Daybreak Weekend: US CPI, Cannes Festival, Bessent Visits Japan

Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio news.
This is Bloomberg Daybreak Weekend, our global look at the
top stories in the coming week from our Daybreak anchors
all around the world. Straight Ahead on the program, we
look to some key inflation data in the US. I'm
Nathan Hager in Washington.
I'm Caroline Hebgin London, where we discuss whether the Can
Film Festival can galvanize the business of cinema.
I'm Doug Prisner, looking ahead to US Treasury Secretary Scott
Besson's visit to Japan.
That's all straight ahead on Bloomberg Daybreak Weekend on Bloomberg
eleven three yeh New York, Bloomberg ninety nine to one, Washington, DC,
Bloomberg ninety two nine, Boston, DAB Digital Radio, London, Syrias,
XM one twenty one, and around the world on Bloomberg Radio,
dot Com and the Bloomberg Business App.
Good day to you. I'm Nathan Hager. We begin today's
program with some key economic data in the US. The
April reading on consumer prices comes out on Tuesday. Then
we'll get a look at inflation pressures on business in
the Producer Price Index Wednesday and then we'll see how
the consumer is holding up when April retail sales come
out Thursday, a busy week for Edward Harrison, senior editor
for Bloomberg News and author of the Everything Risk newsletter.
Really pleased that Ed's got some time to join us here.
Now.
I'm sure I'm not the only one who sees inflation
pressure just driving by the gas station every day. Ed,
Is this the month we're going to see Iran war
impacts show up in the data?
Hey, Nathan, Yes, I think this is the month. The
real question is is whether or not it shows up
less or more than is expected. Because you know, if
you look at the numbers on the Bloomberg terminal, we
had three point three last month. Expected for this month
year over year for cpis three point seven percent, and
they also expect a two point six percent core number
to go up to two point seven percent. So it's
definitely baked into the cake, not only that gas prices
will cause a big jump in the CPI year or
a year, but that it will translate into something overall
in terms of the core CPI. And so ultimately the
question is do we get more or do we get
less than what's expected?
How much would you expect that something like energy prices
would feed into the core. It is something that can
have an overall impact, can it when you think about
diesel prices and the effect on shipping as.
Well, right, definitely. And you know, we see all sorts
of different effects of helium prices having an effect on
electronics because of the use of helium in large disk
drives that drive the AI build out. You know that
they use these disk drives potentially for AI and all
sorts of other things. What I would say is is
that if you look at PCE, which is based off
of personal consumption, the price increase there that index was
three point two percent year over year. We got that
a couple of weeks ago, and that's the number that
the FED looks at. Three point two percent is really high.
And so what it says is is that we're already
at a high level. If the increase in energy prices
adds to that, then it's going to be a very
tough road for the for the Federal Reserve ahead and
for interest rates overall.
And how do you expect that to feed into what
we could get from the producer price side as well?
When those numbers come out.
That's where where I think the market and I both
expect to see the big jumps. So the numbers were
pretty large already. You had three point eight percent in March.
They're expecting four point three percent core. This is not
including food and energy, so you can see those are
huge numbers even if you don't include food and energy,
and if you did include food and energy, then you've
got a four point zero going up to four point
eight percent to be expected. So almost five percent increase
in producer prices in the month of April.
So potentially even bigger price increases on the producer side
than on the consumer. Do you expect to see some
of that feeding in to what consumers see the idea
that producers might be able to pass along some of
their price pressures onto the consumer.
Yeah, I think. You know it's with the tariffs. It
was unknown whether or not they would be legal, and
we've seen that they've been struck down by various courts
now here. You you know that these even though it's temporary,
you know that the price pressures are for real and
you must pass them through. And so to the degree
that companies can pass them through, they're definitely going to
do that, and then the question becomes, you know, how
much can the consumer handle?
And I guess we'll get some answers on that potentially
in the Thursday retail sales print for the month of April.
Are you expecting to see any shifts in consumer behavior
reflected in those numbers?
Yes, I think that you know the expectation from the market.
In particular, the ultimate number to look for is the
control group. That's the number for retail sales that the
market uses to say this is the best number to
look at in terms of the go forward approach, and
that number is expected to decline to zero point four
percent from zero point seven percent. If you take out autos,
you go from zero point six percent also to zero
point four percent. Those are decent numbers, but when you
take away inflation, it really adds up on a year
of a year basis to you know, a mid lean economy.
Anything lower starts to become very difficult, and then you
start worrying about economic growth.
Well, again, really appreciate your insights ahead of all this data.
That is Edward Harrison, senior editor for Bloomberg News. Check
out all his work on the Everything Risk newsletter. You
can find it at Bloomberg dot com Slash newsletters. Let's
take a look now add some stocks making news in
the week ahead. I'm Nathan Hager, joined by Bloomberg Markets
Live Managing Editor Christine Aquino with more earnings on TEP
this week starting Monday with Hymns and Hers Health. Weren't
they going to beef with Nova Nordisk recently, Christine? How
are things in telehealth these days?
That beef though, is a thing of the past, because
they're cooperating with each other now, right, And so that
is one of the reasons why the likes of JP
Morgan initiated to stock with an overweight rating because of
that deal. So now before they had a beef, now
they have a partnership, and so Hyms and Hers will
be selling we govy on its platform, and JP Morgan
is saying that that deal could mark a turning point
and remove a significant legal overhang. So that bothes well
for its earnings potentially, and you know, we have options
of course, starting to price that potential move there, we
could see it potentially a thirteen percent move in the
share after the company reports earnings. And so if that
is all fine and dandy, they meet or beat estimates,
then that could be a thirteen percent share move higher,
but otherwise it could be a thirteen percent share move lower.
So we'll see about that.
Yeah.
Well, I mean this stock has already been doing pretty
well so far this year, hasn't it. I mean, where
is the bar when it comes to what investors want
to see from Hymns this time around?
Yeah? I mean, of course, the demand for the GLP
ones very much still sustaining the business model here. And
I think the fact that you know, they are able
to pivot because potentially, you know, they're now in cooperation
with Novo and so they're kind of turning themselves from
a competitor into a retailer in that space, and so,
you know, I think investors will want to see is
that business model working, how much kind of gains could
they expect from that sort of partnership. Is it something
that could potentially also open up opportunities with other GLP
one manufacturers and sellers in the market, Right, And so yeah,
for Hymns and Hers, it's going to be a question
of how well are they able to pivot after this
initial legal setback.
I guess we could call Hymns and Her sort of
tech adjacent, right, because this is going to be kind
of a busy week for tech earnings overall. We're going
to hear from Applied Materials on Thursday. This has been
a pretty crazy quarter for chip makers. Where are we
expecting chip equipment makers.
To stack well?
Based on the movement in the semicondaractor is index that
we've seen, I mean, I think it's all going to
be positive, So potentially high expectations for the earnings for
Applied Materials here, and you know the options data that
we're seeing at the moment implying about a six percent
move After those results, we have seen a spate of
analyst moves for the stock, ubs raising its price target
to four hundred and eighty from four hundred and thirty previously,
Seaport Global Securities giving Applied Materials a new by rating
and a five hundred dollars price target. So it looks
like a lot of expectations very positive, especially because of
all the optimism that we've seen in the chip space
and our own bloomering intelligence analysts weighing in as well,
and they're looking for sales and fiscal second quarter finishing
higher and also similar gains for operating profits. So it
looks like there's going to be a lot of positivity
baked in. We'll see if they can deliver on that.
I mean you could say that there's a lot of
positivity baked in already. I mean, this stock is serious
double digits on the year so far. Is it priced
to perfection?
I mean, that is definitely the worry every time we
see such big gains like these, Nathan, I mean, you
always have the naysayers in the market right saying that
this can possibly keep going at nauseum. But just you know,
if you look at kind of the plans of the
biggest hyper scalers when it comes to their cap x, right,
the likes of your alphabets, your Amazon's, your Apples, it
seems like there is never ending demand at the moment
for any equipment, any infrastructure related to AI and the
data center buildout, and so you know, in some ways
it could be priced perfection, but it may be a
while yet before we actually see that pullback in stock.
Speaking of the AI build out, we are going to
hear from another beneficiary of that phenomenon on Wednesday when
Cisco Systems reports. What are we expecting from Cisco.
Absolutely, Nathan, Well, you know, a similarly positive thing our
blooming intelligence analysts saying that they're focusing primarily on Cisco's
optical and high capacity networking products and that has benefited
from the AI infrastructure ramp up. As you've mentioned, the
expectation is for that to keep benefiting from that, and
specifically for Cisco, that could result in an increase to
about five billion dollars and its AI order outlooks so
not too shabby for the stock, and that's really helped
shield it as well from the software pessimism that we've
seen in the start of the year, right because they're
very much levered to that build out that we've seen
in Given the demand for anything related to that, both
hardware and software, seems like it could be a positive
season for Cisco once again.
I guess one other question is whether Cisco is shielded
from the hit we've seen from memory costs from so
many of these companies that have reported so far.
Yeah, absolutely, definitely something that investors are going to be
watching out for. You know, how much of their margins
are they going to be able to protect as costs
rise in whether that a shortage is set to continue.
Is there supply chain something that is relatively insulated from
that dynamic, or is it something that they're going to
have to contend with as well. So I'm sure that
investors going to be looking out for any comments from
the company from their CEO during the analysts call. For sure, the.
Tech earning story continues. Thanks Christine, great having you on
with us. That's Bloomberg Markets Live, Managing Editor Christine Aquino,
and coming up on Bloomberg Daybreak weekend, we'll look to
the con Film Festival whether it can galvanize the new
cinema business. I'm Nathan Hager. This is Bloomberg. This is
Bloomberg Daybreak. We ad our global look ahead at the
top stories for investors in the coming week. I'm Nathan
Hager in Washington. Up later in our program, we'll look
ahead to Treasury Secretary Scott Besson's visit to Japan. But first,
in the coming days, the great and good of the
entertainment world will descend on the south of France for
the annual Cahn Film Festival. It's a well established hallmark
of the industry calendar, but in an AI driven landscape,
is the business of film still lucrative for more, Let's
go to London and bring in Bloomberg Daybreak europe anker
Caroline hepger Nathan.
The Can Film Festival is known for glitz and glamour
amid the palm trees of the south of France. The
nearly two week long event features beach parties, black tie affairs,
and plenty of celebrities, but outside of those trappings, the
movies shown behind closed doors are typically quite intense. The
Can lineup favors challenging works from important oteurs, and for
the critics and journalists working at the festival, that means
wrestling with those efforts, often on sometimes very little sleep.
Throughout the festival, the focus is on who might win
the palmdor the top prize given by the jury, an
impossible award to predict, but one that often contains clues
about the upcoming Oscars race at this point relatively far
away on the calendar, but it is true that the
whole event gets you excited about what's on the horizon. However,
outside the sparkling world of the stars and the premieres,
audience interest in traditional cinema going has generally declined compared
to pre pandemic levels, with many blaming the cost and
the dominance of home streaming preserving the industry as a
key concern for insiders View CEO Timothy Richards has been
discussing that issue on Bloomberg Television recently, saying that demand
is returning.
The good news is business is back. The demand. Our
customer has never left us, but business is back right now.
And if you look at what happened with Michael opening
weekend two hundred and seventeen million dollars, Devilware's product is
going to be very, very similar in terms of how
for consolidation. It is fragmented, and it has been fragmented
for quite a while. And I think everyone's been waiting
for business to return before they actually took that first step.
The contrarian investors are too late. We're back, But.
Tim, I mean, you need content first and foremost. So
we'll talk about ticket pricing and AI and how you
manage cues and staff, but you need content. Do you
worry there's going to be less content out there, less
films being made because of the merger.
Yeah. Look, I think my biggest concern is demand, and
I think we've proven certainly in the last few years
that there is a massive demand for all movies of
all genres, for all demographics. We've broken records for all
kinds of movies. And if you look at Hamnet, Hannah
is going to do twenty million pounds in the UK.
So I worry about a man. Where there's a demand,
there's normally a supply will follow. If you look at
what's happened. And I'm fresh back from Las Vegas and
Cinema Coon and from meeting the studios in Los Angeles
after that, and the commitment to future filmmaking right now
with the Legacy studios is unprecedented. Then when you actually
look at the three biggest names in tech, Tim Cook,
Jeff Bezos, and David and Lariy Ellison, they've all now
embraced theatrical releases and film production. They're coming into our industry.
That was the view founder and CEO Timothy Richard speaking
there to Boomberg's frost sine laqua. So how are we
looking ahead to the upcoming can Film Festival? How can
the sector's leaders ensure the magic of La Croisette is
translated into the box office. Joining me now for more
is Bloomberg's Bunoir Bertolo, who is covering the festival this year, Well,
lucky you, Bunoir to be going to this big efferent
lots going on what normally happens at the can Film Festival.
So I guess the public facing side of the festival
is really the competition, So about twenty films that are
competing against each other to win the palmedor that's what
at the end of the festival. So it's really what
gets the attention because these are films that are carefully
selected that are going to be basically some of the
bigger films in the year to come when it comes
to release cinema, let's say, as an aard form. But
these are the most popular of the films that are
going to come out in the year to come. Yeah,
if we can sites blogbusters that are not typically shown
in gan So this is really the celebration of cinema
independent cinema as an aard form, and that's really the
main focus, let's say. But there is also a less
known side of the festival that's really the business side
really and it's to film market and it's happening underneath
the Pallete Festival in sort of an underground, very unglamorous
area where films are shown to movie professional distributors from
all over the world that are going to see films
yet to be released and decided they want to buy
it and show them in their countries. So it's really
the heart of the festival business wise, and it's also
a major thread of the festival because it's bringing tens
of thousands of film professionals to can every year.
Yeah.
Absolutely so in terms of the more glamorous side of things,
what are the big releases that perhaps we'll hear more
about for this year.
So it's an interesting year for the festival because for
while there was no US films selected in competing. Meanwhile,
one film has been added by James Gray, so that's
going to be a film that's going to be very expected,
I think, with Scarlett Johnson and Adam Driver featuring in
the film. We don't know a lot about it yet,
but that's going to be a point of attention. And
then there is this mix of filmmakers from all over
the world. Three films from Spain that I'm especially looking
forward to went by Rodegoyen, another one about the civil
war in Spain. It's a lot of films inspired by
the wars. Actually, the Second World War theme is going
to be very strong films from friends as well Asian
films like it. It's really a mix. And there are
some favorites of CAN that are coming every time the
selector film basically, and that's one of the criticism of
the fistival is you know they've got their favorites and
they would come whatever film the release. But truth is,
you know that they are carefully selected. And what's really
interesting is we don't know yet because these has not
been seen by anyone. We don't know yet which film
is going to create the buzz and which film is
going to come out with the big O L.
Yeah, that's the excitement, isn't it. And the paland'ah, as
you say, is the crown jewel of the proceedings and
who might clinch that? I mean, I noticed that it's
the old boy director Park Chan Wook, who is leading
the jury that makes the selection for who is awarded
the pandor what's it like then to win that accolade?
You know?
How important is it? I mean you say the criticism
is that there are sometimes favorites that CAN, but how
important is it to win the Panda.
It's absolutely major for a film because it's going to
launch that film into this season that's coming. Basically, Ken
is always seen at the first event of the year
in terms of awards and in terms of films that
are going to be seen for the full years. So
very often the films that are selected for the palmudor
but also the major top prices, right the best scenario,
best director or best actor. These films they are going
to be every year we see that they're going to
be launched into the award season and they can make
it to the Oscars in the end. And that's what
happened with The Substance, for example, that was a very
small film that made it to the Oscars and got
five nominations. I think with Demi Moore, comeback of Demi Moore,
I think that was extremely interesting and she's going to
be part of the jury this year.
Interestingly, I think that's really interesting. Also that I mean
Can is also the big you know, film festival in Europe,
even kind of bigger than Berlin and Venice. So interesting
that you say it's such a launch pad then maybe
into a bigger market into the US. But I have
to say that in the backdrop of this, you know,
talking about these individual movies, these small budget movies, maybe
that get bigger. The backdrop in the industry is surely
artificial intelligence and maybe movies that are emerging in that space.
Do you think CAN is going to be a buzz
with chatter about AI films?
It is every year and increasingly a topic in CAN,
of course, as it is across the industry. Really interestingly, interestingly,
there is one film that's that's using open eyes technology
that's going to be shown to bios in CAN this year.
It's called The Critters and it's an animation film that
we're not going to see yet, it's not finished yet,
but it's going to be shown to potential bios. So
that's one example of one film, a feature film that's
going to use AI a lot that we're going to
see in the coming months probably, And and of course
it's it's always a chatter in CAN. You would see
panels this year about what AI means for cinema as
a creative tool, what it means for the ip of
the actors and directors that are sort of prompted and
that are sort of used in AI prompts. So what
does it mean in terms of rights for them, So
it touches on the creative side, on the business side,
and all this also happening on the backdrop of the
sort of difficult moment, a moment of crisis really for
the cinema industry since COVID, the theaters have not seen
the same level of of tickets sold really doing during
the pandemic. People have grown us to see films on
their home screen a hole and so it's ataly also
one of the big thread every year. You can it's
really how well the industry is doing. We are talking
about these very art, outhouse films that can make it
two bigger markets sometimes. But there is also the huge
category is blockbusters. These are really carrying the cinema industry worldwide,
the big Hollywood blockbusters. Before the pandemic, you could see
one or two of these every month. It's really not
the case anymore. The studios are making less bets on
big films and we can see Devil were two currently
making big numbers, for example, But there are few words
of these films every year, and interestingly, no big blockbuster
will have a premiere in can this year. Last year
we saw Mission impossible premiering and it was a bigger
than than a big bus and this way this year,
it's kind of a snub for the big US studios
and none of these are going to show it. Befeling Kenn.
So it's also signed that there's no film that's ready
to be shown in ghen this year. So it's really
also the business backdrop of the festival, and it's how
well the industry is doing.
Yeah, it's going to be very interesting, isn't it. Have
a wonderful time. I'm looking forward to reading some of
your reporting and your insights into the movie industry. Bloomberg's
Bernoit Bertolo. We will have full coverage of the can
film festivals, twists and turns on Bloomberg platforms in the
coming days. I'm Caroline Hebgar here in London and you
can catch us every weekday morning for Bloomberg Daybreak. You
at beginning at six am in London, that's one am
on Wall Street.
Nathan, Thanks Caroline, and coming up on Bloomberg Daybreak weekend,
look at what you expect from Treasury Secretary Scott Besson's
visit to Japan. I'm Nathan Hagard and this is Bloomberg.
This is Bloomberg Daybreak Weekend, our global look ahead at
the top stories for investors in the coming week. I'm
Nathan Hager in Washington. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant will spend
three days in Japan starting Monday. For a preview, Let's
get to Doug Krisner, host of the Bloomberg Daybreak Asia podcast.
Thanks. Nathan. Besant is reportedly expected to meet with Prime
Minister Sona etake Ichi, as well as Finance Minister Satsuki
Katayama and Bank of Japan Governor Kazu Awaita. Now the
NIKE is reporting these meetings will be held separately. For
a closer look at what Besant wants to address on
this trip, let's bring in Bloomberg's Molly Smith, who joins
us from our studio in the Japanese capital. Thank you
so much for making time. I understand that you're on
temporary assignment now as part of a Bloomberg News job swap,
and I know you're in the capital city. Before we
get into the stuff regarding the Treasury Secretary, I'm curious
to get your take on the overall economy right now
in Japan. I know inflation is a big issue. What's
the feeling right now?
You know, it's very interesting, Doug, coming from the US,
where I've been covering the economy for the last five
years to now being in Japan for a few months,
and as we know, inflation is, you know, really such
a deeply psychological phenomenon as much as it is a
financial one. And even though in the US, you know,
inflation was much more severe and long term than it
has been in Japan, I think it's still very much,
you know, it's very real here, and especially because the
country is coming off of really deflation for the last
thirty years, so to even have inflation of you know,
something in the one to two percent area like it
is now is still very meaningful after prices have been
falling for so long.
The three day Golden Week holiday just wrapped, and I'm
curious to get your take on how Japanese consumers responded,
whether they were engaged maybe doing a little bit of traveling,
spending a little bit at shops and restaurants, where they
engaged in activity at all.
I would say, anecdotally, from my perspective, it seemed that way.
You know, I'm fairly new to the country, so I
was trying to travel a bit in and around Tokyo
during that period where we had most of this past
week was a holiday as well as a day in
the previous week, so it definitely seems like people were
out and about and spending and engaging with shops and restaurants.
I haven't personally seen any high frequency data on it,
but definitely we'll be looking to when we get some
household spending figures in the next few months to confirm
that in the hard data for sure.
So let's get to Treasury Secretary Beson's visit in the
week ahead. Can you give me a sense of what
he is attempting to address here?
So so much has lately been about the yen weakness,
which authorities here are really trying to keep at bay
as much as they can. A lot of the speculative
trading in the currency market, and it seems like the
one sixty yen per dollar mark is really that unofficial
line in the sand of what they're trying to prevent
against it. That is really the test threshold of how
weak they're willing to let the end get or ideally
not to go beyond that. So we've had a few
suspected interventions in recent in about the past week here,
and it seems like that will definitely be a key
topic for Bessett to discuss, especially with the Finance minister
that they've been in very close contact because there are
these G seven agreements to keep your contacts abreast of
what is happening with your currencies so that you're not
labeled a currency manipulator. And also when a lot of
these interventions are carried out, it's usually done by selling
US treasuries in order to buy yet, so that's where
of course the US would have a vested interest in
how Japan is carrying out these moves.
So the other part of a stronger yen story would
obviously be a change in monetary policy. We were talking
a moment ago about inflation, and from what I understand,
real wages for Japanese workers in the month of March
rows for a third consecutive month, and I think the
numbers kind of would support the case for the BOJ
raising interest rates at the June meeting. Is that widely
expected and if we get a rate hike, is it
expected to have a meaningful impact on the currency.
So we are right now definitely expecting a hike at
the June meeting. Wouldn't say that that's because of the
wage data alone, though that definitely is a supporting factor
for it. And this is something that Uweita has you know,
at the meet that the BOJ meeting that policymakers just
wrapped up, he was a bit hesitant to send a
firmer signal that the June hike is coming. You know,
there were certainly some ways we could read into it.
You saw that the split in the vote. You know
that there were six policymakers who voted with the consensus
to hold rates steady, but there were three who dissented
in favor of raising interest rates. And also when the
bank laid out its projections for their outlook, a meaningful
increase in inflation expectations. So those two together would definitely
have signaled that there is reasonable belief that a hike
could be coming at the next meeting in June. And yes,
as you mentioned, the positive trend in real wages would
also be supportive of that.
So the elephant in the room, so to speak, when
Treasury Secretary Besant is in Tokyo is going to be
war in Iran. We know that Japan is a heavy
importer of crude oil and LNG, especially from the Middle East.
What's the feeling right now, what is the view that
people have in Japan on this conflict and what are
they having to deal with as a result of higher energy.
Cost Well, this is really one of the big reasons
why the yen is as weak as it is right now.
I mean, the other reason that you know, predated the
war and Iran is the interest rate differential, that that
US treasury yields are so much higher than Japanese government
bond yields are here, and that's also been contributing to
weakness in the end for a bit longer. But now
since Japan is such a heavy importer of crude oil
from the Middle East, that's also been weighing on the currency.
So it's really been just you know, more difficult adding
to like what's been you know, a real cost of
living increase here for the people of Japan, and that
there doesn't really seem to be much relief coming anytime
soon in that way, because the US hasn't really signaled
any interest in cutting interest rates anytime soon. If anything,
there seems to be more of a consensus growing out
of the Fed of policy makers who might be inclined
to raise interest rates as a next move. So we're
not going to get any help on the rate differential.
And even if the Bank of Japan does hike interest
rates here, there is still quite a meaningful gap to
claw that back and to help the end offset some
of this weakness.
So it's not just energy products that are imported. A
number of other resources. Is that showing up, particularly when
you look at certain areas like food that these costs
have also appreciated.
That's where, yeah, it's you know, interesting looking at different
measures of inflation here compared to what we look at
in the US, and one of them is, you know,
particularly for food prices for foods that are made with rice,
and that's really been one of the real sticking points
of where inflation has really been meaningful here.
Molly, we'll leave it there, thank you so very much,
and enjoy that temporary assignment for Bloomberg News in Tokyo,
Bloomberg's Molly Smith. We moved to China next, where the
government recently reported a surge in both the value and
the number of payment transactions from overseas visitors during the
recent five day Labor Day holiday, and that's where we
began our conversation with Kent Ju. Kent is CEO of
a Core Greater China, and he spoke with Bloomberg TV
host David Inglase and Ivon Mann.
Let me just get started if I could, with the
recent long weekend, could you give us maybe what were
the highlights for your group? What stood out to you
and equally what were the challenges?
Good morning. Indeed, the China hotels record a very strong
redpad growth over this past May holiday. While it is
that did experience the slightly softer demand in comparison with
Chinese New Year and the timming holidays. Uh, these I
would say attributed two main factors. One is this Chinese
New Year, we had a longer holiday and also a
later holiday, and this shifted the travel pattern slightly. And
number two, the air fare rise as a result of
the recent oil price increase. But nevertheless, the hotels generally
did very well as reported in other various different sources.
We are waiting for the official data in the next
couple of days, but I'm sure the picture will be
very robust.
You mentioned about the increase in jet fuel prices and
really obviously airfares have have really skyrocketed since this around
situation began. Can has it impacted anywhere your occupancy across
your hotels? Can you tell a little bit more the
impact that around more may have on the industry.
The Mini East crisis didn't really impact a Greater China
hotels performance that much, simply because Middle East is a
very small market for us. It's not on the top
ten list. It takes up a three percent of Greater
Chinese hotel revenue number two Q one and Q two
are not their traditional high travel season, so the hotel's
impact is quite a minimum.
Okay, I guess.
Can't just maybe including what we've seen so far in
the first few months of twenty twenty six, before of course,
but the war started in Iran and maybe also encapsulating
the recent weekend. Could you tell us more about where
you're seeing the growth in as far as is it
domestic travel that seems to be picking up if you
have the data on that, or are we seeing a
faster pickup in inbound travel into mainland China? Well?
Inbound extremely robust. In twenty twenty five, we saw a
thirty six percent increase for our Co hotels in Greater China,
and the first quarter of this year up until actually
end of March, we saw another increase of twenty five percent.
So this is this is a very strong sign that
China's visa free forest policy is is helping the industry
in Greater China. Number two, the leisure demound in domestic
markets is also very robust, particularly in markets in Greater China,
uh sorry, great Greater Bay Area, Sanya Yinland and also
great to for example Hong Kong and h and Going.
So these two cities literally ran full house for the
last ten ten days.
You mentioned rev PARW was actually pretty good during during
the holiday Candra, I think up until the end of
last year, rev part in China was still a negative
territory here and really, you know, underperforming a lot of
parts of the region. Do you have a sense of
demand picking up a bit more there and when you
think red Park can actually turn positive in China.
I think the love part negative rep part really was
in the mid scale and the economy scale hotels last year.
But if you look at the premium and luxury segments
actually outperformed two d twenty five. There was a five
percent to six percent of repil growth in the premium
and luxury segment. So in the Nashelle we see this
trend starting actually from Q three last year until year
to day this year. Luxury segment in particular has recorded
more than eight percent increase on you.
That was Kent ju CEO of a Core Greater China,
speaking with Bloomberg TV host David and Glaze and Vonne Mann.
I'm Derek Kristner. You can catch us weekdays for the
Daybreak Asia podcast. It's available wherever you get your podcast.
Nathan, Thanks Doug, and that does it for this edition
of Bloomberg Daybreak Weekend. Join us again Monday morning at
five am Wall Street Time for the latest on markets
overseas and the news you need to start your day.
I'm Nathan Hager. Stay with us, stop store worries and
global business headlines are coming up right now.