five major economies reporting business sentiment today, japan already in and the figures are dire. and the plight of the gig worker. we go to san fransisco to follow the struggles of some workers caught in the vortex of the virus crisis. today we will get the first snapshot of the damage done to the global economy by the coronavirus outbreak. five of the world's largest economies will release preliminary so called pmi figures. that stands for purchasing managers index. japan the first one to report its services pmi, and it's the lowest number since the survey started in 2007, at 32.7.

anything below 50 indicates a contraction. and the other countries — the us, the eurozone and the uk — also expected to show a marked deceleration in business activity this month. a sentiment shared by the international monetary fund. other countries also expected to show a marked deceleration in business activity this month. the outlook for global growth, for 2020, it is negative. a recession at least as bad as during the global financial crisis. or worse. that is the head of the international monetary fund.

to discuss this i'm joined by craig erlam, senior market analyst at oanda. good to see you. the numbers from japan are really dire. that is probably going to be the case for the other economies when they release theirs today? absolutely. we have to remember, you alluded to japan's previous number to show how stark the fall is. but is actually already falling from a pretty low figure, which was driven primarily by the sales tax hike injapan. it is one of the main reasons that country is likely to fall into recession ahead of the rest of those sharp contractions in the fourth quarter. what we are likely to see across europe and the united states is a much starker decline from one month earlier, so the numbers for europe in particular are pretty poon europe in particular are pretty poor. when it comes to month on month figures, how concerned should we be? we know this is

unprecedented times, economies worldwide are going through something that won't ever have been experienced before in recent years? so we are expecting quite bad data. in fa ct, expecting quite bad data. in fact, we are expecting extremely bad data, as you have already alluded to. you just show of the imf director telling us that we are going into recession globally this year. so i think the numbers we are expecting is not going to cause much shock and awe even if the overall headline figure is pretty dire. but what we don't want to see is a downturn worse than we were anticipating, that could cause another jolt anticipating, that could cause anotherjolt in the markets to really shot people. let's face it, if you look at the forecasts we are getting right now, they range quite a lot, because people are still trying to weigh up just how severe an impact this coronavirus has had. and it is extremely difficult to tell because we are very much in uncharted territory. just give us your ta ke territory. just give us your take on the financial markets today? in asia, looking out the numbers, they are bouncing

quite significantly compared to heavy losses. yet last night on wall street we saw the down by quite a bit. give us your take on the last 2a hours? quite a bit. give us your take on the last 24 hours? yeah, so, in the last 24 hours we have had a massive monetary stimulus package from the federal reserve, the central bank in the us. everybody nowadays knows about oe, the bond buying programmes comedy whatever it ta kes programmes comedy whatever it takes actions from central banks to try to support the economies. the fed is now an open ended, unlimited quantitative easing. this is unprecedented, they have never done this before, even during the financial crisis. they have announced a number of other stimulus measures, really throwing the kitchen sink at the situation and going beyond where they have gone before, sending a strong signal as to how just they view this situation and how dire it is. we saw a bounceback in the markets this morning, reversed yesterday. whether this will be sustained, you could toss a coin at this point. these markets are incredibly volatile, incredibly wild and

therefore very hard to predict. craig, thanks for getting up so early, we will see you again, i'm sure. the reliance on gig workers to make deliveries or drive essential workers to their roles is increasing as cities and countries across the world implement quarantines. many of these workers rely on hourly income and can't afford to take off, even if it risks their health. san francisco is one us city that has ordered to shelter in place. zoe thomas is there with more. streams of customers at the grocery, as citizens stock up for a lockdown. but not all shoppers are here for themselves. an army of gig workers has been buying groceries and delivering them to customers unable or too scared to come out themselves.

i delivered to a senior yesterday who barely had her door open they are allowing packages to be dropped at the door. mover and with an ounce of paid sick leave the workers. but it may be too little, too late. gig economy workers a lower wage in general, especially people the service industry. they have

lots of contact with the public. if people are afraid of losing income. they work sick, and are more likely to transmit those infections. for some gig workers, this risk is too high. ijust decided i can no longer keep driving. the final straw for me was my last passenger yesterday was getting dropped off just next to yesterday was getting dropped offjust next to a hospital but as we were pulling up, and i thought that's where he was going, even though i had no reason to think you might be ill in any way, it was too much for me. steve greg has been a rideshare driverfor for me. steve greg has been a rideshare driver for three yea rs rideshare driver for three years and given more than 16,000 rides. with a lung condition, he knows he is at higher risk for contracting covid—19. higher risk for contracting covid-19. while i could catch it going down the street or in a new environment, i am it going down the street or in a new environment, iam in it going down the street or in a new environment, i am in a very vulnerable environment inside a car. the decision to

quit big working is not a choice everyone can or will make. zoe thomas, bbc news, san francisco. let's talk about one company that has been bucking the trend. shares of softbank have been soaring tokyo this morning. this follows the tech conglomerate announcing it would buy back up to 2 trillion yen, or $18 billion, worth of shares. lets's go to mariko oi, who is following the story from our asiua business hub. nice to see you. what is happening with softbank, wasted buying back so much of its own stock? it is partly because of the coronavirus outbreak, but caused it stock to fall sharply

about the last couple of weeks. over the last couple of days, they jumped today by over the last couple of days, theyjumped today by 20%, but is after they rose 19% yesterday. so hitting their daily limit. as you mentioned, it is because of the company's announcement it will sell about $41 billion worth of its assets, as well as a record share buyback. as i mentioned, it is partly because of collapsing share price because of the outbreak, but it is also because, you will remember its chief executive, his vision fund to invest in start—ups has hit its shares hard over the last year after some of its major bats, especially its investment in wework, has salad. that is why it has made this move, pushing up its share prices. let's get some of

the day's other news. boeing has announced that it will temporarily suspend production at a factory in the us state of washington due to coronavirus outbreak. the firm said it'll last for two weeks, but added that workers will continue to be paid during the stoppage. twitter has slashed its sales forecast and warned of ad sales decline for the current quarter due to the coronavirus outbreak. but they say there will only be a slight drop in revenue year—on—year because the pandemic has boosted user engagement on the microblogging platform. let's show you the markets. the us federal reserve, and its announcement that it is basically doing all it can to assist in terms of studying financial markets. it is buying a limited amount of assets, a drastic step. that has boosted trade in asia. looking at the

futures, indicating how europe will start, the bookmakers are predicting the ftse could open up predicting the ftse could open ‘7 predicting the ftse could open up 3% higherand across—the—board in up 3% higherand across—the—boa rd in europe up 3% higherand across—the—board in europe we could see a 3% climb. however, that didn't lift markets in the us. the dowjones and s&p 500 both down around 3%. this is bbc news, a reminder of the latest headlines: the british government has imposed strict new measures with immediate effect to try suppress coronavirus. everyone in the uk will have to stay at home, only leaving it to shop for basic needs or take exercise. strictly china has reported a new case of coronavirus in the city wuhan, ending a five—day run of no new cases. the vast majority of the 80 new cases reported across china have arrived from abroad. as part of borisjohnson's historic announcement on monday evening, all shops apart from those selling essential supplies were ordered to close. breakfast‘s tim muffett has been to south london to meet

the hairdressers being forced to shut their doors. hairdressing at a distance of two metres is impossible but for patients who are self—employed, hairdressing is their only income. it's not possible, not possible, but this kind of is this, there is no way you can do it without you leaning on the customer, there is no way you can keep your distance, it's not possible. it's just your distance, it's not possible. it'sjust one—on—one, as you can see. so in this salon in south london, patients has continued to cut hair. now she has to stop. very tough ahead. the rent is not even the most important thing now. my life first. and every other person around me. there are normally 12 self—employed hairdressers in this salon. eric the owner had been struggling on with two. the decision to shut has now been

made for him. he welcomes it.|j think we should be made to clothes, instead of just think we should be made to clothes, instead ofjust a few places close and leave you to decide where you are going to close. how worried are you for the self—employed people who cut her in this place? well, i'm very worried. literally, no—one knows what's happening, no—one knows what's happening, no—one knows what's happening, no—one knows where we are turning, where we are going. for everyone, the advice is the same, to state to meet as a pa rt same, to state to meet as a part of it all possible but for so many self—employed people and small businesses, the reality of that means no income. we just make sure we put everything away. a mile away, this salon had already decided to close ahead of the prime minister's announcement that all nonessential shops must shut. it is really tough because you don't want to let clients go, because otherwise the business will struggle but at the same time, it is very risky because you are with people so close and you are meant to be standing two metres

apart, you get clients coming in and they don't know whether they should be here or not. even though the decision has been made, what you doing? i'm coming into work in risking it and it's hard for me to clients away when it's myjob but now today, we are closing, it will be real easier. people are more concerned they will have long hair. by the time we reopen. but we had to make the decision today and we will close. i can't speak for my employees, they will get paid, but the people who are self—employed, it's worrying, really worrying times. it's not all about money, it's not all about business, it's about how to give respect to the people in this situation. down the high street, this barbershop opened 11 years ago. some who work here are employees, others work for themselves and rent a chair. owner cameron wants to help them all. safety is more important than everything else. some of them needed, they

parenting, need money for surviving. i don't want to let them down. i told them if we needed, we want money. this is not only happen to one person. it's happened to everyone. we need to help each other. a sentiment echoed in homes and on high streets everywhere. tim muffet, bbc news. it's dosh for nosh in south london where a couple have started a project which delivers food every day to critical care staff at st george's hospital. money collected from the local community is used to buy food from local shops and restaurants, and it does good whichever way you look at it. they've raised nearly $30,000 to both help the struggling restaurants, and feeds exhausted medical staff. the project was set up by husband and wife team janneke diemel and niall barrett, and theyjoin us now