of the year. Westpac. Y the case of that turned out to be a pretty good bet indeed. 5 . Es are down almost and about 12 for the year. We will get to see if these shortsellers are right to later in the week. We have other banks reporting earnings later this week. Rishaad said to be cutting 2000 jobs from its management and battery operations. Is lookinger there to restructure the company after taking control in march. Sharp earlier said it expects to post an operating loss of 1. 6 billion. Mitsubishi motors fuel efficiency scandal is far from over. Sales slumped 45 last month. Customer,ts biggest tumbled 31 . The scandal first emerged some two weeks ago. The covey says its very existence may be at stake. The likes ofut china and japan and germany on a watchlist. Seeing if they are trying to get an unfair trade advantage over america. Using the criteria used to judge unfair practices. Potential penalties. With limited manpower resources the Prime Minister says globalization technology is forcing the Company Country to transform to stay relevant. He said i am enjoying the experience. Responding to those challenges. Singapore is in the midst of this transformation. It is set up a committee on the future of its economy. How it can be done. Is there. Of urgency neighboring economies are catching up to it. Growth is slowing. With a tight labor market, anpower could become bottleneck. Heres what the Prime Minister had to say about it. In his may day rally speech. Do is to transfo