# UAE Quits OPEC as War Upends Oil Markets, TDK Earnings

An episode of [Bloomberg Daybreak: Asia Edition](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1663863437), 29 Apr 2026, 16 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/58e85be7-dbb5-4043-afed-af80014dc0b3/308c8b99-c394-4c5c-bdd3-b43b001af739/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=27143354-63aa-4ac5-965d-af80014dc0d3

The United Arab Emirates will leave OPEC next month, in a significant blow to the group that raises questions about its future at a time when the industry is grappling with the massive supply disruption caused by the Iran war. We heard from Hartmut Issel, UBS Wealth Management Head of APAC Equities and Credit speaking to Bloomberg's Shery Ahn and Haidi Stroud-Watts And - Japanese electronic components maker TDK posted 4th quarter sales and operating profit that beat consensus, but the full year outlook fell short of the average analyst estimate. TDK CEO Noburo Saito spoke to Bloomberg's Shery Ahn. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:02] Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, Radio News.
[0:11] Speaker 2: Welcome to the Daybreak Asia Podcast. I'm Dan Schwartzman. Doug
[0:15] Speaker 2: Prisner has the week off Asian stocks open lower after
[0:18] Speaker 2: tech led sell off at Wall Street as concerns mounted
[0:21] Speaker 2: over returns from the billions spent on artificial intelligence ahead
[0:24] Speaker 2: of a slew of megacap company earnings elsewhere. The United
[0:27] Speaker 2: Arab Emirates will leave OPEC next month, in a significant
[0:30] Speaker 2: blow to the group that raises questions about its future.
[0:33] Speaker 2: The UAE's exit may first after six decades of membership,
[0:37] Speaker 2: is the latest indication of how the conflict is reshaping
[0:39] Speaker 2: global energy markets. That's where we begin the conversation with
[0:43] Speaker 2: hartmtt Issel Hartman is the head of APAC Equities and
[0:46] Speaker 2: Credit at UBS Wealth Management. He spoke to Bloomberg's Sherry
[0:50] Speaker 2: On in Heidi Shroud Watts.
[0:51] Speaker 3: In a world of unprecedented events, we can sort of
[0:55] Speaker 3: expect to see anything happen, right, the dislocation that continues
[1:00] Speaker 3: happen in energy markers both structural. With this UAE announcement,
[1:04] Speaker 3: how does it sort of inform investing, particularly in the
[1:07] Speaker 3: energy space.
[1:11] Speaker 4: I would actually agree it's a bit difficult to make
[1:13] Speaker 4: a connection between what but we just said on the
[1:16] Speaker 4: opex side and that there is a direct impact on
[1:19] Speaker 4: the markets, So I wouldn't go that far. And and
[1:22] Speaker 4: in terms of the straits and will it be open,
[1:24] Speaker 4: will it not be open? Or when it I think
[1:25] Speaker 4: the question is more when, because I would still argue
[1:28] Speaker 4: with both sides have an incentive to bring it to
[1:31] Speaker 4: a close. I in the US we all know it's
[1:33] Speaker 4: a couple of months out yet, but as a mid
[1:35] Speaker 4: term election, but also the Iranian side that you could argue, now,
[1:38] Speaker 4: higher prices are good, but you still have to bring
[1:40] Speaker 4: it out. You have to get export revenues. So yeah,
[1:43] Speaker 4: ultimately anti talks are going on, so one should as
[1:46] Speaker 4: a base case assume that, yes, also also that that
[1:49] Speaker 4: flow comes back not in six month or twelve months,
[1:52] Speaker 4: but but much earlier than.
[1:53] Speaker 3: That if you take a look at the broader markers.
[1:58] Speaker 3: We're also saying, again in this sort of boored into
[2:02] Speaker 3: tech and AI, that entire universe circle back to these
[2:06] Speaker 3: concerns that the spending the kapex may not actually pay off.
[2:11] Speaker 3: Where do you sit in the broader scheme of things
[2:14] Speaker 3: as to how invested you want to be in the
[2:17] Speaker 3: AI story At the moment.
[2:21] Speaker 4: What we're saying is that, you know, unlike maybe the
[2:23] Speaker 4: last three years, AI is still one game in town,
[2:26] Speaker 4: but arguably not longerly no longer the only game in town. Right,
[2:31] Speaker 4: So what do I mean by that? I would say
[2:33] Speaker 4: since the third quarter last year, already we see other sectors,
[2:36] Speaker 4: especially also in the S and P also contributing much
[2:39] Speaker 4: more than they have over those three years towards earnings growth.
[2:42] Speaker 4: And so therefore we're seeing not that the A side
[2:45] Speaker 4: goes goes negative. I think over the next couple of
[2:47] Speaker 4: days and especially tonight, in fact, we will see the
[2:50] Speaker 4: big hyperscalers with very strong and our very strong numbers
[2:54] Speaker 4: on cloud demand. So that tells you no shortage of
[2:59] Speaker 4: demander section. That's the important part. But outside that, things
[3:02] Speaker 4: like maybe even healthcare very different sector, very different beta.
[3:06] Speaker 4: But if you mix these up together, that's probably a
[3:08] Speaker 4: good strategy for investors.
[3:13] Speaker 1: Harman, how much of the conversation is also going to
[3:15] Speaker 1: get her towards Central bank week? I mean, we do
[3:18] Speaker 1: have the F ONEC now expected to hold. We have
[3:21] Speaker 1: seen the Bank of Japan hold given all of the uncertainty.
[3:25] Speaker 4: Yes, in our view, maybe it's a bit outside consensus.
[3:30] Speaker 4: Some must say that we have firm conviction that actually
[3:33] Speaker 4: the market is overpricing how aggressive the central banks, or
[3:37] Speaker 4: let's say the two big ones be and I at
[3:39] Speaker 4: least they have come back in terms of pricing for
[3:41] Speaker 4: the for the Fed right, maybe slightly down, we say,
[3:45] Speaker 4: not unsurprising if they if they show us two cuts
[3:48] Speaker 4: for the remainder of this year, they wouldn't surprise us.
[3:51] Speaker 4: And also the easy be maybe the long cut. We
[3:53] Speaker 4: think they're finished. But also what the market prices, and
[3:55] Speaker 4: in terms of upside on the on the rates, we
[3:59] Speaker 4: don't think that's actually very plausible. And that being the case,
[4:03] Speaker 4: we say, especially also maybe a bit more on the
[4:05] Speaker 4: short term bonds. There's good opportunities to enter at these
[4:08] Speaker 4: relatively high levels of you we think right.
[4:11] Speaker 1: Now, yeah, tell us a little bit more about that,
[4:15] Speaker 1: because if central banks have no other choice than be
[4:18] Speaker 1: a little bit more hawkis this time around, given theainstranty
[4:21] Speaker 1: from the Iron War, does that mean more pressure on
[4:23] Speaker 1: broader government debt.
[4:28] Speaker 4: Look, I put myself in the shoes of a central
[4:30] Speaker 4: banker maybe for a moment. The way I would think
[4:32] Speaker 4: about it, it's not the usual scenario. We have a
[4:34] Speaker 4: booming economy. Everybody produces a lot and oil prices also
[4:38] Speaker 4: go up. Therefore you have to cool things down of it.
[4:40] Speaker 4: This is an oil shock. So when you have an
[4:43] Speaker 4: oil shock, you already have basically something that that thems
[4:46] Speaker 4: the economic growth. Do you want to put something even
[4:49] Speaker 4: more than in the shape of rate hikes? Do you
[4:52] Speaker 4: want to put that on top of it? You have
[4:54] Speaker 4: to think twice. So obvious stands, especially for the fat man.
[4:58] Speaker 4: I'm probably going to go down this year.
[5:02] Speaker 3: I wanted to ask you about some of the opportunities
[5:04] Speaker 3: you prefer in Asia. Interestingly, in Australia is one of them.
[5:08] Speaker 3: It's often seen it's quite a defensive market. Having said that,
[5:11] Speaker 3: we're seeing the biggest losing run for stocks since twenty
[5:14] Speaker 3: twenty two. I think where on set for a seventh
[5:17] Speaker 3: session of losses today?
[5:19] Speaker 1: Where do you find the opportunities here?
[5:24] Speaker 4: Yeah, I find in general, let's say Apec region I'm
[5:28] Speaker 4: thinking about for this year, I'm thinking about three drivers.
[5:31] Speaker 4: One is Ai. Then you look at the north and
[5:32] Speaker 4: you look in terms of application, you maybe you look
[5:34] Speaker 4: at China. That's so there's some some interesting pockets there.
[5:39] Speaker 4: Then there is maybe call it value ups. So you're
[5:43] Speaker 4: you're Singapore, and also you're Japan, and then it's what
[5:47] Speaker 4: I call sort of previous earnings laggers that are coming back,
[5:50] Speaker 4: and the next two maybe India, maybe especially also Indonesia.
[5:53] Speaker 4: I would say Australia is also one of these markets
[5:55] Speaker 4: where we see very clearly for this calendar year, you're
[5:59] Speaker 4: talking about higher earnings growth than you have in the past.
[6:02] Speaker 4: So that's one of that category laggards coming back Australia
[6:07] Speaker 4: belongs to today.
[6:10] Speaker 3: Tell us a little bit more about your calls on
[6:12] Speaker 3: China obviously being seen as one relatively ring fenced from
[6:15] Speaker 3: the broader energy crisis into much more accelerated when it
[6:19] Speaker 3: comes to the grain transition, right, are those spaces where
[6:22] Speaker 3: you'd be looking at or are you looking at sort
[6:24] Speaker 3: of the broader economic recovery story with the consumer story
[6:27] Speaker 3: as well.
[6:30] Speaker 4: Yes, certainly as an equity analyst, I look at the
[6:34] Speaker 4: MSCI China, I look at the equity index for example,
[6:37] Speaker 4: where it can make money. And we have to remember
[6:41] Speaker 4: China's index it has about fifty percent on the on
[6:45] Speaker 4: the tech side, so even more than the US, if
[6:47] Speaker 4: you will, And so what I'm looking at pretty much
[6:50] Speaker 4: like we're also looking for for the hyperscalters, how is
[6:53] Speaker 4: the end demand for airs? So as expressed by by
[6:56] Speaker 4: cloud revenue growth? Right, and here we have seen in
[6:59] Speaker 4: the last fifty we have seen an extreme exit. I
[7:02] Speaker 4: have to call it extreme acceleration, especially on the big names.
[7:06] Speaker 4: Right They're giving you double digits, in some cases over
[7:09] Speaker 4: thirty percent growth. That's not going to go away. So
[7:12] Speaker 4: I think the market is pricing different things right now.
[7:16] Speaker 4: But as that part grows over the next maybe twelve
[7:18] Speaker 4: months or so, it will come back and say this
[7:20] Speaker 4: is actually how one of the value these stucks. They're
[7:22] Speaker 4: not expensive. That is a key driver for the Chinese market.
[7:26] Speaker 2: That was hartmtt Issel, head of APAC Equities and Credit
[7:28] Speaker 2: at Ubs Wealth Management, speaking to Bloomberg's Heidi Shroud Watson
[7:32] Speaker 2: Sherry on Welcome Back to the Daybreak Asia podcast on
[7:42] Speaker 2: Dan Schwartzman. Doug Risner has a week off we go
[7:45] Speaker 2: to earnings. Japanese electronic components maker TDK posted fourth quarter
[7:49] Speaker 2: sales and operating profit that be consensus, but the full
[7:53] Speaker 2: your outlook fell short of the average analyst estimate. We
[7:56] Speaker 2: heard from the CEO Nobudoscito, and he spoke to Bloomberg's
[7:59] Speaker 2: scherryon following the company's results.
[8:02] Speaker 1: How much of the growth in the quarter was driven
[8:05] Speaker 1: by the components around artificial intelligence?
[8:08] Speaker 5: Yeah, actually, as you just mentioned that, you know, major
[8:12] Speaker 5: contributor you know was kind of how this drive you know,
[8:15] Speaker 5: for data center for example, and also like smart phone production.
[8:20] Speaker 5: Part of the smart smart phone is getting into the
[8:23] Speaker 5: like a smart phone. So our key components who had
[8:27] Speaker 5: this drive and also like smart phone contributed to a
[8:30] Speaker 5: major extent to our desert.
[8:31] Speaker 6: That's fisical term.
[8:32] Speaker 1: We have mega cap tech earnings, like a quarter of
[8:35] Speaker 1: the S and P five hundred market had reporting this week.
[8:38] Speaker 1: Do you expect all of that capex spending to continue?
[8:42] Speaker 1: I mean that would have to make a big difference
[8:44] Speaker 1: in your results as well.
[8:47] Speaker 5: Right right, I think this up trend you know will continue,
[8:52] Speaker 5: you know, not only short term was O media long term? However,
[8:55] Speaker 5: the degree degree may you know, change, But what I
[8:58] Speaker 5: want to emphasize is that up trend is going to continue,
[9:02] Speaker 5: that's for sure.
[9:03] Speaker 1: Why the degree?
[9:05] Speaker 6: Why the degree? Yeah, yeah, that's right, I.
[9:06] Speaker 1: Mean why the degree will vary and how.
[9:10] Speaker 5: It depends on the you know, the investment you know,
[9:13] Speaker 5: from each all the data companies right that you know
[9:18] Speaker 5: total you know, uh, total of this investment against the
[9:22] Speaker 5: actually you know possible kind of growth. There may be
[9:25] Speaker 5: a kind of some some gap. That's what I'm pointing out,
[9:29] Speaker 5: that that degree may change. However, this trend is going
[9:34] Speaker 5: to continue.
[9:35] Speaker 1: We are seeing also a little bit of a of
[9:38] Speaker 1: an issue in the smartphone side of things, especially with
[9:41] Speaker 1: membership prices continuing to go up. A lot of it
[9:43] Speaker 1: because those investments were geared towards advanced ships. Exactly exactly
[9:49] Speaker 1: will that affect your business?
[9:50] Speaker 6: Yeah, to some extent.
[9:52] Speaker 5: And we have reflected that kind of memory chip shortage,
[9:56] Speaker 5: like especially in I C T products like smat form,
[10:00] Speaker 5: and we are kind of estimating that the smart phone,
[10:03] Speaker 5: like a production of this fisical term, our physical tomb
[10:06] Speaker 5: will be ten percent les oh right right, yeah, yeah,
[10:11] Speaker 5: that's what we We are estimating that kind of trend. However,
[10:16] Speaker 5: the impact you know, in the smartphone area mainly be
[10:20] Speaker 5: in a lower kind of end smart phone. The high
[10:24] Speaker 5: end smart phone, we don't see a kind of a
[10:26] Speaker 5: huge impact.
[10:27] Speaker 6: That's how we see that trend of.
[10:30] Speaker 1: This fisical time like Apple for example, to whom you supply,
[10:34] Speaker 1: we are expecting an incoming CEO John turn Is, do
[10:37] Speaker 1: you have any views as having a hardware head really
[10:41] Speaker 1: leading Apple into the new era? Does this signal perhaps
[10:45] Speaker 1: more focused on hardware. Does that sort of help with
[10:48] Speaker 1: your vision of what sort of parts you could supply
[10:51] Speaker 1: as well?
[10:52] Speaker 6: Yeah?
[10:52] Speaker 5: Actually, Appra is the company who you know, which has
[10:55] Speaker 5: been driving always technology innovation and so on, and that
[10:59] Speaker 5: trend I believe it's going to continue.
[11:03] Speaker 1: We've seen, of course the supply chain disruptions already by
[11:07] Speaker 1: the war in Iran? Is that having an impact in
[11:10] Speaker 1: your business?
[11:11] Speaker 6: Yeah, to some extent.
[11:12] Speaker 5: However, in short term we will't see a kind of
[11:15] Speaker 5: significant impact, but we are carefully watching or paying our
[11:19] Speaker 5: high attention to that, like you know the material from
[11:23] Speaker 5: Nata Nata kind of solvents for example, is that kind
[11:27] Speaker 5: of you know, we are we are, we are in sourcing,
[11:30] Speaker 5: so that's what we are paying our highest essential to this.
[11:33] Speaker 5: And due to this supply of course price to some
[11:36] Speaker 5: extent that we have also deflected into the our this
[11:40] Speaker 5: new physical term kind of earning.
[11:43] Speaker 1: Are you going to have to change pricing as well?
[11:47] Speaker 6: Our price?
[11:49] Speaker 5: Our price is a slightly different topic that we have
[11:51] Speaker 5: many other coastal structure right but our you know, direction
[11:55] Speaker 5: is that that to provide a kind of appropriate price
[11:59] Speaker 5: to our customers.
[12:01] Speaker 1: When you're seeing these supply disruptions, does that mean that
[12:04] Speaker 1: you're using the stockpiles that you already have or are
[12:07] Speaker 1: you trying to diversify? What does your timeline look like
[12:11] Speaker 1: from here on now?
[12:12] Speaker 5: Not only you know, kind of oil related, the kind
[12:15] Speaker 5: of materials, So we have several other materials they are
[12:19] Speaker 5: out on the et cetera, et cetera, that we have
[12:21] Speaker 5: already started kind of diversifying sources.
[12:24] Speaker 6: Right, that's what we are. We are paying our higher.
[12:26] Speaker 5: Stattation to mitigate our risk, especially but also a long
[12:31] Speaker 5: term because China's export restrictions for example on where earth
[12:35] Speaker 5: is continued, right.
[12:36] Speaker 1: What's the pace of approvals at this point approval yes,
[12:40] Speaker 1: for the rare earth materials to be sent to suppliers.
[12:43] Speaker 5: Actually, you know, we are we keep communicating, of course,
[12:48] Speaker 5: but at the same time that as I mention, that
[12:50] Speaker 5: we keep kind of divers frying to mitigate such a risk.
[12:55] Speaker 6: Kind of part of the action we are taking.
[12:57] Speaker 1: At what point does it start hurting?
[13:00] Speaker 5: In short term we don't see any you know, significant impact,
[13:04] Speaker 5: but we are always looking that from long term point
[13:07] Speaker 5: of view. That's why we have started already taking action, like.
[13:10] Speaker 1: What certifying the sources towards where.
[13:16] Speaker 5: Depend on the material depending, yeah, several materials.
[13:20] Speaker 6: You know, you know, we we are taking care. Therefore,
[13:24] Speaker 6: let's talk.
[13:24] Speaker 1: A little bit about your batteries business as well. Of course,
[13:27] Speaker 1: we have seen a little bit of a slowdown on
[13:28] Speaker 1: that market. Do you expect that to pick up? Especially
[13:31] Speaker 1: given seasonality issues are not.
[13:34] Speaker 5: Actually seasonality as I mentioned that throughout this fasical term,
[13:38] Speaker 5: we have to estimate kind of you know, uh, demand
[13:41] Speaker 5: down because of the you know memory shortage, right, oh yeah,
[13:45] Speaker 5: like a smart one. As I told you, like, we
[13:47] Speaker 5: are expecting temper set down right that to some extent
[13:52] Speaker 5: impacting right that our business however, that were also you know,
[13:56] Speaker 5: keep developing our new high end kind of batteries to
[14:00] Speaker 5: try to you know compensate such kind of.
[14:03] Speaker 6: Be a downtown.
[14:04] Speaker 5: So we keep investing on the you know, R and
[14:08] Speaker 5: D is such and a development and also you know
[14:11] Speaker 5: cap access, et cetera. And I see that this memory
[14:14] Speaker 5: shortage will not be kind of years and years issue.
[14:20] Speaker 1: Will not be will not be How long do you
[14:22] Speaker 1: think you can.
[14:23] Speaker 5: It's very difficult to save you precisely. But you know,
[14:27] Speaker 5: I don't see that. It's a kind of long years,
[14:30] Speaker 5: you know, many years.
[14:30] Speaker 1: Of issue that you have a joint venture with c
[14:33] Speaker 1: at L as well. Right, how do you see the
[14:35] Speaker 1: Chinese market?
[14:36] Speaker 5: Yeah, I think Chinese for for for us, China is
[14:40] Speaker 5: one of our most important market, the biggest, big demand.
[14:45] Speaker 6: You know, we will continue to be there.
[14:47] Speaker 5: Therefore, I see that, you know, China is and will
[14:50] Speaker 5: be one of our most important markets.
[14:52] Speaker 2: That was t d K CEO Nobudocito speaking of Bloomberg
[14:56] Speaker 2: shrry on and we're bringing their conversation to you here
[14:59] Speaker 2: on the day Breakage podcast.
[15:03] Speaker 7: Thanks for listening to today's episode of the Bloomberg Daybreak
[15:06] Speaker 7: Asia Edition podcast. Each weekday, we look at the story
[15:10] Speaker 7: shaping markets, finance, and geopolitics in the Asia Pacific. You
[15:14] Speaker 7: can find us on Apple, Spotify, the Bloomberg Podcast YouTube channel,
[15:18] Speaker 7: or anywhere else you listen. Join us again tomorrow for
[15:21] Speaker 7: insight on the market moves from Hong Kong to Singapore
[15:25] Speaker 7: and Australia. I'm Doug Chrisner, and this is Bloomberg

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