a string of scandals. governorhawkish tone, patel increasingly concerned over inflation. the big story we have been following is the market reaction launches.issile we talked about seoul, the yen. >> the market was in a holding pattern and then you see these attacks and we are getting sharper market reactions. let's take you through that. this is reflecting uncertainty on president trump's policies. this is only two days after the gas attack in syria. before that there was excepted by president trump that bashar al-assad's rule would continue. gold reversing two days of , thes, spiking at 1264 highest level this year.

japanese yen giving up earlier losses to gain strength. .33ting close to that 109 level. that is a 50% retracement. the highest against the dollar since november. oil past $66 a barrel. syria is not a big oil producer but this means it could signal escalation in the region. that is why having investors nervous right now. we are seeing continued momentum gathering and the risk of sentiment. you can see it in u.s. treasury yields. they have studied for a while in this year. it broke the range as soon as we got reports of the syria attack. it fell as much as 228. this is a key level we had not

seen bridged in some time since the november election of president trump. given the 10 year yields have seen that double, this technically could mean we would see yields falling as much as 175%. these moves could fade away. his attacks on syria do not have any direct impact on the market. bloomberg strategists are saying given all the geopolitical risks out there, we could see these market moves continuing. this is something we are keeping a close eye on. david: let's get you up to date. our top story, president trump has confirmed the u.s. missile strike in syria in retaliation for the chemical weapons attack near idlib the killed dozens of civilians. joining us live from palm beach where president trump's meeting

president xi jinping is net. bring us up-to-date. we just had a press conference from the national security advisory, h.r. mcmaster, and secretary of state, rex tillerson. they're making it clear it was an attack that crossed the line. it necessitated a response from the administration. they say russia was advised. rex tillerson in interesting language put moral responsibility for this attack at the feet of russia, which has long backed the president of syria, saying they failed to live up to their end of the bargain in 2013 when they reached a deal with president barack obama to remove it syria's chemical weapons. we are seeing the u.s. a draw a direct line between this attack and the russian president in moscow. i wonder if this rapid

and dramatic shift in u.s. policy toward syria could also give more significance to what is happening to north korea. what can we expect from that front? that is a huge priority as well. >> you have seen a lot tougher language. this is one of the more interesting undercurrents of this administration. they have drawn three red lines already in 76 days. one on north korea, one on syria, one on iran. now that the syrian regime across to that redline, you have seen this response. clearly the administration, you saw tweets from kellyanne conway, saying an action like this is not only directed at syria, it is meant to cause other governments and regimes stand up and take notice.

clearly they are hoping north korea will do so. david: absolutely. a lot of people are asking what is next. we saw an initial knee-jerk reaction. what are the democrats saying? i imagine any further action from the u.s. would require this to go through congress. >> their reaction as you would expect is pretty mixed. there had been a push for a long time for the u.s. to do this by congressman on both sides of the aisle saying if they are doing these attacks, why do we take out their air assets? something that would not involve u.s. troops. the question is what the next step is. is this a one-off action with the u.s. says, we have taken an action that has a real effect and sends a strong message, or does the u.s. look to get more

strategically involved in the longer term battle? this is a civil war going on for almost seven years. the u.s. has so far resisted. members of congress saying listen, if you want to take further action, that would need to be done in consultation with congress. shery: what will happen in terms of diplomacy in the region? when it comes to syria, it is not only about the u.s., we have russia, iran and turkey involved. turkey has moderated their stance against assad because of the kurdish rebels in syria and their own interest. what can we expect in these talks between all of these countries? region -- reason why this is one of the most complicated and foreign policy problems be doubling the world in decades. there are so many outside actors.

rexbig test coming up, tillerson goes from here to italy for a g-7 summit and then he is scheduled to go on to moscow for day of meetings with top officials, possibly including a meeting with vladimir putin. state department officials are telling us that meeting is expected to still go ahead. that trip will happen as planned. those will be difficult talks, where rex tillerson will be asked to account for the u.s. position, but also very likely will face extremely strong pushback from the russian says thet, which syrian regime was not to blame for this chemical attack. david: thanks for joining us. russians saying there will be negative consequences. to recap for viewers, about two hours ago the u.s. launched 60 cruise missile's fired into syria, targeting the shayrat

storage at an airfield, according to pentagon officials. it was a limited strike early on friday. it was at the shayrat field. that happened two hours ago. china is obviously also in the mix. shery: this coming at an important time, we have president xi jinping in the u.s. in florida trying to carry out these talks with president trump. let's cross to beijing for reaction there. tom mackenzie standing by. it is a very crucial time for these two countries, especially when it comes to china, can we expect to hear from the chinese on this one? tom: absolutely. we have yet to hear from the chinese on this. we are expecting response at 3:00 p.m. local time when they give a briefing. we are expecting a statement

that calls for an easing of tensions, a resumption of peace talks between the various parties involved in the syria conflict. take a step back and this overshadows this meeting between the two presidents. a meeting the chinese but so much effort into, that would underscore president xi standing on the stage. for that respect for the chinese it is a concern. back to syria, the chinese have been a part of the code resolutions targeting syria, including the one after the last chemical attack that was carried out by assad's regime. china along with russia block to that. china has investments in syria. nopec is invested their. signsre opposed to any

the u.s. or its allies might be trying to topple a government or leader. that toxpecting continue. mays possible president xi give a supportive stance because he is hosted by trump. and you have the example in had $20 billion worth of assets lost in the civil war there. and they had internal threats, militants in the western provinces of china, some of them have been training in syria and threatening china, as well. it is a complex issue for china. we are likely to hear the same kind of response. one place china has been involved in is north korea, supposed to figure heavily in the summit.

now that we have this ongoing geopolitical background where you have u.s. foreign-policy what very uncertain, repercussions will this have one china deals with north korea in the future, and what kind of concessions trump will ask for on this front? tom: it underscores the chinese are dealing with an unpredictable president and president trump. it likely increases the pressure we have seen put on the chinese from washington to take a stronger stance on north korea. it shows washington and president trump is ready to act. he is prepared to take military action. american said a preemptive strike on north korea is not off the table. they say the time for talking has ended, that 20 years of diplomacy has ended. the americans have said they want to see the chinese toughening these sanctions against north korea, taking a bigger step to put economic pressure on north korea.

china accounts for the vast majority of its trade, energy and food supply. we have not seen a new direction for washington, how it wants china to act on this. the fact they have taken this missile strikethe fact they havs missile strike and used it [no audio] set of scenarios, a different question, they have a huge arsenal facing north korea. the military operation there would be four more complex and dangerous. david: absolutely. he will be all over that story. back to markets, hang seng index in japan, have a look at my bloomberg right now. this spiked up unexpectedly.

the blue line is hang seng, the white line is your nikkei vix. we have seen this initial move into risk aversion. it depends on what the next steps will be our what happens next, whether or not we will see that second leg move back into the safe haven assets. david: we are seeing the nikkei very close to that 18,500 line, we last saw that in january. breaking the four month range. upsideemained on the despite the strength in the japanese yen. let's get details on markets in asia. you pointed out, we see that knee-jerk reaction. u.s. futures slumping, gold surging. 10 year yield of the lowest since september. the moves are not particularly

large. the yen rose more last monday. there are questions about trumps policy and security concerns at the u.s. china summit. the markets have been looking for a reason to sell. asian stocks set for a second a lower. one of the only gainers today, chinese stocks slinging. lower, 1/1025 down of 1% of the market close. we do have the likes of singapore, new zealand and taiwan leading the drop. shares in hong kong falling more than 1%, hovering above the 24,000 point level. these are dropping a second day. we're seeing divergence for them kospi, falling for a fourth straight day.

it had the clout of north korean risk just above that. the kospi down 2/10 of 1%. southeast asian currencies are getting less today. falling to the lowest since mid-march. we do have it up about 3/10 of 1%. 110 level. the gold up 1%, nearing a five-month high. it is driving a rally in precious metals. --h bullion having hit then the high. crude oil climbing on most 2%. taking a look at how oil has been trading, spiking above 56. syria borders iraq, opec's

second-biggest producer. syria is not a big oil producer per se. but it does increase the risk of escalation. these price gains will likely be capped. something beyond military containment, these gains may have a ceiling. david: thanks for that. let's get more on this story. here, a chief strategist thanks for coming on the program. we are supposed to be talking about north korea, china, and the u.s.. it is hard to imagine the timing was not on purpose when they were meeting in this thing happened. we're also going to be talking about how these color these talks between china, the u.s., and the north korean issue.

initial reactions? is this the wrist positioning we have seen in the first hour? >> that is normal, you always see that until people have time to think about it. the obvious reaction is oil, first of all, the price of oil going up. the yen is the usual suspect of going up. nothing special about that. i expected to dissipate over time. shery: the question is how soon? could this be different from before? before we see these kinds of moves because they do not directly impact the market, they tend to dissipate, but given the geopolitical risk right now, would this risk of sentiment last longer than usual? uwe: i do not think so, you might see a pretty positive

reaction. was told tois president xi jinping over dinner rather than being sprung at him. ifclear message by trump is, you are not going to collaborate with us on north korea, we will be forced to go in that direction. china will see it in its own interests to have some signal to the effect that they will act on north korea as well. david: as a chief strategist what is the next thing you're looking at? that makes you change your mind? things, howre two long does this last? it might give way to a more positive reaction depending on the outcome. second thing, is there a buying opportunity? my view is yes. buy korea when there

is a north korea risk right there? wouldn't this move up by the trump administration exacerbate that risk? uwe: it is a zero-sum situation. if there is a war, it is wrong. if there is not, in fact this is the first step toward a possible resolution. why not go with that? are perennially undervalued in terms of pe. there is the risk premium there. that will not come off. but it is given an opportunity to jump in. you have today's samsung's results. what is not to like? david: should i buy an index stock? uwe: i am not sure you want to do it. jump, what is wrong with that? shery: is your thinking affected by the fact we might give -- you get a new liberal administration

that is friendlier toward china and north korea? uwe: there is a possibility of a regional settlement and that is what trump will have to be looking for. there is no way of directly settling with north korea. the north koreans want a settlement with the united states. but everyone else wants a regional settlement. therefore, it is an opportunity for china, russia, the united dates, japan, south korea, to come together. that peacelly sign treaty after half a decade. david: how does oil play into it? this may or may not change the complexion of the oil price. we saw it creeping up. opec might extend the cut. $56, are you ok with these

net importers? uwe: unless we jump to something like 70, this will not be a game changer. the important thing is what happens with opec, how do they react? they can also turn this open a bit more. the russians were discussing yesterday to comply with of the opec restriction. david: they just might. uwe: under these circumstances, why do so? i do not see any good reason. shery: we are taking this move as one of risk sentiment because of these attacks on syria. if you take of the -- a look at the bloomberg, we see strengthening for quite a while. we had a slight weakness against the u.s. dollar in the last session. but with what is happening now

it is pushing to 50%/ trend, shouldent be -- should we be more bearish toward the nikkei? uwe: this will come off in terms of the immediate risk or risk aversion situation. from 115r-term trend to 110 and nothing to do with anything like this. that was more a question of what is happening to the u.s. dollar. the prediction it will weaken over the longer-term is wrong. inetary policy will continue terms of tightening and that will support the dollar. the yen will be trading around 115. and that is fine for the nikkei, it does not need anything more. we will get to the

balance sheet and rate hikes and what the tightening will consist of. back to our top story, i am former syria and israel ambassador joining us live on the phone from washington, d.c. thank you for joining us on the program. i want to get your initial thoughts on these developments. where you surprised? i think we were all surprised by the rapidity of this decision by president trump and his national security team. the basic message here that the trump administration is sending is that there are limits to the strategic restraint of president trump and his administration. they fell to that the statements they made in the last week, the administration would not be prioritizing the removal of

president bashar al-assad of syria, may have been over interpreted in damascus and by the russians and iranians, that they had a freer hand in syria. video images, the powerful images of the men, women and children, babies being a succeeded by the sarin gas attacks of the administration, that this seems to have really moved president trump. and that he decided, with his national security team, that a signal had to be sent. a very strong message had to be sent, that there are limits to any sort of horrendous freedom of action that syrians and their supporters may think they have. shery: when you are saying it is a message in a signal, i you strike,t as a one-off

or could u.s. involvement in syria continue for days and weeks ahead? that, as can predict we all have learned in our engagements going back to vietnam and afghanistan and iraq. there can always be a mission creek, and there could be further esculin tory reactions escalatory tory -- reactions. no one can answer that question. but the intent of the administration was to signal that a line has been drawn. it is interesting that president trump in his very short statement referred to the syrian refugee crisis as destabilizing our european allies, categorizing that as a primary

american interest, national security interest. ais is a significant move, significant action. it is drawing the line in the sand. it may stop, but no one can predict if there will be further action. shery: thank you so much for joining us. that was a former syria and israel ambassador. let's check on the market reaction to the u.s. attack on syria. david: an initial leg up in terms of some of these risk positions. 14, down mayben 62. risk of sentiment reverberating through commodities as well. gold prices continue to rise at the highest level this year. take a look at that spike.

japanese yen has reversed losses against the dollar. at the strongest level since november and pus pushing towarda 50%. ♪ >> it is 11:29 in hong kong, i

am yvonne man with the latest first word news. the u.s. has launched a cruise missile strike against syria, two days after a chemical attack near idlib kill dozens of officials. two navy destroyers launched 60 tomahawk cruise missile targeting a largest. airbase, hangers, and planes. president trump said no child should ever have to suffer like the victims of that attack. it is in this vital national security interest of the united states to prevent and deter the

spread and use of chemical weapons. there can be no dispute that syria used banned chemical weapons, violated its obligations under the chemical weapons convention, and ignored the urging of the un security council. >> rex tillerson described the strike as a proportionate reaction to the gas attack. he said the u.s. and foreign partners around the world -- he noted russia's involvement in syria on president assad's side and said russia was complicit in three known gas attacks or simply incompetent. the response from the middle east has been positive. news of a strike came as the chinese president met with president trump in florida. the threat of north

korea were expected to dominate the discussion. that meeting at mar-a-lago in palm beach. news, a prominent wall street figure has raised a red flag over the state of the u.s. economy. blackrock ceo says growth is slowing, i am concerned president trump's addenda may face problems in congress. he said the u.s. is the slowest growing u.s. economy in the g7 in the first quarter. global news 24 hours a day, powered by 2600 journalists and analysts in over 120 countries. >> we are seeing red across the board. nikkei 225 coming up line -- online, up 2/10 of 1%. we have the taiwanese dollar leading the drop. southeast asian currencies,

following the lowest since march. gold up 1%. oil jumping up after the launch against syria by the united states. an update on our top story, president donald trump did inform president xi jinping personally of the syrian strike. they did inform others before they carry through, russia being one of them. russia warning before news broken made public the military action the u.s. took, this limited strike on that airbase. a lot of these chemical gases, sarin gas factories in syria. shery: you are seeing pictures of the strike taking place.

these are the first pictures of the airstrike coming from the u.s.. they are warning syria, many different parties. not just the involvement of the u.s., but russia, iran and turkey. turkey has recently moderated their position toward the al-assadn to bashar and was moving closer to russia. what happens when it comes to diplomacy with these countries will be a key priority in the hours and days to come. thed: you're looking at first pictures of those launches. destroyers, 69 tomahawk cruise missile's were launched at 4:40 syria time, just over two hours ago.

let's get more on this from palm beach florida. president trump hosting president xi jinping in florida. kevin, what is the latest? from two navy's ships launched hours ago one president trump gave the order for the tomahawks to target a syrian field. they believeield chemical weapons were deployed at earlier this week in which dozens of innocent civilians lost their lives. this was the location of the chemical attack. this is a change for president trump who has previously said he syrian president bashar al-assad should have a regime change. clearly this move was designed to send a message not only to syria, but to the world, that president trump and the united states were not going to take

lightly what happened with at the syria chemical weapons earlier this week. one message to russia, was russian notified here? sayingu.s. officials are russia was notified. secretary of state rex tillerson moments ago saying they did notify russia and other countries before they launched. they were not trying to hide it. they wanted to broadcast this was happening. they released a video footage of these 59 tomahawks deployed from those two could navy ships. but did not ask permission, they did notify russia and other countries. you have heard from both sides of the aisle and congress.

give us your key takeaways as far as reactions. republicans and democrats mostly united that this was a proportional response from this administration regarding syria. prominent democrats in the senate saying that while they believe this was a proportionate response, that addiction all action -- additional action would require approval of congress. president trump did not seek congressional approval, but house speaker paul ryan said he did notify several members of congress in both parties. kaine, a, senator tim virginia, and the running mate for hillary

clinton, said his actions were unlawful. the politics of whether or not he should have thought congressional approval will continue. most lawmakers voicing their support of what they view as a proportional response to the assad regime from president trump. when we get more details we will get them to you. u.s. futures initially down. have a look at s&p. 2339, we were as low as 2336. seven and the nasdaq, points north of that. ways, market reactions reverberating back.

10 year treasury yields breaking through that floor this year. point,e through at one we will keep you updated. let's move on to other big stories. inflation worries for the indian central bank to spring a hawkish surprise. i tightened policy with a 25 basis hike. unexpected.te we have seen this tightening bias from the rbi in the last few months. >> it was a surprise. he hiked by 25 basis points. bloomberg survey to over 50 economists and absolutely no one saw this coming.

here are the conflicts we are in. india faces a peculiar situation of plenty. the banking system has excess liquidity. clamped down on cash and the demonetization drive last year. we are seeing a surge in deficits. the hike reported was named to bring liquidity. said they would not shy away from doing over or theoperations, standing deposit facility. leading up to this, people were talking about how the money markets were not listening to the rbi. what is next? it is hard to imagine they would

go from hawkish to dovish. >> it is difficult for me to answer that. from a monetary stocks point of view, the election remains in a neutral stance. they are looking for data points to make up its mind. for the keenly watching role the monsoon rains have been playing. it could result in inflationary consequences. the second event is gsp. it will be implemented in the month of july. we do not know what type of inflationary consequences these will have. hasng said that, th erbi i will lowerrb borrowing costs.

experts believe the tone of the policy has been hawkish and they expect more data points to come before they make up their mind whether it is going up or down. the markets reacted quite strongly. they are expected to remain up in the near term. david: thank you for that. surpriset from the rbi hike. i want to point out what is happening in the commodities market, an update on oil prices. have a look at the bloomberg, a basic function. you go into the energy space. 1/3 of 1%. 1.7%, depending on one point you are looking at.

it was time for a push up for food prices. we have seen u.s. crude output increase. it has put pressure on oil prices. now that opec countries are supporting an extension of their reduction deal, we could get a leg higher. it could escalate into the region. remember it borders iraq, the second-biggest producer and opec. let's talk about samsung. they seem to have shrugged over to project higher-than-expected first-quarter profits. shery: it seems the note 7 , not having that much of

an impact on samsung. >> the prize fighter that is taken punches to the head, jay y. lee. the core product, the note to 7 catching fire and exploding, they had to recall that. they are banking on this s8, preorders today, available april 21. they are expected to ship 68 million s8 handsets. we're looking back at the first quarter, we got that guidance today from samsung this morning at the 7:00 hour in hong kong, which beat expectation. we had the operating profit at 9.9 trillion won, we were won.ting 9.18 trillion they are doing well. 7,is not because of the note

but because of chips and blips. oled screens at doing well. m 3-d memory has been doing well. they have record exports. cow,: that is their cash their margins and research and development. >> can you imagine if the note 7 had done well? david: jay y. lee appeared in court, where are we in the scandal? hearingswill be four on embezzlement charges, hiding assets overseas. we will hear more from the prosecutors as a layout evidence. it is expected to be completed at the end of may. shery: how will they revive

samsung's image? >> it has cost them more than 6 billion u.s. dollars and cost them their global lead in smartphone shipments to apple in the first quarter. it is a critical product. they have high expectations for sales. but they have to get over that blip in customer satisfaction. this was a black mark in their history and they have to restore confidence. david: that is harder. >> and they are rolling out bixby, the facial recognition. coming up, we will hear from the finance minister of indonesia explaining why the country's forecast had been revised lower. what is being dentist and relae the economy. ♪

target is not achievable? >> within the first system we will use all the policies of the , so investment will be something. there will be a level of growth. that was the indonesian finance minister with bloomberg. i want to turn your attention to dollar lira, turkish lira leading the weakness. 373.ng at it'll be interesting to see where we go when london opens up. we will show you we are still

trading very much in the tokyo space. when the green box comments to play. shery: the turkish lira weakening. we have an interview with the philippine finance secretary. ♪ david: welcome back, we spoke

with the philippine finance secretary to talk about the plans for tax reform when it comes to individuals and corporate. listen in. >> our program is very ambitious, we want to lower the income tax rates he goes they are higher than our neighbors. we want to bring down our personal income tax from 32% down to 25%. increase thent to amount of reductions the population will have.

on the other hand, we will increase taxes on fuel and automobiles. adjustede not been since 1997. >> when it comes to tax invaders, how do you plan to do that? there was a highly successful tax amnesty program, generating billions and it additional revenue. is that part of your strategy? will show the population we will go after the tax invaders. -- evaders. theave filed a case, largest tax case filed in recent years. there are taxes on cigarettes.

the first lawsuit for roughly $200 million. >> what will you do? >> we will file more cases because there is more evidence. there are more cigarettes that are untaxed. we will go after big ticket items in the power area. would you go after money stashed in other countries the way indonesia did? >> as a second step. we will most likely come up with tax.ar facts -- tax amnesty will not work unless they believe you can go after them. you have to show this government means business and it is the political will to stop tax evasion. then we will design a tax

amnesty, most likely very similar to the one they have devised. >> will your tax reform package be implemented? we are confident that by sometime shortly after june, the legislature will pass the first package we have. relating to personal income taxes and fuel taxes and automobile taxes. the second package, which we will submit by october, will be the tax package where we reduce the tax rates for corporations from 30% to 25%, more in line with the others. we will also review fiscal incentives that we are provided. -- providing.

syrian rebels saying u.s. attacks destroyed 14 jets. david: we will haveve reactionso all of this and coverage. ♪

♪ anchor: striking syria, the u.s. launches missiles after the gas attack president trump called an affront to humanity. pres. trump: it was in this vital national security interest of the united states to prevent and the terror the spread and use of deadly chemical weapons. washington says the response has been posibu