stimulus package to help the economy withstand the coronavirus pandemic. it's reported to be worth about a trillion dollars, and could include sending cheques to individual americans, and $50 billion for airlines, hard hit by travel bans. here in the uk the government said they were on a war—time footing and announced unprecented measures with more than 300 billion pounds to help businesses struggling with a drop in trade. there was also help for homeowners who may struggle to make mortgage payments. the former us vice presidentjoe biden has won the democratic party primary in florida and illinois and prepares to take on donald trump in the november election. he is also expected to defeat his main rival, bernie sanders, in arizona. more on our web site

bbc.co.uk/news and the news app. now on bbc news, live to singapore for asia business report. wall street rallies with investors liking the white house promise of a huge stimulus package. the auto industry stalls while china's factories maybe backup, —— china's factories maybe backup, —— china's factories are back up at europe's maybe closing. good morning and welcome to asia business report live from singapore. let's begin on wall street because we saw a rally overnight at last with investors reacting positively to the news that the trump administration is now

pushing for a massive stimulus package to help the us economy. let's show you how the markets ended. the dowjones ended 5% higher, only one day after losing almost 3000 points and the snp and the nasdaq both jumped almost 3000 points and the snp and the nasdaq bothjumped by more than 6%. we have more from new york. wall street is finally getting what it has wanted for week, some help from washington. the us senate, after having been absent for a number of days, finally got back to work on tuesday and is passing the coronavirus response bill. in it it will provide up to ten days of paid leave for some workers, it will provide free coronavirus testing and it will also bolster unemployment insurance. the senate majority leader made it very clear that more help is coming. we need to directly help is coming. we need to directly help american workers and families.

to face this uncertain period. in particular we are examining policy tools to put money directly and quickly into the hands of american families. the white house wants this piece of legislation to be $1 trillion economic stimulus package. all of this is good news for us financial markets but they will probably need to see the detail of the bill soon or perhaps risk another crash. so that was samir outside the new york stock exchange where investors are feeling a little more hopeful. some us major banks say the coronavirus has already triggered a global recession. they were initially saying that an economic downturn could be avoided but president trump himself has now admitted that a recession is a possibility for the united states. let's bring in monica millerfrom business reporter who has been following this story. talk us

through this dire warning from some of the big banks. goldman sachs and morning —— morgan stanley are backing up from times when they said we may be able to ride the wave on this one but it does look like a drastic slowdown. they are looking at growth now only being about 0.9% in the quarter and just for perspective on what happened last yearin perspective on what happened last year in 2019, we saw growth at 3.2%. they initially thought pie in the sky, right, 3.5% is what we could have gotte n sky, right, 3.5% is what we could have gotten prior to coronavirus. again, all of this has changed in the last 2a hours. president trump is now saying that this will be a slowdown and it will be a bad one. we also saw some disappointing numbers from china earlier in the week which is like a window into the future for the west, looking to the east in terms of productivity plummeting. so it seems that the stimulus measures that have been announced and they are not making the outlook any better? they have tried. we have cut interest rates,

injected liquidity although we did hear from the chairman of the us fed, jerome powell who said there are still some tools in the tool chest but it is just a matter of when they need to pull them out. grim outlook. thank you for that update. now we have been talking about how this outbreak is affecting the airline industry but another sector has been hit hard, auto. the lockdowns in china led to many facts during that make factory closures factories are reopening but, instead, factories in europe are starting to close. what will be the impact on industry. michelle is the head of autos at the world economic forum and she explained the ripple effect for europe given what happened in china. what we saw starting in china is that we had a slowdown in sales of about 80%. with about an equal number of percentage

slowdown in production. about 78%. that rippled through, disrupting supply lines in europe where we saw a parts shortage a few months ago. 0bviously a parts shortage a few months ago. obviously in europe we have all of the factories closing there as well. looking at china when they went into the slowdown in february, dealers had about 48 days of supply, going m, had about 48 days of supply, going in, which is healthy. we normally look at a 60 day supply. where china is right now is that they are at a whopping 444 day supply. so china still needs to work through that inventory. what is great is that we see dealerships are open and about 83% of dealerships they are beginning to open but that does not mean people are going back to buying. we still have concerns over salary so we have not seen big

pent—up demand shed in china. that will ripple through also to europe. europe obviously is a little different since about 75% of the vehicles are built to order. so europe does not carry a heavy number of days inventory. here in the us where sales are still, we have not seen a where sales are still, we have not seen a hit on sales, they are still up seen a hit on sales, they are still up but we are coming into this with 68 days supply so that will be a critical number to look at and see what a government is going to do to really help dealers carry the cost that inventory. catching up now with oui’ that inventory. catching up now with our team that inventory. catching up now with ourteam in india that inventory. catching up now with our team in india because we have some good news when it comes to ensuring the global drug supply train is getting back on track. while admits disruptions and shortages, china has begun re— exporting pharmaceutical items to india. it did not take too long for

china to start reopening those factories and sending stuff to india. absolutely. about two months, thatis india. absolutely. about two months, that is quite long if you look at, you know, the fears of global shortages that have really taken over the world a month ago but like you said, a glimmer of some good news amid all the gloom and doom and volatility in the global financial markets. several drug manufacturers as well as industry associations that i have spoken with are suggesting that china has resumed some of the export of these apis or active pharmaceutical ingredients, these are absolutely essential intermediaries for manufacturing medical drugs and those have resumed in the past ten days. they are reaching indian shores where they are being fumigated and thoroughly checked before dispatched to drug maker facilities.

checked before dispatched to drug makerfacilities. concerns checked before dispatched to drug maker facilities. concerns over global shortages had spiked, like i said, because india and china are absolutely key nodes in the global pharmaceutical supply chain. india imports about 80% of its api needs from china which it converts into generic drugs which are then exported to markets like the united states and the european union. now with china limping back to normal the and those workers getting back to factories, there is essentially some hope that those concerns can be put to rest. thank you so much for that update. a new report has found that update. a new report has found that when it comes to cities with the highest cost of living, it has been a 3—way tie between singapore, hong kong and osaka which has already toppled paris from the top spot. the report measures inflation rates and the price of a basket of goods including things like milk,

bread and toilet paper. but now with panic buying occurring across the globe, the fears are that the cost of daily necessities could drive up even further. 0ur reporter says it could go the other way. my expectation is that the cost of living will face some downward pressure over the next few months. 0n pressure over the next few months. on one hand some of the supply chain disruptions will put pressure on the price of goods but now with that virus going global, we now have a very big demand and structure effect where quarantine measures all around the world so that lack of buying power that we expect to see globally over the next month or two, that will put downward pressure on the price of non—essential goods such as restau ra nt price of non—essential goods such as restaurant meals and retail and those downward pressure is going to dominate over the next few months. now to other news, amazon says it

will only receive vital supplies at its us and uk and other european warehouses in order to free up inventory space for medical and household goods. they say it has seen a spike in online shopping from consumers who are staying at home. let's have a look at the market before we go. the japanese market is 110w before we go. the japanese market is now up by almost 2% after the rally that we saw on wall street. meanwhile in hong kong the hang seng is lower and it is a mixed picture this morning on asian markets. thank you for watching. this is bbc news. the top stories this hour: deserted restaurants, empty bars — the chancellor promises 330 billion pounds of support including government backed loans, and a business rate holiday for those hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic. (00v)as millions of britons stay at home for what could now be months — there's a mortgage payment holidays for those

as millions of britons stay at home for what could now be months — there's a mortgage payment holidays for those who are struggling. the foreign office has made the unpredecented decision to advise against all non—essential travel to anywhere in the world. it said countries could shut their borders with no notice in response to the pandemic. the european union has banned non—eu citizens from entering for thirty days, uk citizens are unaffected. here's our transport correspondent, tom burridge. confusion and a very long wait at marrakesh airport. we've just been in a five—hour long queue. as people like amir try to get home. i've got to the front of the queue and they've said there are no flights. they won't tell us any more details. they don't know any more details. they don't know when they're going to get us to the uk. they don't know when the flights are going to be. they've told us to just wait in the airport. all flights scheduled to leave morocco have been suspended. so it is a scramble to get

on rescue flights back to britain. my name is beth, i am a uk citizen currently stuck here in morocco. beth is unclear when she will get back to herjob in the nhs. we have been told we will get a rescheduled flight for april, that is no good, we do not know how this pandemic is going to pan out and we need to get home and they have a duty of care to get us home. we will do everything in our power. the government says repatriating most people is down to airlines. fco teams around the world are working urgently to ensure that governments have sensible plans to enable the return of british and other travellers and crucially, to keep borders open for sufficient periods to enable returns to take place on commercial flights whatever that is possible. in cusco, and other parts of peru, british tourists like lauren are stuck. i cannot get out of peru, they've cancelled all flights to get out of peru. the country is in lockdown. it's very scary, mainly for the fact that if it's just a 14—day lockdown,

it's not pleasant, but we can get over it. but then it's not knowing what's going to happen and the fact we can't leave the hostel. stephen is in the capital, lima. we're worried about potential social unrest, we don't have any food, we're going to go to a supermarket shortly. we're young and healthy but of course we are also worried about what would happen if we get sick. tom burridge, bbc news. much more you —— much more for you on all the news on our website. reach me in the team on twitter. coming up right now, sport today. hello, i'm maz farookhi, and this is sport today,

live from the bbc sport centre. as coronavirus continues to impact around the world, we will bring you the latest on global sporting events. the men's european championship is one of the latest major tournaments to be postponed. uefa says football needs to show responsibility. there will be no play on the men's us golf tour till mid—may at the earliest. that is after the postponement of the us pga championship. and one of the biggest names in the nfl seeks a fresh start. after 20 years and six super bowls, tom brady has confirmed he is leaving the new england patriots. hello, welcome along. the global sporting calendar continues to be dominated by disruptions because of the coronavirus pandemic, with europe's major football tournament, the men's european championship, the latest to be moved. it has been postponed by a year untiljune 2021. uefa confirmed the news on tuesday, saying it wanted to avoid placing any unnecessary pressure on national public services of its 12 host nations.

but it does now cause fixture congestion next year,