# Apple Record Sales Drive Asia Tech Rotation

**Podcast:** Bloomberg Daybreak: Asia Edition
**Published:** 2026-01-30

## Transcript

Bloomberg Audio Studios podcasts, radio news.
Welcome to the Daybreak Asia Podcast.
I'm Doug Chrisner.
After the bell in the U.S., Apple reported record sales for the holiday period.
Revenue jumped 16% to $143.8 billion.
Now, this is for the quarter ending December 27th.
These results reflect strong demand for the iPhone 17 as well as growth in services and a rebound in China.
Here is Bloomberg's Mark German.
Massive, massive quarter.
This is a home run, their greatest quarter ever by orders of magnitude.
It's a gigantic beat on overall revenue.
China is back.
The iPhone in particular, $85 billion quarter, is just insane.
That was Bloomberg's Mark German.
Shares in Apple were up about 1% in late U.S.
trading.
The dollar weakened slightly in New York trading with the Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index down a tenth of one percent.
That doesn't seem to capture though the story in the foreign exchange this week.
We saw a lot of volatility, not just in the dollar, but in the euro and the Japanese yen as well.
Let's take a closer look now with David Finnerty, Bloomberg's rates and FX strategist.
David is on the line from Melbourne.
Thank you so much for being here.
Can we just take a step back, David?
Can you describe for me what this last week has been like for the dollar and some of the forces that have been at play?
Well, I think certainly you'd have to go look at starting this year is last week, last Friday, just after Bank of Japan meeting, when there was speculation that the Ministry of Finance may have intervened.
It looks like they didn't.
Then later that trading day, um, the Bank of New York seemed to intervene, or at least didn't make check, which was a signal pre-signal point.
Now that really sparks volatility, dollar yen, because the market there was going up.
We're all long, dollar yen, we've got to start reversing those positions, particularly as dollar yen sold off.
What's happened since then is that volatility, which was more relatively more related to just dollar yen, has got a bit more broader this week.
Um what you've seen is President Trump has come out and he said, Look, the dollar's decline and his is he's not too concerned about it.
That was basically a green light for trades and say, okay, we've been looking for reasons to short Madonna again, and they basically jumped on that.
So you've seen the dollar depreciation pick up speed against a variety of currency now, not just the yen, the euro reached multi-year highs, so did sterling this year.
Aussie dollar's been on the tail lately.
So it's been basically been certainly in the GT G10 space and EM space, you've seen this poor dollar sell-off that is going up has been going on.
That was initially triggered by last week's events of concerning Bank of Japan, but now it's escalated, um, given President Trump's comments.
So give me your sense of how Fed policy enters this conversation because today we had President Trump saying that he will announce his nominee for Fed chairman tomorrow, that's Friday in the U.S.
And earlier in the day, Trump reiterated his expectation that this new leader will be lowering interest rates.
It was curious today, we didn't see much in the way of movement in the treasury market.
It seems as though the market right now expects that we're going to see lower rates in 2026, although the swaps market is not pricing in the next rate cut until June, right?
Yeah, I mean, basically what the market's saying, whoever is named as the next Fed president, the market's gonna say, look, it's they the four pendulates are out there, you know, wall of rider wash, and uh you're looking for all sort of on the diverse end of a scale spectrum.
So the market's going look, whoever Trump picks, understandably he's can pick someone who he he is aligned with his policies, which is rate cuts.
So the market's going, okay, you're gonna cut.
The new Fed governor won't get in till May.
So really the June statement or policy meeting becomes really the first viable play.
Until then, expectations are you look what uh President sorry, Fed Chair Powell said this week is markets sort of stabilised certainly from unemployment rate.
So he goes things are quite balanced.
They're looking for more data if they were to cut.
So the market's going to realistically, given everything that's going on with Fed, we don't see them in a hurry to cut.
So it really it won't happen until the new uh Fed chair gets in, which will be in May, which makes the summer months of June, July, realistically the most viable option, they think for the first rate cut, and then they're looking for another rate cut in the second half of the year.
Again, I do think whoever comes in though, you know, between now and May, a lot of economic data coming out.
And if that data comes out on the strong side, it will be interesting to see if the market actually dials back those expectations.
Obviously, if the data comes in weak, particularly my labor force, unemployment rates start start ticking, then the market, if given any green lights at all, would have be priced in three rate cuts if given any chance.
So we've been talking about US dollar weakness.
We've also been talking about much more in the way of Fed accommodation.
And you look at those two things kind of in total, it's easy to figure out why we're seeing many of the precious metals just rally in the past week.
Although, to be fair, gold and silver did pull back today from record highs.
What do you make of this rally that we have seen among precious metals and whether or not this is a durable move or whether maybe we could see a significant pull back?
I think certainly we took what happened with gold.
When you start doing things in like I call it a hyper hyperbolic shape, it's you know you start going basically skyward.
Then any market that does that tends to have a correction because it's just gone ahead of itself.
Now the question becomes though, in a long-term play, even if there's a mild correction, is the long-term trend still upwards.
And I think at the moment there's no reason to say that it's not upwards.
It may be not at the same pace, maybe more of a grind.
But the idea of this sort of debasement trade is away from the dollar, should we say, given the policies that we're seeing, how the market's reacting to President Trump's policies at the moment, it does appear that their stance is well, that's basically not necessarily completely de-dollarized.
I think that'd be too drastic, but there is a move to say let's move away from dollar and its commodities, which was a safe haven.
You could say.
So I think that trend at the moment will continue, particularly think look, Iran.
What may develop in Iran is a worry for the market.
If, and this is an if, if President Trump was to basically launch an attack on Iran, then that would obviously have impact on oil prices and all this sort of stuff.
And I think commodities then would even just get an additional boost.
So certainly in the near term, while yes, you've seen a correction in gold and some other commodities, the general trend, I would still say risks are skewed to them to go higher.
Yeah, we had oil soaring today after the president warned Iran to make a nuclear deal or face military strikes.
I think WTI in New York trading was up around three and a half percent.
Similar move in Brent crude during New York trading.
But as we get ready to wrap up the week, and maybe we can look a little bit at to as to what we may get next week.
Will volatility be with us still, or do you expect markets to kind of calm down at least in the short term?
They'll calm down a little bit, but I think volatility certainly for the near term is here to stay, although poised for it.
If you look at option and pride volatility, it's come for a little bit, but still relatively elevated.
I mean, I think next week you have an RBA decision where the market is pricing about a 67% chance of a rate hike.
So if that was to follow through, you see the Aussie extend gains, and they could pull the Kiwi with it.
Obviously, the developments on Iran that could, like if it was to happen, could kick off at any time.
So I do think certainly for the near term, the market is going to stay on edge.
Um, given just all the geopolitic events going and with central bank decisions coming.
So I think a bit of calm maybe today, because we're going to month end and people will get ready for next week.
But the stuff the markets could be very wary that you know it could kick off again at any one time.
All you really need at the moment is President Trump to send one headline on the dollar or on Iran or something like that, and all of a sudden the market's back into um, you know, in back into sale mode, so sell the dollar more than likely.
Okay, David, we'll leave it there.
Thank you so much for being with us.
Uh, Bloomberg's David Finnerty, FX and rate strategist joining from Melbourne today here on the Daybreak Asia Podcast.
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Welcome back to the Daybreak Asia Podcast.
I'm Doug Christner.
Tech stocks across the Asia Pacific are performing significantly better than their U.S.
counterparts did in the regular session.
Apple's results after the US close seem to be driving that positive sentiment across the APAC.
And that's where we begin our conversation with Harold von der Linda.
He is head of Asia Pacific Equity Strategy at HSBC.
Harold spoke with Bloomberg TV host Annabelle Drulers and David and Glace.
Let's just take kick off on that tech story.
I know that this is the year that you're going to be looking beyond the AI rally, but at least in the nearest.
I mean, the discounts clearly disappeared.
Uh the Korea discount.
What is the earnings story look like?
Do you think it will justify a further re-rating?
Well, the earnings story is very strong.
I mean, look at how Korea has performed.
If you look at the valuations of the market, it it's it's moved up a little bit, not so much because the earnings have gone up so much as well.
And what we now see in terms of positioning is that people have already got a lot of exposure in Taiwan.
They can't really buy that much more.
Because if you you can't have an Asian portfolio with only one stock in it in Taiwan.
So exactly.
So actually, uh, as that market continues to perform, you see that people actually have to sell.
So they try to build that exposure somewhere else, and that's helping Korea as well.
So you see them rotating into uh into uh Samsuk High Nicks and these stocks, of course.
And there is still room for that to grow.
Uh global funds are coming in as well.
You just mentioned earlier on there's a bit of rotation in the US market.
So you see that they're looking for kind of AI place outside of the US now, and then Korea is your obvious choice there.
So you think this is the year that that that Korea really just continues to be the standout in the Asian region, or are you looking at other markets as well?
Of course, there's Japan or there's Taiwan, Hong Kong.
Which one do you think is going to be the biggest beneficiary, I guess, of that that rotation away?
If there's a rotation, I think um there's some interesting things happening in China.
Um there are interesting things happening in India, but it's slow and it's not so visible yet.
So that might well be a story that just takes time before the earnings are recovering there.
There's a bit more stimulus has taken place.
So uh it looks like the earnings story is picking up in India, but it's very slow.
So at the moment it's not something that gets a lot of attention.
Um so that might be something that happens uh in the next quarter or so.
But we also see money coming back into China, and that's interesting.
And this is not mainland Chinese money, that was the main driver for last year.
But we actually see money coming from Europe and also from the US.
And in particular from the US, that's not something we've seen over the last couple of years.
But they're starting to to go back into Chinese stocks as well.
And do you get a sense that that will will continue?
Because that w I mean that was for many years the potentially the incremental buyer of of this Chinese market.
You know, you know, we're underweight, China, we've been massively still underweight when you look at the positioning, right?
I want to get a sense of pleasant conversation.
I mean, you're absolutely right.
Two years ago, I think we actually spoke about this once.
Everybody said, Oh, it's about Asia ex-China or emerging markets ex-China.
That story is gone.
Uh a lot of US funds said, no, we're not gonna buy China.
This is there's no interest in this uh whatsoever.
Difficult to sell, but now we have a different dynamic.
We have a weaker dollar, so you want new uh non-US assets.
Europe is already, they went last year into Europe.
Now they're looking somewhere else, emerging markets shows up.
And then you need to find markets where there's a good growth story.
You know, we just spoke about Korea, but in China things are picking up as well.
Look at the Apple results, right?
That gives another confidence.
Hey, there are there is something going on there.
Um the market has performed uh pretty well last year.
So I think interest is starting to come back in.
Do you get did is the formula?
Do you think the formula for China this year will be what worked last year, which is you know, your your platform companies, some of the financials on income and dividends, and I think materials did quite well.
Or is there a cyclical story, a rebound that we might be sleeping?
I think there will be a bit of a cyclical story.
I think so.
The the interest is uh to a large extent has been in dividend yielding stock, sort of safe investments, and this is mainland Chinese buying Chinese stocks initially in Hong Kong, then they went to the Asia market later on, and they bought Bank of China and these sort of companies gave you a good yield, yeah.
Yeah, very safe sort of investment.
Um what we now see is interest going into other sectors, you know.
So uh AI, China AI, uh biotech is coming up quite often.
And then you have these other sort of sectors that do pretty well.
Power equipment is doing very well because you're building out all sorts of uh uh uh networks in the in China, so you need that.
So there are these industries where there is no oversupply uh where things are happening, and this is where the the focus is shifting in that direction as well.
The the IPO pipeline though in Hong Kong is still very robust coming into robust is understatement because it's very strong.
Well it's very strong.
Yeah, yeah.
And uh I'm wondering if you think that there's any concerns about liquidity being drained from the secondary market on that basis.
Yeah, we have uh last time we looked 360 IPOs in the pipeline, so that's a lot.
Uh and some of them are big, some of them are uh smaller companies as well.
There's a lot of these AI companies that that need capital, so they're listing.
Um there is a lot of, as I said, there's the Chinese local money, mainland Chinese money coming into Hong Kong.
You now have foreign money coming there as well.
So there's a lot of liquidity around.
So I'm not worried that that will drain money out of the secondary market.
It might happen from one week to another if there's a real big IPO, but not structurally so, at least not at the moment.
If that would happen, though, let's say it's difficult to sell your IPO, you get a lower your price, then you see that that 360 number probably goes lower.
Because then some companies might say, Ah, let's wait a little until the market's are a bit stronger.
So um that that's a moving target as well.
But I'm not overly worried.
Liquidity is really good in Hong Kong.
Key to the liquidity issue formula will be will be the Fed.
We heard from the US president earlier.
I want to play it out for our viewers, and we'll talk about it soon.
Let's play it out, guys, please.
What day will you be announcing your Fed share pick next week?
Uh tomorrow morning.
Tomorrow morning.
What day will you be announcing your Fed share pick next week?
Uh tomorrow morning.
Tomorrow morning.
Do you know what I'm saying?
I'd rather say it tomorrow, but just an outstanding person.
And a person that uh won't be too surprising to people.
It's gonna be uh somebody that is very respected, somebody that's known to everybody in the financial world, and I I think it's gonna be a very good choice.
I hope so.
So if somebody was on your short list, sir, uh on my reasonably short list, yeah.
So Harold, Kevin Hassett, Chris Waller, Kevin Warsh, Rick Ryder.
Does it matter who I'm on the four?
Eventually gets.
Yeah, no, this is an important position.
So it matters.
And in conversations that we have with clients, it comes up who it might be.
I mean, we don't know it, so every second guessing.
But it does matter because uh we need the independence of the Fed, that's really important.
We're also in a strange situation whereby we now actually see that the inflationary pressures remain.
Um the market is saying, you know, in the beginning of the year as well, there's gonna be a rate cuts coming through, but increasingly saying, uh, might maybe not so much.
We actually don't think there will be a rate cut this year.
We don't even see a rate cut next year.
So there's a bit of a recalibration in the market in the opposite direction, even.
So you need somebody who can who can who can lead that institution of course lead with with yeah, and and and come with credible policies.
This is incredibly important.
That was Harold von Delinda, head of Asia Pacific Equity Strategy at HSBC.
He was speaking with Bloomberg's Annabelle Drulers and David Inglace, bringing it to you here on the Daybreak Asia podcast.
Thanks for listening to today's episode of the Bloomberg Daybreak Asia Edition Podcast.
Each weekday we look at the story shaping markets, finance, and geopolitics in the Asia Pacific.
You can find us on Apple, Spotify, the Bloomberg Podcast YouTube channel, or anywhere else you listen.
Join us again tomorrow for insight on the market moves from Hong Kong to Singapore and Australia.
I'm Doug Chris, and this is Bloomberg.