Upbeat Asian markets, Prime Amazon profits and the Super Bowl squeeze

The daily briefing “FirstFT” from the Financial Times:

Asian markets were buoyed by a late rally on Wall Street, which came after upbeat corporate earnings. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was the top performer, rising 0.9 per cent – investors are betting on a rate cut from the Reserve Bank of Australia when it meets next Tuesday.

The Nikkei 225 rose 0.6 per cent in spite of new data showing that household consumption shrank more than expected and core inflation fell for a fifth straight month in December. (FT)

In the news:

Broadband blockage

The US communications watchdog’s new ramped-up definition of broadband ignores a slew of players providing slow service and and pivots Comcast into a far more dominant position. That in turn raises competition issues that could affect Comcast’s bid for Time Warner Cable. (FT)

Spotify turns up its financing

The music streaming company hired Goldman Sachs to raise $500m. The new round of financing is expected to value it at as much as $8bn and could delay its public listing. (FT)

Tencent teams up with NBA

The online gaming and social media group agreed to become the US National Basketball Association’s broadcast partner in China. It will have exclusive rights to screen matches and related programmes on its websites and mobile apps. (WSJ$)

Alibaba and Google quarterly earnings disappoint.

The two darling internet stocks lost fans. China’s Alibaba failed to impress on revenue from mobile platforms, flagged as a growth area, and profits were down 28 per cent from the year earlier. Shares tanked. Google’s quarterly earnings fell short of downbeat forecasts and raised fears of a slowdown in its search operations . The number of paid clicks it recorded grew only 11 per cent in the final three months of 2014. (WSJ$, FT)

Prime profits for Amazon

Shares in the ecommerce group rose more than 14 per cent in after-market trading when it reported a return to profit in the fourth quarter of last year. Prime drove the turnround, signing up 53 per cent more customers willing to pay for quicker shipping and a media streaming service. (FT)

Sinai bombing

Isis claimed responsibility for the attacks that killed at least 27 yesterday in North Sinai and Suez provinces. The attacks targeted a military headquarters, a government newspaper and a checkpoint. (Reuters)

Energy groups cut investment

Royal Dutch Shell and ConocoPhillips plan to make billions of dollars of cuts in response to the plunge in crude prices, which has pushed Germany into deflation. (FT)

It’s a big day for:

BT

BT reports third-quarter results today. It may reveal the details of its £12.5bnacquisition of EE, the UK’s largest mobile group, and will be questioned on its intentions to bid in the forthcoming auction of rights to show Premier League football games. (FT)

Shake shack

Shake shack starts trading on the New York Stock Exchange today. The high-end American burger chain priced its high-end shares at more than 15 per cent above the top of its range to value the company at more than $745m. (FT)

The US economy

The first estimate of GDP for the final quarter of 2014 is expected to show a healthy 3.2 per cent annual growth, after a 5 per cent surge the quarter before. Here are the five things to watch to see where the underlying strength is and where the economy goes from here. (WSJ$)

Food for thought:

A credit-fuelled construction binge is threatening China’s growth. (FT)

That Oxfam report on the wealth gap

Justin Wolfers points out that instead of saying the richest 80 people in the world own as much wealth as the poorest half of the entire planet, Oxfam could have said that the world’s richest 80 people own 0.7 per cent of global wealth because 3.5bn people have no wealth at all . Solving global poverty, he says, is not simply a question of persuading that small handful of rich people to share. Vauhini Vara argues that while critics may be right in pointing out the flaws in Oxfam’s report, they’re missing its pointabout the unequal distribution of wealth. (NYT, New Yorker)

Avenging revenge porn

A Pittsburgh law firm has set up a project to fight for victims of a form of online harassment that involves posting sexually explicit material online without their consent. The harassment is often done by a former partner or spouse. Unfortunately, to bring a federal copyright lawsuit, the victim needs to publicly register the video or photo that they would rather no one could see. (NYT$)

Super Bowl Squeeze

Unlike previous years when ticket prices eased in the last week, they have surged ahead of Sunday’s game and there are fewer tickets available. This hassqueezed scalpers who are scrambling to buy up tickets and fill their orders. (Bloomberg)

Super Mario Inspiration

From Super Mario to the influence of Miyazaki on Disney films, Japanese culture has taught the rest of the world that playtime doesn’t end when you get a job – that’s the time you have the cash to enjoy it properly. (The Spectator)

Video of the day:

Boko Haram and the Nigerian poll

Nigeria overtook South Africa as the continent’s largest economy almost a year ago but now it faces a financial crisis and the threat of Boko Haram. The FT discusses the challenges coming ahead of next month’s election.

This article is published in collaboration with The Financial Times. Publication does not imply endorsement of views by the World Economic Forum.

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Author: FirstFT is the Financial Times’ editors curated free daily email of the top global stories from the FT and the best of the rest of the web.

Image: A man looks a screen outside a United Overseas Bank branch in Singapore’s financial district. REUTERS/Vivek Prakash.