♪ haidi: u.s. stocks fall for the first and four days as tech comes under renewed pressure and treasury yields hit their highest since february. commodities remain strong as opec and ellice meet in saudi arabia. washington prepares restrictions on china, march 6 hours across sensitive areas. betty: and president trump has

been told he is not a target of the mueller investigation or michael cohen inquiry. haidi: hello from cindy are we a.m. in thisd 6:00 friday's session. am julie hyman in for betty liu and will be looking at how the action and wall street will play into the asia-pacific trading day. breaking the win streak here. haidi: as you pointed out a couple of seconds ago, the conversation that took place deputy general rod rosenstein and president trump where he was given assurances that at this day she is not a target in the mueller investigation. we saw a parent with steeper losses later in the session. julie: and we saw it retraced at

those levels again. it seems the news initially has more to do with rosenstein and his position, then with trump himself. we'll talk about that in a few moments. let's get a look at how the u.s. markets did in the session. the s&p 500 pulling back at half a percent, and the dow and nasdaq -- the nasdaq taking the worst at the recorders of 1%. we are in the thick of earnings season, so contributing to the losses, some disappointing earnings reports. haidi: a mixed bag given expectations were so high going into what is expected to be a blowout earnings season. taking a look at how we are setting up in asia. you look at futures across the board for the friday session, trading in new zealand is underway and we see gains their, up a tent of 1% and the kiwi .7 270.rading at

and taking a look at where we set up in oh still yet, cindy futures at two debts of 1% rry -- and we had a pa watching out for energy and metal producers. .7728.sie dollar and west bank saying any declines should be managed while given regional risk sentiment is positive. yorkfutures lower, and new crude falling as opec producers saudi arabia on friday, concerns that with higher prices, u.s. shale is going to come back and. and also the commodity story and headlines of potentially russia is going to solve some of the supply issues that have brought

back some of the the gains we have had over the past couple of days. while the treasury department has confirmed it made cover investment from china, speaking at an investment event in washington -- an official said it is considering using emergency laws to limit chinese spending and sensitive technologies. what it sees as violations of intellectual property rights -- joe sobczyk is following this in washington. we reported about the possibility of this happening and it seems it is now officially confirmed it is being considered. what are the potential implications? joe: this would give the u.s. another tool to block investments from chinese companies are the chinese government. particularly sensitive technologies like semi conductors or 5g wireless. there's some restrictions and reviewed that will be involved in any sort of chinese investment in the u.s. for such companies. this takes it a step further and they can act misguidedly and

more quickly to block transactions or even seize property. that is one of the provisions in the law that would allow the u.s. to go forward and take back some investments that have been made in the past. julie: what does this indicate to us about how realistic it is that this will actually go into effect? there isn'tariffs, a congressional element in this case. does that make it more likely? the administration can act on its own, but keep in mind they are still talking about looking at this -- whether or not this is another bargaining tool for the u.s. to use and talks with china and giving with some of the trade issues that the president has identified. this is another pressure point the u.s. brings to bear. satisfactory, go

it will be something concrete they can do fairly quickly. just as were talking about moments ago, trump is a shifting and imports's with that mueller investigation. does this is the threat he could fire rosenstein or mueller himself? joe: it clearly does. in terms of his complaints and criticisms about the mueller investigation -- he continues to insist that there has been no collusion and nothing there. he has dropped a little bit of the threat that this could lead to some sort of crisis or confrontation with congress should he fire one or both of them. he also brought in rudy giuliani to his legal team, which probably will act as a calming influence. giuliani told bloomberg today that was there to try to get things wrapped up quickly. he knows mueller and some of the

players and has been through this before. julie: it seems rosenstein making these comments that the president seems to indicate more about rosenstein's position than trump isbout whether going to end up being a target of an investigation. him saying it is a snapshot of a moment of time, right? joe: the caveat is that at this time -- and we don't know how far along miller's investigation is and how much longer it has got to go. it can really does keep close to the vest, and has not given any indication about what other avenues he may be pursuing. as trump feels he is not a target of the investigation, that will ease pressure on rod rosenstein in his job in overseeing the investigation.

this does give him a little bit of breathing space, and probably at least until the time that mueller comes out with something more concrete, but the situation changes. it is probably status quo. , to give for your time. let's go to stocks now work earnings disappointment and semi conductors sent tech shares and consumer staples lower. that broke a three day winning streak for the s&p 500, and su keenan is here with more. su: we talk about earnings, a couple of earnings disappoint things really faltered. --sell talk about risk off we also talk about risk off, bonds were up as -- phones were down as yields rose. typically when stocks are down bonds are a true risk off her,

and you see it will take. into a safe haven bond what this could suggest is going to the sidelines. it also saw the dollar advance and the oil rally stalled. let's go to the big map verse because american express had blowout earnings, the size of the gain was substantial. and the bank of new york moving higher at 9% revenue growth and continuing it pattern of banks reporting strong growth. but apple is down in a big way. and a taiwan semi conductor, which will get into, signaling that perhaps the boom is over. let's get into the semi conductor story, the leading chipmaker for the smartphone industry says that the handset one is waning. they expect a billion less than anticipated, and across the

board you see a lot of chipmakers dropped. let's go into the bloomberg, volatile is what this is called. this is the philadelphia semiconductor index. there was a lot of moves on the plus side, you could see the size of the recent move, then significantly. r isother big decline phillip morris. you look at the today chart, it is down 18%, the lowest point. this put a blow to any gains in the market. that is so significant, and if we go into the bloomberg will losses in you see the phillip morris were across the entire sector. phillip morris basically saying cigarette demand is way down. they are also seeing the kinds in other products -- you are seeing declines and other

products. it shows that what we are going to see is a decline in cigarette makers going forward. haidi: su, they do for that. let's get to courtney collins with first world news. courtney: the world bank is excellent positive comments from the imf, saying the global economy is showing solid momentum. both institutions site growth should continue for two years, although there may be a downturn on the horizon. the bank says china will continue to be a key partner and isver and the challenge now lending through low and middle-income nations to ensure the benefits are felt by all. >> the challenge is to ensure strong growth will translate into growth so the benefits for global economic integration are enjoyed by all members of society. courtney: bank of england governor says the u.k. should

prepare for rate rises over the he hintedears, and the widely expected hikes next month is not a done deal. he's is policymakers will make their decision knowing there are more chances to act later in the year. carney also acknowledged recent soft economic data, saying that mpc will consider things in a wider context. says korean hesitant moon the north has dropped a major sticking point to a summit with united states. he says kim jong-un is not letter making the withdrawal of american troops from the peninsula a precondition for ending his nuclear weapons program. the us has almost 30,000 personnel in south korea. moon and can meet next week ahead of a potential summit with president trump in may or june. cyclist lance armstrong has reached a settlement with the u.s. government in a whistleblower law tech and rock $100 million.

the deal comes ahead of a court case involving former teammates, the performance-enhancing drugs. the government was seeking compensation from the millions spent sponsoring armstrong and his u.s. postal team after he admitted to doping. global news, 24 hours a day, powered by more than 2,700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. i am courtney collins. ♪ some breaking news crossing the bloomberg. theceo of amt step down, company saying phil make a submission to the commission to furnish services to respond to the issues that have come out in a recent testimony. servicesn regard to and yes been charged with repeatedly like to regulators.

this is a controversial report saying the council of amt ,nstructed external -- amp addressing the services of these chart scandals disrupting amp. phil make it submission to address the issue, including the topic of the report. and also to withdraw the agm resolution on the equity grant submitted for the ceo, greg ig meller to step down. still ahead, the commodities commotion. tumbleu.s. stocks take a with tech shares under pressure. we assess the risks with jb morgan as it management. this is bloomberg. ♪

haidi: getting some lights coming through and an update on the story, the chairman has been under investigation for disciplinary actions and charges -- by which beijing uses in a corruption investigation. this comes to more personnel and he is the former head of the banking regulators branch, and we see the resignation of the chairman for personal reasons. we do not there's an investigation underway against him. u.s., we aren the talking about u.s. stocks falling for the first time in four days as tech shares come under pressure. at the same time the move in treasuries is getting a lot of attention with prices sliding to

the lowest levels since february over inflation concerns. we beginon the markets to managing director at jpmorgan asset management, which altogether oversees $250 billion. thank you for coming in. it is still early in earnings season. today was an interesting one, especially with the ripple conductors a semi and what we see in terms of action in the financials in the back of their earnings. what is your assessment so far? >> we are early on in the earnings season, and one have 10% of companies reporting earnings. our estimates are close to 20% eps growth, and will percent of that is organic growth coming from and eight to 9% of that is going to be the benefit of tax cuts. ist we are watching closely what the companies and corporate

ceos actually do with those tax cuts? do they handed back to shareholders in the form of dividends or buybacks? do they plow it back to their employees in special payments in 401(k) plans? or do they do some long-term projects? the more uncertainty a seat come at the more unlikely they are to do those projects. julie: these are questions we have been wondering since taxes were announced. are we getting commentary around that on the calls from these companies? we still have to wait a little bit? to waitooks at we have a little bit more because what we are hearing right now is from the financials. the financials have seen the biggest benefit from tax cuts, and it has been a mixed bag when you look at what the police decide to do with dividends. the positive news is that they have the fundamentals coming through. there are no shortage of companies that we have heard that are making some investments

for the future. those are all positive signs for the market. julie: what about globally if you broaden beyond the u.s.? the other big factor not just here but around the world's what to be potentials for trade renegotiation. i wonder if that is going to have a dampening effect as well on things like -- not just here but in asia as well. it is an important question about anything that introduces uncertainty is want to leave corporate ceos questioning whether or not to have investments. when we look around the world, we see some great opportunities, particularly in the u.s. and emerging markets equities. --as where we still haven't areas where we still have equity. rosa think there will be a talent from emi fax.

x. they have correlated positively, so that is where we have been focusing. situation inve the an environment of volatility were emerging markets are -- theyng better than are the safe haven play, is that unusual and you expect that to be sustained? maddi: you expect that emerging markets will continue with the tailwind we have seen. member emerging markets of today are very different than the emerging markets of five or seven years ago. emerging equity markets are in technology stocks. that is different than the commodity focused. once we had before. yet the burgeoning middle class and disposable incomes and discretionary spending that is a tailwind. this act is to not just be

intermediate transport long-term cyclical trends that will be a tell went for emerging markets as that growth continues to take hold. haidi: we have been talking about if there's any fundamental shift in investment strategy, and what investors to given this seems to be a great deal of unknowns out there. a shift that we have seen in the market away from buying everything in the past couple of years, to looking more at value? maddi: while we think growth and value are important elements to consider. we always look around the world. think about where we can hedge portfolios and where we can introduce hedges. in this particular case we think it is in the fixed income space. we have paired back our exposure to credit over the last year and a half in favor of equities. more recently we have been adding duration to portfolios, because our view is that while

long yields have picked up a little bit, we think institutional investors and buyers are going to come and -- and we see this anecdotally in our business -- and tried to close the gap in liabilities by moving into cash bonds, which will be an anchor to the long end of the yield curve. we see the two-year yield popping up, but we believe that the long end of the yield curve stays anchored. like: that makes it seem what is going to happen with the flattening direction of the yield curve, do you think that will not continue and will see stabilization, if not steepening? maddi: we actually believe the flatness will continue, because the yield curve will drift higher that led by the short and. end. it is the highest since 2008, which is unbelievable. and now we are looking at an environment where the fed is

tightening, and investors are wondering whether or not they are getting value from the credit exposure that they have in investment grade and high-yield. a lot of questions around fixed income, which lead us to that risk and mitigate risk in that space, as opposed to take risk that area of the market. julie: maddi, thank you so much for coming in. we just want to bring you some headlines now having to do with valero, the oil refiner, an explosion has hit a valero refinery in a texas city. we have live pictures in texas. that theyas tweeted are aware about the explosion and the local fire department is en route to assist with putting out the fire. we do not have more information at this point, but bolero is one of the u.s.'s largest refiners and we'll see if there's any

implications for supplies. we will keep you posted on developments from that situation. that team day, and let's look at one of the top stories at the moment. trade tensions hanging over the imf meetings in washington. however, the lender's president says the global economy is showing solid momentum. may notwhile take spots severely damage growth, they are affecting confidence. we have more from washington. what has them would been like at the spring meetings this year? >> it is very upbeat here. all of the officials we have spoken to are pointing to a robust economy, shaking off the portrayed tensions. you heard a similar message today, and concern is that there will start to be a trip effect when it comes to business confidence and it will start eroding business decisions and consumer confidence the longer

these tensions drag on, and the greater the concerns will be. that is what the officials are worried about the derailment of growth. for now, i will give you one example, your australian finance ministry said it is the best mood yet seen in this meetings in the four years he has been traveling here. quite upbeat overall. are we expecting anything new in the trade debate? it feels that things can change from day to day, but on the other hand this is something that is going to go many more rounds of negotiations. enda: there is a big element of flying blind and that is not clear what negotiations are going on. there's a critical meeting tonight and tomorrow, so there may be some movement coming out of that. i would point to hawkish statements today out of washington. i heard you mention earlier that the treasury is talking about this emergency lot to curb chinese investment. that is one item that cannot today, and there is also hawkish

comments from the chief economic advisers and from the vice president of economic advisers. along the lines that the rest of the road these to band together to support the u.s. in their push against. china trade tensions. by all accounts it feels like this has a long way to go. julie: and a lot of the discussions there are behind closed doors. how much do we know about some of the key issues that have been emerging for discussions? enda: i think there is a lack of visibility. a lot of officials say they are flying blind and they don't know what the issues are, and that is why they are hard to resolve. julie: our chief asia economics correspondent running us from washington. coming up tomorrow, a special edition of bloomberg surveillance, francine lacqua and tom keene live in washington and will hear from the leaders and economy ministers, starting and:00 a.m. hong kong time

2:00 p.m. in new york. this is bloomberg. ♪

haidi: we are getting ready for the final day of trading -- going into the trading session, teachers looking negative. in most asian futures tracking the clients from wall street earlier. julie: it is 6:30 p.m. in new york and you're watching "daybreak australia". let's get the first world news with courtney collins. miller iscap ceo greg stepping down as the fund manager as he apologizes for what it calls misconduct and failures.

and admitted his leading and like the australian security regulators overcharging customers services they didn't receive. analysts say the entire board will have to step down and amp may face class-action lawsuits from investors and advisors. bloomberg's talk at president trump has been informed that he is in the target of any part of special counsel robert mueller's russia investigation. sources say rod rosenstein pulled the president he is also not involved in the inquiry into his longtime lawyer, michael cohen. the president says it is not time to remove rosenstein or mueller. >> inclusion does not exist, as far as the two gentlemen you told me about, they have been saying i am going to get rid of them for the last three months, four months, five months. they are still here. hong kong start to

affect the monetary authority to has bought 6.5 billion u.s. dollars worth of the local currency in a week after take the week and of the trading since the first time is thousand five. that could liquidity by 30%, pushing for an cost to the highest since december of 2008. and australia's finance minister says he does it pick the u.s. and china will escalate trade tensions into a full-blown war. also told bloomberg that the u.s. will be will come back to the tpp if it wants to rejoin. speaking at the imf meetings in washington, he set the world's top to economic powers will sort out their differences. >> from our point of view we are keen to ensure there is no such inc. as a trade war. we don't believe there will be a trade war. we believe some issues have been put on the table in more recent

times in particular by united states. the issues will be worked through, i'm confident things will work themselves out. global news, 24 hours a day, powered by more than 2,700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. i am courtney collins. this is bloomberg. let's get an update on how markets are shaping up. underway,d trading is and we see an upside of a quarter of 1%. at kiwi dollar trading .7268, and gaining -- a little negativity and australia energy prices and commodities wake on that sector. and not fitting that $.78

level of. more broadly we look ahead to japan's march inflation numbers that is expected to weaken, for their away from the 2% inflation target. it could help the tokyo open, and sterling trading at 1.40. carneynterview with mark suggesting the may rate hike is a done deal that could actually got back expectations and a reminder of how we close the s&p 500 with your stocks falling for the first time in four days. quite a move for the u.s. 10 year yield at 2.91. julie: let's look at commodities as well because of a mixed session with commodities. you see the bloomberg commodity index falling by half a percent. crude at present is unchanged but we saw a move downward after a big increase in prices on wednesday.

aluminum and nickel reversing recent moves. we had seen a rally and aluminum and nickel, as he saw stockpiling ahead of sanctions on russia reversing a little bit. we will talk more on crude prices in just a moment. as trading gets underway this friday in asia, beth bloomberg global markets editor adam haigh with us. any concerns about whether these moves are going to result in a quicker pickup in inflation? adam: this week has been defined by this inflation story coming into the focus. and part it is driven by oil and what is happening in the commodities space. it is also a reflection of how much expectations swing from week to week. if you remember back to generate in february, so much of those wrap up we saw and tenure bond

yields and inflation expectations coming back all added -- they have subsided in the last, six or seven weeks and it came back with oil pushing on and commodities getting a bit. it is back, and breakeven rates have been pushed across the curve. and this is worry on investors minds. to your point about how much further this has to go before it isolicy gets affected, a talking point on wall street trading. especially with equities, that took a bit of a shock. the first time we had inflation scare, equities are writing this out reasonably well. there are worries about the tech sector and some of these traits implications, but not inflation per se quite yet. is get caught up by these big moves in the bond markets. you aboutant to ask philippine stocks because they

are down more than 10% this year. that has been a highflying market. what is causing the recent slump? sense, the story in the philippines is largely centered on inflation and where expectations are relative to where they were. there's a lot more pressure now coming through, and the senses the central bank there is going to have to move significantly more aggressively than people have been pricing in. and stocks had a good year last year, and they started to take a tumble this year. we had a big move on thursday, down more than 3%. it had losses at the end of the session, but that is what it is about, reassessing the inflationary expectations. as the chart shows in your gtv library, one of the most unloved markets in the world can be found in the philippines. that market is down 10% or so. there's a few signs of investors and strategists on the fringes,

saying we could potentially see value now that we have had such a weakness in many of these equities in a number of different sectors across the market. but certainly still looking not for theust faint of heart to get back into this point. haidi: i'm sure you'll be watching amp going into today's session. it is extraordinary with the testimony coming from the commission. adam: as every day rolls on, it is the kind of things where hearing from the commission that -- some of it is staggering. i think some people going into the start of the commission expected it to be a very long and drawnout and not particularly powerful, and quite dull. but what has happened this is the firstamp stop being taken from the

commission. he was due to step down for other reasons later in the year copper from that since it is not that much of a shock, but the reasons why he stepped down -- he clearly apologized for the misconduct, and they came out quickly and responded to this. maybe investors will be happy about that. do try to read the five things quickly, but certainly from a brent point of view it doesn't look good. haigh, thank you. crudeget to oil now, producers gather in saudi arabia, and let's bring in david marino leads numbers will trading team. that second opec has made progress working down the global got. lut. what now? >> the question they may be

asking our if prices are going to overshoot. and there for wti, was talk that saudi arabia was looking for $80 or $100. and the oil minister said we are looking at $65 to $75 per prices. the question is if there is talk of maybe keeping some moderating of the bullish talk. there is a lot of bullishness in the market right now, so there is a question if isis jump too high, do you hurt demand at some point -- if prices jump too high, you hurt demand? at what levels do see u.s. shale coming back? david: shale is growing. they are happy to see higher prices. opec and russia are

enabling shale producers to take more, drill more and take more market share. they are not happy to see higher prices for sure, but helps them to balance budgets. it definitely -- no one is unhappy in the shell business right now. julie: i guess not, david marino, keeping us posted on that meeting. ahead, hear what our next guest takes president chi has started a third revolution in china as he remakes the country. this is bloomberg. ♪

♪ julie: i am julie hyman in new york. haidi: and i am haidi lun in sydney and you're watching "daybreak australia".

as the g 20 finance in austin for the imf spring meetings, u.s. and china are still facing off over trade investment. we are joined by the director of asian studies the council in foreign relations. part of the think we grapple with on a day-to-day basis is the lack of information. at talkstrump tweeting are underway and will get a great deal from the chinese. he even gave a shout out in the joint press conference shinzo abe of how beijing has been oversized with north korea. but then beijing comes back and says want come to the negotiation table in light of the threats. how difficult is it for investors to make a decision of where we are at when there's so much misinformation? andt is very difficult, doubtlessly a big part of the problem is president trump who seems to change his mind and his

negotiation strategy on a daily basis. we heard at the beginning of the week before that perhaps had the president would consider joining the transpacific partnership, and the less next thing we know is that no bilateral trade agreement is the only way to go, so it is tough to know when we are dealing with president trump, exec everyone is taking place behind the scenes and where his mind is at. haidi: it is gamesmanship to a large extent. i'm curious take that your views if this is an ideological fight for washington against beijing. you look at the attempts to target beijing's technological ambitions, it seems like a attempt to curtail the rise of china, particularly when you get strong speeches from president xi, talk about the development

model and an alternative to the u.s.. elizabeth: you don't want to conflate two different things. twos possible to link the things, but he wanted to maintain a separate track, which is basically that the president is saying we have this enormous $275 billion trade deficit with china. we want to address it and where concerned about intellectual property theft and concerned about the technology transfer that takes place from u.s. firms when they want to do business in china. we are concerned about state owned enterprises and subsidies to chinese firms. we're certainly concerned about made in china 2025, which is basically china's industrial policy that will close off opportunities to american companies and 10 core sectors in chinese technology in terms of selling within china. i think there is a legitimate case to be made in terms of what president trump is trying to accomplish in terms of rebalancing the relationship on

the trade front with china in developing a level playing field. on the other hand i think you're quite right. when you look at president xi jinping's model, we need to be concerned, and that engages some of the issues, and also a different set of concerns. emily how china behaves at home and manages the media. what it does in terms of individual liberties and the first project that kind of china model abroad. i think there are linkages with also some distinctions to be made between the two. watch do think as you president xi navigate the negotiationat the -- whether they are happening or not with united states -- be a tool to strengthen his position or are there risks to his position as a result of the back and forth with the u.s.? elizabeth: i think there are risks to his position. can certain point, it he

pickup nationalism and i will provide some substance to him. but the chinese businesses, if these tariffs go through, chinese businesses will be hurt. they are significant applications for a number of chinese sectors. to president chi is trying maintain a peaceful international system so he can continue to focus on growing the chinese economy. this is not something he is seeking out. this is initiated by the united states. he would like to have a step back. if you recall when president trump suggested the first round of tariffs, he sent his top economic advisor to washington to try to calm the waters. basically said, not interested in more talk, want to see action. we see when president xi spoke to form, he said he will reduce tariffs on autos and open up the sector within the next five years or so.

but trying to make small steps to try to ratchet down tensions -- but not enough for the administration. julie: it is interesting because part of trump's rhetoric has consistently been that president chi is a good guy and smart guy, and he knows he has been getting one over on us for a long time. he knows he has a good deal at our expense. you think there is that recognition at all? certainly one would think it would be public, but is there that president xi's perception? elizabeth: i do not have president xi looks at the current trade imbalance and thinks that china has gotten the better end of the stick. i think there is a sense within china that most of the high value added goods like the iphone, all the money from that goes back to united states. china with its manufacturing capabilities gets a small percentage of a lot of goods that actually manufactures, which is why it is trying to a large part to up its game in terms of being the ip leader in

terms of new technology. i think the chinese differently field day have been at a deficit many respects, for many years when china first open -- foreign companies were somehow advantaged. but that is not the way we see it. haidi: quickly, are you convinced are confident there is a coherent multilateral strategy with north korea? elizabeth: i am reasonably optimistic at this point in time. i think president trump has to the negotiations brink and will have to see what kind of deal comes out. it does seem in little discombobulated with china meeting with kim jong-un and north korea and south korea negotiating, and united states plan to negotiate with north korea. there's a lot of different moving pieces here. i was in beijing soon after president trump announced he was going to be meeting with kim

jong-un and a summit will be set, and the chinese were flabbergasted. they were completely cut off balance, and the next thing you know is president xi is meeting with kim jong-un. there's games midship going on here, but at the very least we all going in the same direction towards denuclearization of north korea. haidi: elizabeth economy, thank you for joining us. thelines dropping, cleveland fed president from a speech she is about to deliver in pittsburgh, saint gradual rate hikes will stay the u.s. economic expansion further. a tax our puppy this year and next, saying she sees inflation rising to 2% in the next one or of years and the ambiguity maximum employment -- she is cautioning about deliberately overheating the economy and

doesn't expect inflation to move up sharply, but should remove accommodative positions to avoid able to over risks, send financial stability and vulnerability is currently moderate. she is a voting member of the fomc. coming up, we are live in tokyo and what to expect from japan's march inflation numbers and an assessment of how government scandals surrounding the prime minister could impact. this is bloomberg. ♪

julie: i am julie hyman in new york. haidi: and i am haidi lun in sydney and you're watching "daybreak australia". japan's inflation data is due in half an hour and is expected show movement further away from the bank of japan's 2% inflation target.

standing by in tokyo, talk us through expectations and how this data set could impact the boj thinking. well talk about and exits strategy? we are looking for inflation these off a little bit in march. the headline figure we think will come at 1.1% on year, and that is down from 1.5% in previous month. that is mostly because they used often march, and the core cpi which excludes fresh food and other food we think will come in at 0.9%, down from 1.0%. in terms of what this means for the boj, we have the policy board meeting next week. we don't expect to see any serious discussions of exit or any mention of next strategies at this point. the boj said they are looking to talk seriously about that starting in the fiscal year in the beginning of april 2019. i think this slight temporary

setback in inflation -- the boj will be segmented state and stamp act and monitor the situation. on to shinzo ive was returning to japan from his meetings with president trump. what is the perception of how well he did on his trips? brian: it is interesting. there were hopes as he took off were hoping people we might see an exemption on steel imports tariffs for japan. that didn't materialize. nothing bad happened, the two men on that over golf and took smiling photos, shaking hands and doing all kinds of silly things that were good photo ops. nothing substantive came from it. trump did say he would raise the with of kidnapped japanese north korea when he meets kim

jong-un. that is a sticking point for japan for a long time, and i think it hence that i base attempt to distract people away from domestic issues and keep them focused on some of these longer standing external issues -- whether that strategy will work remains to be seen. we will be looking closely this weekend at surveys to see what is happening with his support ratings, making sure that falls below 30% we are in trouble. julie: quickly, beyond the scandals surrounding abe, is their discontent among his leadership? the economy is coming along pretty well. we see some signs of wage increases. modest but definitely there, consistent. production is still good, and we did see exports not rise as much as we thought they would, and that is a bit of a concern. but it comes down to the

scandals. that is the main thing. brian, looking ahead to inflation numbers in half an hour's time. more to come with julie on "daybreak asia". ♪ retail.

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in hong kong..m. we are live a from bloomberg's asian headquarters areas welcome to "daybreak asia." asian-pacific stocks face an uncertain start with tech stocks under earnings pressure. u.s. earnings falling for the first time in four days. commodities remain strong despite terror of tensions. bloomberg's global headquarters i am julie hyman in new york, for betty liu. it is just after 7:00 p.m. thursday. echoing imf optimism. -- it says benefits must be shared equally.