♪ 7:00 a.m. in hong kong. live from bloomberg's asian headquarters. welcome to "daybreak asia." asian-pacific markets set to tech wave. the nasdaq gained more than 2%. amazon sales surged. another $12 billion. shares hit a record in late trade. globalfrom bloomberg's headquarters i am ramy inocencio in new york. it is past 7:00 p.m. set to keepjapan policy unchanged as the stimulus program becomes increasingly politicized.

jong-un will walk into history, the coming the first north korean ever to walk into the south. we are live on location. ♪ ramy: yvonne, good morning. good morning to our asia-pacific viewers. the is going to happen in next few hours on the 38th parallel gets me so excited. aspectom a geopolitical of things, it is a flashpoint around the world. we could see history made in terms of an armistice, could turn into a truce. we will see possible knock on effects and asia-pacific market. so much to key up. we will possibly get pictures of kim jong on walking across the dmz in one and a half hours

time. yvonne: our stephen engle is there as well. it is interesting to see how this will play out. people say this is a sideshow to what we will see, a potential summit.trump's the symbolism shows how important this is for the two koreas. we cover all angles of this in the next couple hours. u.s. in terms of where the markets closed, in the green. the s&p 500 up a little more than 1%. it was more of an earnings day. we saw facebook rise as much as 5% -- 10%. it was definitely an earnings story here as we hand off to you guys in asia-pacific, yvonne. yvonne: it seems like a perfect backdrop for a happy friday. tech seeing revival here.

facebook and amazon, that $50 billion market cap shape up.e tech bears new zealand, up 0.5% on the nzx 50. a fire on the rally in the dollar. have a look at australia, futures positive, up 0.3%. -- up 0.75%. we are counting down to opened in japan and korea. it is boj decision day as well. i put in euro-yen, which is crucial after we saw a dovish mario draghi yesterday. could we see a more dovish boj? 132.36 right now. dollar-yen is above 109. let's get you caught up with first word news. set to become the

first north korean leader to end of the south since the peninsula was divided nearly seven decades ago. walkll make of the short across the demarcation line and join president moon jae-in for the first inter-korea summit in 11 years. their talks will go a long way in determining whether kim will meet president trump in may or june. cia director mike pompeo has been confirmed as secretary of state after weeks of debate that were as much of the administration's handling of diplomacy as it was about pompeo himself. -42 vote shows he lost support of many democrats that supported him a year before for the cia job. a tweet showing him meeting kim jong-un over the easter weekend. nafta partners aim to reach a deal in the coming days as the

u.s. prepares for talks with china. trade ministers are in washington and say they have made progress on the more contentious issues. they hope to reach agreement by may 1, when temporary exemptions on aluminum and steel tariffs. he will join stephen mnuchin on a trip to beijing. draghi'sdent mario policymakers declined to discuss program, as they focus on the state of the euro area economy. weaker data.ssing data softens, but remains confident in the durability of the recovery. --overall, growth is remote growth is expected to remain solid and broad-based. our mullet tear -- our monetary

policy measures, which have facilitated the deleveraging process, should continue to underpin the mystic demand. >> global news 24 hours a day, on air and on tictoc on twitter, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. i am courtney collins. this is bloomberg. ♪ yvonne: the leader of north and a coupleea meet in hours. the first meeting in 11 years. become theng-un first north korean leader to enter the south in his country's history? stephen engle is covering this dramatic moment for us and that walk.wn to take a look at live pictures. we are seeing a whole delegation of security. it seems to have happened so quickly. tell us more about the feeling on the ground at the moment, and why there is more hope of a

breakthrough this time around? stephen: we have come so far from that fire in fury rhetoric we got a few months ago at the end of 2017, where we seemed it to be more on the precipice of conflict than reconciliation. this will go a long way, this historic meeting between moon jae-in and kim jong-un. the first time in north korean leader has stepped foot in the south. the war ended with an armistice in 1953, but there has been a fragile peace for the next 65 years. this will go a long way to move that armistice into a potential peace deal. there is uncertainty around, will kim commit to denuclearization? it is a key condition of the united states. this summit in the demilitarized zone, which this rail link leads

into -- actually, this one leads into an industrial complex, which was shattered by the north and south due to problems in the relationship. panmunjom, where that historic meeting will take place in an hour and a half. is kim committed to denuclearization? time tois a ploy to buy fine-tune his weapons programs and alleviation of sanctions? he is in much need of hard currency. there are many questions to be answered. the optics and the mood will be in fine focus. steve, as you are speaking, we are taking live pictures of south korean president moon jae-in leaving the blue house, on his way to panmunjom. a few hours ago they said from is north mr. kim jong-un

also on his way to panmunjom for this historic meeting between these two leaders. in terms of the questions that could be answered today, you talked about denuclearization. guest, formerly u.n. ambassador bill richardson, said it was probably not on the table, far from it. what could be realistic coming from today? is up fore peninsula armistice, not a peace deal. is there demilitarization? stephen: a couple months ago when i was here i was on the unification bridge when they decided to have reconciliation. they had the first face-to-face meeting in a long time. the north koreans were taken aback because the south koreans brought up denuclearization early in the talks. it will be interesting to see how far they push

denuclearization. or, will they set a more positive mood? this is not a sideshow for the kim-trump eventual meeting. this is critical to set a positive mood. you do not want the north koreans to hightail it back without promises or commitments on a timeline for kim jong-un to fulfill his promises to the weaponize the korean peninsula and dismantle his testing of nuclear sites and missile program. there is a lot to be said in the setting of the mood. they could be restarting the military complex, there could be pledges down the road, once sanctions are eased for investments between the two sides. we could see investment from south korea into north korean infrastructure and power plants. there is a lot the two sides could agree upon.

an interesting first step as a kim jong-un makes that historic first half -- first step in about an hour and a half's time. will be looking ahead to that. you are looking at live pictures of president moon jae-in leaving the blue house, on his way to that historic meeting with the leader of north korea. stephen engle, we will get back to you later on. he is in south korea on this developing story. let's switch gears into technology, amazon specifically. the company soared in late trading after reporting first-quarter earnings and predicting second quarter profits that topped estimates. swelling ranks of prime subscribers and an increasingly growing cloud division put a little more cash, $12 billion is a little more cash, in jeff bezos' pocket. an impressive set of numbers,

$12 billion for mr. bezos, spencer. spencer: that is a big boost. they did today was raise the price of amazon prime membership by about 20%. that came later after their earnings release. that is another big jolt that will provide more revenue for bezos to play with and invest in new things. yvonne: is this a sign of a turning point potentially? it seems the company is turning up a profit when it comes to aws. it seems analysts before had been dodging the stock because bezos has razor thin margins. is this a turning point? spencer: yes, it has been a gradual turning point, but coming into a sharper fork is --

sharper focus. they can sustain this and draw customers while they engage in and invest in more profitable things like amazon web services, their cloud computing arm. another thing emerging is their advertising business. other revenuethis category which more than doubled from a year ago to more than $2 billion. that is largely their advertising business. thisd amazon web services, low-margin e-commerce business they have built is so big and vast, so many people trying to sell things to get the customers, they are willing to pay premium for advertising space on amazon. ist is a very profitable nice, helping them offset the low-margin retail side. yvonne: spencer, thank you, joining us from seattle, after those amazon gang buster earnings. you can see those results in today's edition of daybreak.

subscribers go to dayb on your terminal. it is also available on your mobile anywhere app. the malaysian prime minister says malaysia is back on track for a balanced budget. more for -- from our exclusive interview with najib razak. on thee look at what is table as leaders of north and south korea meet her the first time. this is bloomberg. ♪ ♪

♪ you are now watching live pictures of south korean president moon jae-in in his motorcade making his way from the blue house to panmunjom for a historic meeting with the leader of north korea, kim jong on last time that happened between the two leaders was 11 years ago. clearly, history in the making

here. especially with the north korea leader coming to south korea for thefirst time, ever since two countries went to war and armistice was signed. yvonne: they have choppers watching all the moves. this is "daybreak asia." i am yvonne man in hong kong. ramy: i am ramy inocencio in new york. yvonne: what to expect in the summit between the leaders of north and south korea. our guest at the university of california san diego, stephan haggard writes extensively about north korea for the peterson institute and the council on foreign relations. thank you for joining us. ls how sincere you think the north koreans are when it comes to denuclearization, or will this be contingent on a peace treaty? >> that is exactly the right

question. the question of a peace treaty, which is of great interest to the south koreans, has been laid to progress on the denuclearization front. we think that is an issue that would be discussed solely between washington and the north. but in this case, it looks like it will come up in the north-south summit as well. yvonne: it seemed it has changed, the tone, people are optimistic this time around. why do you think that is? is it because kim jong-un reached a point in developing his nuclear weapons, he no longer needs -- he can accept some type of cap, or is he serious about economic reform and development? stephan: i think the real issue has been the sanctions. everyone per trace kim jong-un as being a genius for making this summit work, and there is some credit due, but over the

last year and a half, china has cooperated with the u.s. to impose a rigorous sanctions regime on north korea. that sanctions regime has cut into commercial exports as much as 50%. i think part of what is going -- the olympic diplomacy was a result of the sanctions as well. ramy: that is a perfect segue to this bloomberg terminal i wanted to show. pop into the bloomberg, i want to show this trade flow function. korea, its for north top trading partner is china. year, $5.2 billion last but the year before, $6 billion. they are really getting a squeeze, especially from india, russia and the philippines. my next question, what do you think could be the most clear and positive results coming out of this meeting today?

stephan: the blue house has been incredibly tightlipped about what is going on. i have friends who worked there and they have been keeping wraps on what happened. a declaration of intent to do something with rick -- with respect to do new glories asian -- with respect to denuclearization. to really get into detailed plans about what denucleariz ation would look like. ramy: they are also talking about symbolism and the cultural context. noodles fromten pyongyang, and there is a mountain in the background. they are trying to forge this personal context. how important is that? stephan: koreans see one another as the same people, north and south.

the division has been there since 1948. countries formed. over urgede dramatically, the culture, understanding of the outside world. south korea is an advanced, capitalist country. low capitalhas a income, as of a poor african country. i do not know if some agreement can be reached on korean intent. that is the core issue. yvonne: can the north koreans be bought? seems like what we saw in the sunshine policy proved otherwise. do you think kim jong-un is willing to trade nuclear development for the development of his economy? stephan: he will come into both of these summits, making an effort to hold onto his nuclear program as long as he can. remember, the iran deal took

three years to negotiate. this is going to be a long process to get there. he will make it difficult, make demands on u.s. exercises, want sanctions relief and so on. i think what the two summits are about is to test the waters of whether there is interest in turning to those kinds of negotiations. that is what we should be looking for. yvonne: who has the most leverage? stephan: i think we do. the trump administration deserves some credit. getting then, chinese onboard board, getting them to agree with a certain level of sanctions, that has moved the needle. we would not expect north korea to commit to denuclearization after spending so much time and effort on the program. ramy: who is best to lead of the u.s. in talks if we get to a kim-trump meeting? stephan: that is a good

question, because there has been a lot of turnover. we have john bolton just coming in. as it turns out, the intelligence communities were given the initial task of managing this portfolio. the fact mike pompeo was at the cia and now moving over to state, that could be a positive. ramy: and game scenario, last question -- if this does not work, what happens if things fall apart? stephan: i personally do not think we are any worse off than we were, that is why i am a supporter of the summit. we are already trying to contain north korea. i do not think we are going to face war, we are just back to where we were, which is continuing sanctions and maintaining deterrents. ramy: glad to hear no war. haggard, thank you for

your time and analysis. you can follow the latest on the historic summit between the korean leaders online at top by bloomberg. glitter-- at tictoc by -- by bloomberg. hourly updated news reports updated by us. it is streaming all the breaking news live today. get tictoc on twitter. this is bloomberg. ♪

♪ back.welcome a quick check of the latest business flash headlines. deutsche bank said to be planning to cut 10% of u.s. jobs as it withdraws from areas where it cannot compete. this is the first concrete sign how investors are retreating from being a global bank. the u.s. account accounts for 10% of their staff.

people were dismissed just this week. yvonne: fourth quarter profits fell 53%, with one-time provisions in the americas. volatility returned. to $218mes slid million. $274 million in legal costs for legacy programs. quarter profit rose almost 12% as premiums expanded. china's largest insurer by market value announced a special dividend to mark its anniversary. $4.1 billion. expands helped ping an premiums, even though they slump on tighter regulations. yvonne: the boj winds up its latest policy meeting.

the first discussion for the two new deputy governors. we will be live in tokyo. counting down to the historic summit in panmunjom. this is bloomberg. ♪ retail.

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yvonne: 9:30 in tokyo. it is the oj decision day. we will bring you that decision and a couple hours. not looking for change in policy, but we could see differences in opinion on stimulus and inflation forecasts. breaking news from japan as well, jobless numbers, that jobless rate hanging steady at 2.5%. we are talking about how these are multi-decade lows for the japanese economy and the labor market. the job to applicant ratio 1.58%, in liner, with what analysts were expecting.

the question is, is this going to generate moderate or bigger wage growth? this yielded marginally higher pay raises, and what this means for the inflation picture. certainly one to watch. we are getting cpi numbers from tokyo, which seem to be softening a bit. we continue to watch reaction from the young, still hovering around 109.33. let's get the latest with courtney collins. jong-un set tom become the first north korean leader to enter the south since the peninsula was divided nearly seven decades ago. he will make the short walk across the demarcation line at panmunjom and joint president moon jae-in for the first inter-korea summit in 11 years. about 20 minutes ago. routes say kim is also en

to the border. aluminum surged. lobbying you nations to ease sanctions, but the industry warning of chaos as the situation is not resolved. washington had hinted at easing measures, but there talks -- there were talks of departure. former hsbc trader mark johnson behind bars in new york, taken immediately to prison after he was sentenced to two years for currency rating. johnson bowed his head and his lawyers appeared stunned when the judge rejected his request for a later date. guilty of wire fraud and conspiracy for front running a $3.5 billion client order.

could die in cosby prison after being found guilty on three counts of aggravated indecent assault. a pennsylvania jury convicted him of drugging and molesting in 2004.nstan . me this jury has shown the too movement, women are worthy of being believed. i thank the jury. >> global news 24 hours a day, on air and on tictoc on twitter, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. i am courtney collins, this is bloomberg. ♪ thank you. let's count down to the market open. we are joined by sophie kamaruddin to see what to expect friday.

seems to be a happy day with a earnings overnight and boj day and optimism on the korean peninsula. sophie: happy friday could be shaping up. we look at the yen, a gauge of risk appetite. steady after the longest losing streak since october 2016. jumping in the terminal, this is how it has been faring ahead of the policy decision. no change expected. attention will be fixed on the korean peninsula. time we are waiting for kim jong-un to cross the border for a historic summit with president moon jae-in of south korea. this helping lift stocks in seoul, construction stocks, for example, have led gains on the kospi. thesehart shows you companies are related to landmine clearance. they provide equipment to

provide clothing to protect against that type of activity. these stocks have been rallying ahead of that summit. i want to highlight what they said about the korean summit, yes, the talks with the north are important, but the relationship with beijing is far more consequential, given south korea is the biggest trading partner, as well is a big source of tourists to south korea. franklin templeton saying, watch for the continued improvement. we have seen them kospi rebound from its intraday low in february because of improving ties. against this backdrop we have seen south korea become the cheapest stock market i far. you can see this chart using gtv , the line in yellow is the kospi, underperforming the emerging market index in blue. we have a lot of focus on the

upcoming summit. yvonne: also rising yields, dollar tracking those yields, concerns of capital outflows. earnings, they have been churning them out on wall street with tech. amazon, intel, looks good. what does this mean for asian particular? sophie: they will be focused after intel's beat. picture frommixed japanese electronics companies. one that has been a key name in the robotics race surprised with the somber outlook, with a 34% drop in profit and a decline in sales. i.t.-related demand slowing after a robust march. komatsu, which delivered a solid performance after the bell. it is echoing caterpillar's caution, forecasting they will

not live up to expectations and warn of moderation in sales growth in china, as well as currency impact. construction delivered a similar report card. we might see similar themes from other japanese companies reporting this week. kamaruddin on the markets, thank you very much. let's get you live pictures you are watching right now. this is in south korea as the south korean president, moon jae-in, continues to make his way to panmunjom for that historic meeting with kim jong-un, the leader of north korea. you can see a lot of fanfare on the sides of the street. overve been seeing this the past 45 minutes we have been getting the pictures live. it seems a lot of people are optimistic about what is happening today. that said, the analysts we have been talking to have said, make

no mistake, we have been here before with north korea, and there may be machinations in the background we have yet to see. we will continue to watch this historic summit as a continues over the next hour. that firstcting meeting to happen in the next 60 minutes or so at 8:30 a.m. hong kong time, 9:30 seoul time. let's look at the markets as we wait for that. a closer look at the latest wave of earnings pushing u.s. stocks higher. tech strength was a theme of the latest session here on wall street. a continues after hours, where amazon sword on a doubling of its profit. intel beat the highest estimates. su keenan is here. looks like a pretty green set up for our friday. su: amazon set to open friday at a record to read let's go into

the after hours charts because you really saw these tech stocks soar after hours. amazon up almost 7%, intel, better than 5%. after hit a fresh record hours, $51 billion eps. intel forecast to beat estimates on the data chips, their data center growth 34%. microsoft reported sales, due to its cloud sales, up 16%. revenue, slightly lower than previous periods. you are seeing not as big again as the others. starbucks taking a hit as the company comes in line, investors clearly expecting more. let's talk about amazon. gtv is where you can find these charts. a lot of focus on amazon's revenue. way above its rival, walmart.

when you have revenue comparisons, white is walmart, blue is amazon. it lags behind, but is coming up strong. let's go into the market snapshot for the previous session. the dollar closing at a three-month high. did put a lot of pressure on gold and some safe haven assets. see crude holding close to $68 a barrel. that is a positive, a lot of the oil bulls say, for their projections of oil at $80 in the next few months. yvonne: let's talk about the movers in the regular session. it was earnings, the big driver. chip stocks were getting a lift from amd. is it safe to say it can shake us out of the tech rout? su: there is certainly optimism from sectors that have taken a beating.

let's look at the size of gains we saw from facebook. yesterday came out what the strong report. that was a high of the session, held to the close. advanced micro devices coming on really strong. this is the chip sector that had been badly beaten up and a cause for concern. ebay, of course, lower. they just reiterated the four-year forecast. everyone else has been boosting it. ford is among those boosting outlooks and announcing current -- cost cutting. that earned it a bump up in the session. intel optimism is the title here. this is expected to provide a large boost to the trade sector. the stocks have been doing fairly well, the now you have revenue coming up to meet it. let's go into the chip sectors stocks, and even before intel came out, you can see there were very good gains across the board. yvonne: su, thank you.

let's talk about these that to back meetings by two central banks that have markets around the world on their toes. outside hays is live the bank of japan in tokyo, that decision coming out in a couple hours' time. what do you want to hear from governor kuroda today? kathleen: i would love to hear him once again assess the latest numbers, which you just broke, on the jobs to applicant ratio, getting even tighter. we see all these people on the streets of tokyo, bank of japan behind me, discussing policy signals, which will be delivered. they will be updating their outlook for the economy, inflation, and governor kuroda's press conference afterwards will be taking that coverage carefully for our bloomberg audience.

there is theation, political scandal facing prime minister abe, his drop in popularity rating. we were told yesterday, even if abe survives, this could open the door for governor kuroda to look carefully at normalizing sooner rather than later. this is one of the things he touched on. >> the most important part is 2% inflation growth, a promise to the government. weakened,ernment is the boj can multiply that 2% inflation growth. kathleen: also interesting that an up-and-coming female politician, who is a member of parliament, considered a person that could become prime minister someday. she is a long shot. she made remarks yesterday critical of this desperate push by the boj to hit 2% inflation.

even so, no policy change expected. we are seeing what one of the new board members, mr. wakatabe, says. it is one of the big questions people want to see because it could show, no mutt -- no matter how much governor kuroda wants --normalizing -- normalized, normalize. there was a tricky path to navigate on the way to normalization. for mario draghi, what signals did he send? he is as cautious as ever, and how could he not be cautious? the eurot numbers on area economy have shown deceleration. has beenral bank hoping for a global economy, helped the fed move toward

higher rates. we have seen industrial numbers, sentiment numbers weakening. he said yes, we will be watching this carefully in the press conference, when he spoke to reporters. >> careful assessment, monitoring the use of more information, are important components in the next decisions. the very first thing we have to do is understand exactly and place what has happened in the proper context, whether it is temporary or permanent. sounds data-dependent to me. of course, all central banks across the world are now. by june the ecb is expected to announce bond purchases. however, if they continue to see weaker numbers on the economy, can they take that step for the ecb to normalize? nothing big and dramatic yet for the ecb, but mario draghi is

aware of what is going on. he will take that all into account very carefully for the next meeting. yvonne: it seemed there were mixed messages, but more dovish than most of us expected. kathleen hays, thank you for joining us from tokyo. we are also counting down to this historic meeting in panmunjom. let's look at live pictures. we have been hearing that president moon jae-in is minutes away from entering. are expected to see kim walking across the border to be greeted by moon jae-in. it is 9:30 local time in seoul. it is a first-time a north korean leader would step in to south korea. and the first time the leaders since 1953. we talk about the symbolism, from the walk across the border, using the soil and water from

both the north and south, even the menu itself. they picked up a potato dish from kim jong-un's boarding school days in switzerland. we are looking at things more substantive as well when it comes to denuclearization and a potential peace treaty between the two koreas. ramy: the handshake, the first eye,ng, vaitai, -- eye to between these leaders. the ultimate potential hoped for, denuclearization of the korean peninsula. kim jong-un will not want to give that up, unless he has promises, from the united states and donald trump, for the nuclear deterrent, they are pushing forward in north asia. some other things we have been talking about, with former u.n.

ambassador richardson, saying the best thing we could see is an agreement to talk about a peace deal. we know the korean peninsula is still under just an armistice. technicallyas are in war. we have amazing pictures, amazing times be watching this. you are watching history in the making. in potentially 45 minutes' time, we will possibly be seeing kim jong-un walking across and the south korean territory, the first time ever for a north korean ever to do so. meantime, as we are waiting, let's get to our next guest. the dollar rose against its a the treasuryspite yields today coming off that 3% mark.

investors keeping and i on the yen, i had a friday's bank of japan policy decision. there is a lot. the korean won leading up to the summit for the meeting between them two leaders. onve, as we keep an eye these pictures, what is happening in south korea, let's talk about the won. we talked about how it has been moving. some folks say in may strengthen on the end of this week because of positivity. it has not, it is weakened. >> the market has been centrally focused on u.s. yields. it has been dominating the landscape this week. i think we have finally broken that 3% barrier. an inflection point for a lot of investors. we had selloff on the equity markets. equity markets run globally, really dictates the play on a

risk assets. the korean won is a riskier asset. how the equity markets run -- won -- it was hard to ignore result from samsung. 52% first-quarter profits. this plays well into the basket. and thed momentum, peace talks, it is a positive aspect, not only for the won, but regional sentiment in general. ramy: on friday you talked about how it is a buying opportunity, what we are seeing here, for equities. do you still hold that? let's dive deeper, into what equities? i definitely believe that is going to be the case. it is not jumping in blind. looking for opportunistic trades they are opening the market.

the two main sectors people will be reevaluating, from a retail perspective, will be the telcos and utilities. i think of those play out favorably, especially if we have a he's treaty agreement and and donald trump cements a more dovish outlook toward the peninsula. these areas are going to do quite well because this opens up a broad spectrum of opportunity for these two sectors in north korea. newse: we have breaking coming in, data from japan this morning. march industrial output numbers, those rising 1.2%. beating month numbers, estimates of just 0.5%. year on year numbers beating estimates, rising 2.2%.

the estimate was for 2.0%. we continue to see signs of strength when it comes to the japanese economy. machine orders this month showed positive signals. there is still underlying strength and momentum in this economy as well. are we really getting closer when it comes to dollar-yen, to 110? weeks ago we said it was more of a strengthening yen story. stephen: there are lots of dynamics and play. the yen had the risk aversion play, for basically the past year. risk aversion has abated considerably. abatedrisk premiums have on the geopolitical landscape, as well as the risk premium on trade wars. that also opened the door to a stronger dollar. we are seeing the interest rate differentials come into play.

higher interest rates in the u.s. dominate the currency markets and that is thriving dollar sentiment. will that carry forward? that is a big debate. we still have this big obstacle about how the u.s. government is going to be able to deal with debt, a massive overhang going forward. it is not just and inflationary story. an inflationary story. people are not interested in buying bonds. if people do not buy bonds, the dollar is not going to be favorable. we have to take into account supply and demand. systemichis is a real shift in dollar sentiment, or just of paring of short-term dynamics. yvonne: there are still a lot of shorts when it comes to the dollar. i want to bring in our function, which you are familiar with.

talk about how the dollar strength has roiled emerging markets here in asia. the rupiah down 4% in the last three months, the rupee, the filipino peso, as well. these are the worst performers in asia. is this a game changer for asian central banks, to follow the fed on this rising green backstory? stephen: i think that is a great question. obviously, central banks are cognizant of currency moves, and whether they will defend the currency, which you saw from indonesian central bank earlier in the week. there are two dynamics and play right now. playlk -- dynamics in right now. there is still a trade war which has not left the back burner. traders will always have that on

their decision-making process. in my view, on the short-term, this plays negatively into the asian basket of currencies. the higher yield, higher shift from the fed, which is probably the biggest headwind regional currencies will face, plus this overhang of trade war. we have to be cautious in the landscape. opportunity -- is there opportunity? nobody has a crystal ball on that. but i think there are opportunities in the region, certainly in equity markets. we have to realize there are opportunities with undervalued equities in the region, which in the long term, will play favorably on currency dynamics. in the short-term, it is a muddy picture. yvonne: how do you separate the winners and losers? you can see the malaysian have hadthe thai baht,

good sessions as well. does it come down to current account deficit, or which one is an oil exporter or consumer? i think the current accounts are one of the driving factors. especially behind the thai baht. we are quite cognizant of the biggest input on the gdp, factor tourism in thailand. it will remain favorable going forward. i do not think there will be any hiccup there. it looks quite favorable. malaysian ringgit, going through a catharsis. there is election risk brought into the landscape. negative --it of investors are viewing the bond market quite negatively right now because of the higher u.s. yields relative to the malaysian yields. they are just thinking this election risk is going to keep

them off going aggressive. again, this is another story line -- given the macro economy, which is quite solid, and their external factors around the export sector, which looks good, i think eventually investors will come back into the region. muddy landscape in emerging-market asia, it is a complicated issue to dive into now. yvonne: slim pickins. thank you. want to bring you back to those live pictures at panmunjom. we are expected to see the president of south korea, moon jae-in, arriving any moment. and kim jong-un to walk across the border to be greeted by moon at the bottom of the hour in hong kong. he will also be welcomed by the south korean honor guard. kim jong-un will be signing

guest books, posing for photos with the south korean president. at 10:30 they discuss the details. plenty more to come. this is bloomberg. ♪ ♪ this wi-fi is fast.

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yvonne: a it -- 8 a.m. in hong kong. on the bond. i'll come to "bloomberg daybreak: asia" the president had for the korean summit. conjunct whom walk into history as the only north korean leader ever to enter the south. we are live on location. ramy: looking forward to that. i'm ramy inocencio in new york. korean stocks are in the spotlight today as investors are weighing the implications of the summit. the asia-pacific is sectors -- set to rise.

expected tojapan is keep policy unchanged as the stimulus program becomes increasingly politicized. ♪ yvonne: a stork moment, day for us here in asia. the countdown to the two korean summit, breaking news here as well for the markets. we have been seeing a lot of turbulence. leading up tos the meetings. also, the strongest yet -- asian currencies up 3%. from our exclusive interview of the malaysian prime minister, he mentioned about the currency strength. he says malaysia will not force the strength and the market is to decide. antainly, we will not see

intervention from the central bank when it comes to that. royal hear seen emfx from the dollar strength of the pickup in yield. ramy: there we are. here.rs are now arriving i believe what we are looking at here is moon jae-in's motorcade arriving in anticipation of the historic meeting with kim jong-un slated to happen sometime in the next 30 minutes or after the next 30 minutes or so. we will be taking that's live. we build to this, and so much is riding on this potential priests pease.tential p

we will continue to monitor this and get this to u.s. soon as anything new developed spirit -- developed. we go to first word news with paul. >> leaders of north and south korea are on the way to the historic summit. reports from prom getting --. kim will be the first leader to enter the south for over seven decades. he will walk across the demarcation line for the first time in 11 years. mike pompeo is being concerned after weeks of debate of the handling of diplomacy of the administration with pompeii himself. the 50-42 vote says he lost the support of many democrats who backed him for the cia job. they marked his confirmation with a tweet of him eating kim jong-un over the easter weekend. minister -- one foreign minister says a nafta deal is possible in the next few days.

they want to release the records before the u.s. prepares would talks for china. some have made progrress on market -- some have made progress on more contentious areas. policymakers declined to discuss or end of the bank's program even the strengthening currency as they focused on the state of the euro area economy. the governing council has spent and isay meeting and dragging in the momentum of last year. he feels strongly about the recovery. >> growth is expected to remain solid and robust. our monetary policy measures which have facilitated the process should continue for underpaying domestic demands. >> global news, 24 hours a day, powered by more than 2700

analysts and journalists in more than 120 countries. i'm paul allen, this is bloomberg. paul, thank you. taking a look at the market open, tailwinds are coming in from the overnight session of the u.s. with a pretty decent, stellar earnings with amazon. for this koreap summit as we count down to that historic moment. let's go to the latest with your markets right now. korea'slogan today is meet and tech giant meet. output is rising for a second month. that is .7%. the focus is very much on top korea. over 1%.oking at getting into the details shortly. check out what is happening with the korean won.

dropis after a five-day and is currently 1076. -- ysts breather whicha could also provide some support. pointing out that while treasury yields are high, there has been some flowing into local equities, especially in the ip sector. tech sector up 2.3%. again, we have the rebound of the first quarter driven by the ongoing exports recovery. while we have mixed assessment regarding chip demand, you have so that is perhaps drawing and investors to the

tech segment in korea. a quick check on the nikkei 225. japanese stocks are halfway to a full recovery. the nikkei has risen more than 8% bottoming out in march and it is on course for a fifth week. streakhe longest winning since november 10. ramy: good stuff, sophie. very busy day today across the markets. you're looking at live pictures of pond moon joan. waiting for the imminent arrival of kim jong-un. we have already seen pictures, live pictures, of moon jae-in also arriving there. this year is the stage where this historic summit will happen. the nextrobably within

half hour or so. we waiting eminently and the last time the two leaders actually met was 11 years ago. it we see there, more live pictures of the motorcade coming in towards that summit area in panmunjom. as we wait for that, let's head over to japan. there are back-to-back meetings by two big central banks that have been putting investors in the markets around the world on their toes. kathleen hays is live outside of the bank of japan in tokyo right now. kathleen, as we wait for the development and korea, talk to us about what we are expecting from the bank of japan later today? i can't help but wonder if they have a tv monitor in the corner of the board room behind me keeping their eye on this fascinating historic moment. , for them, maybe not

such a quite historic moment. they are tried so hard and had a fair amount of success in deflationflation from away from inflation. but a long way away from the 2% target. we have another dove cooing into the air of governor -- of the governor. that is one of the two new deputy coverts. the question is, will they dissent? yes, yvonne? yvonne: we're seeing live pictures of president moon jae-in just now entering into panmunjom and greeting the delegation there. waiting for the north korean leader, kim jong-un to walk across that demarcation line. the military demarcation line. this is a freedom house picture that we are seeing right now. the first north korean leader to step into south korea of course.

we get the latest from stephen who is joining us nearby. steve? i am about as close as we can get. we are not inside reporting. we are in the village of president ofre the south korea just arrived. we did see the motorcade of the president go across the bridge to the left ear. we had a helicopter gunship overhead as the president went into the dmz. is behind me and the railroad bridge had to the complex. inside the dmz you have the joint security area and panmunjom where the two gentlemen, kim jong-un and moon jae-in reach across the demarcation line at the 38th parallel and have that historic can take. they will take a bunch of pictures. are going to jointly

planted tree. they will take a lot of pictures and kim jong-un will sign the guest book. first north korean leader to come to south korea. that is a historic moment. then, they get across the table in the peace village and start negotiating. what they will negotiate and how they will discuss the nuclear is asian, we don't necessarily know yet but we do know they will at least try to hammer out the framework of trying to term that armistice in 1953 into a potential-working order peace deal. the red carpet seems to be rolled out for the two leaders as well, steve. you mentioned before that the south korean president, moon of-in, he spent a lot political capital trying to get kim jong-un at the table. is there a risk that the president is too eager to strike a deal? how is he going to tell the line on focusing on the main goal for the u.s. when it comes to denuclearization and achieving some type of neutralization --

some type of agreement on the b street. >> one of the three main pillars of his economic benefits or platform that he has spent a lot of that political capital on, is peace first. only then can you have a cooperative framework in which to negotiate everything else. these first is moon jae-in's number one priority. he is a president that is really prioritizing engagements with the north in the past. it was often called the sunshine who have trythers to engage, rather than the hawk against the north koreans. he will have to delegate a balancing act there whereas japan and the united states have taken a more hard-line approach. toy say the first condition discussing more cooperation with the north is the nuclear relation. tother moon jae-in is going press that early in their talks today, we don't know.

i was here a few months ago when the two sides did get together for the first time after kim jong-un made that overture on january 1 that he would be sort ofg some reconciliation with the south. the north was taken back a bit 's insistence early on in those discussions about the nuclear relation. we will have to see. yvonne: and we will check back with you, steve, it there in a little bit. and you cananmunjom follow the development and korea right here on your bloomberg. you can get the commentary and analysis from bloomberg expert editors. we have been talking about the tweaks out of north korea and no doubt kim jong-un is trending on twitter at the moment. it is a big topic thrust the morning. still ahead, our exclusive interview on that and how the administer says the growth to superpower status should not put

them at odds with the u.s.. ramy: plus, what to watch for in the bank of decision -- what to watch for in the decision on the banks next. this is bloomberg. ♪

yvonne: this is "bloomberg daybreak: asia" i'm yvonne in hong kong. ramy: and i'm ramy inocencio in new york. kathleen hays who is still outside the bank of japan. kathleen, this is a huge day and what signals are we expecting from bank of japan later on? you know, ramy, as we all keep our eye on this meeting, i don't see the pictures, but when he talks i feel like i am there. i am outside the bank of japan and this is an important meeting. governor's is a

one of the two new japanese governor's is a dove. earlier on thers ratio for japan. even if there is inflation, they will hope to move higher. ours take a look at one of charts. people following along on their bloomberg, you can look at our library anytime to see the is japan numbers. this inflation. you have the red line is zero, the blue dotted line is 2%, the white line is the overall cpi. take out fresh food prices, that is the one to watch. you have to get to 2% to hit the target. the governor has said recently that it must continue. will there be any dissent against anything that would hint at more optimism on inflation? we shall see. i want to add one more note.

at the press conference, i'm not sure if it will come out, but the prime minister is in the political battle. a lot of people are wondering if he will make it through the situation to come out ahead and stay as prime minister. why do i tell you what -- tell you about that? see particularly if they ask about the press conference today. back to you. yvonne: it will be a big question. the political ends surrounding the boj is well. alex, he joins us in hong kong. >> good morning. yvonne: it's really the politics that seems to be overshadowing what we see in the boj. that could be more important. if we look at the markets. >> if we look at the economical output, it looks healthy.

do from the boj today, i'm not expecting anything different. it will be a status quo. my political worry about the ,olitical state issue about abe some of the statistics are showing he is down around 30%. if it comes down to less than 30%, it'll be a risky part in it'llber will be the key be impactful more than ever for the jet -- for the japanese economy. yvonne: what has changed? is this different this time around? are you already postulating what can happen if he does not seek a third term or is there a different scenario your firm is trying to calculate leading up? seeinghat we have been is that the great success of japan currently is the stability. after abbe came over here, we have had the stability.

we have so many different presidents in the past history, but now abe helped the government. he was the one leading that's good work that we were doing. if he is going to step down, are we going to back to and every year election? that will be the question. yvonne: let's see what we are seeing in markets. we were talking to our markets reporter about how we are halfway there. every gain some of the losses we saw early february. this chart shows what we are seeing when it comes to the retail, the volumes from the mom and pop retailer. we are still holding back right now. foreign investors as well. i think a percent off of the highs? % off of the8 highs? see: they're waiting to what happens.

whether i based apps done or not is the big question hanging in japan. ramy: as we wait for the boj to come out with the minute, i want to ask you about the new dove in the house. hays talked about how he will have this influence their that was not there before. how do you think he will influence moving ahead? not thinkt-term, i do there will be a big change. i think boj has to play this role. number one, they have to bring the interest rate to 2%. however the challenges, there is a big play here because, number one, they are holding 43% over of the boj market. there is not much room to go from here. secondly, if you look at the bank lending rate, it is coming down to 0.934%. a used to be a lot higher and banks are struggling. market,after all this

people in terms of pension, interest, all of the investment rates are coming down. that is hurting people's mind. how much room that boj can manual over here is very questionable. continue this discussion, we catch of our viewers on what they are seeing here on the television screen. these are live pictures as we still await kim jong-un to arrive at this is stored meeting with moon jae-in. you are looking at the north korean side of the dmz right now. you can make out the television camera clearly filming on that side as we continue to watch on the side. feeling as wetial see from both sides trying to document history in the making here. that, alex, let's me lubitz back to you and get back to japan here. one interesting thing that there is as that longshot candidate for prime minister. she said the bank of japan

should drop the 2% target. do you think this is just policy seeking? to what extent by their be people out there that agree with her? i think they could not as abe is in place they cannot drop this 2% target. that was a statement, the commitment that abe was making. you're right, we have been having a deflation for such a long time in japan. people expect that. people think we need to have a better inflation rate. drop itthink they will out straight away. however, the one critical challenge we have, if abe is going to step down, that will be a question. yvonne: one of the quick dash one of the chances? chances of that? alex: i think it is 50-50 right now as his support rate comes down. the people's sentiment has been changed since last year. yvonne: with the economy though,

if you take away inflation, it has been holding steady. people say as long as inflation does not go back to deflation, does not matter what percent, they can still exit policy. do you share that view? alex: i think so. however, again, what i worry about is the foreign investors. stability that they created was a very comfortable for investors to come in and investing japan. yvonne: people even said that even hippie leaves they are intact. no one will change the framework, whoever steps into the shoes. . alex: the challenges we have not seen, besides off, a very strong candidate yet. yvonne: ok. i want to bring up pictures now of the north korean delegation to arrive -- pictures of everyone waiting for the north

korean delegation to arrive. we are seeing a little movement right now which is the south korean president moving into the freedom house to await and greet the north korean leader. we watch those pictures coming out your any moment now. that, alex,k at what does it mean for japan? alex: whatever it is. peace talks are good thing. better than war. however, i think we have to read between this. is going to be some agreement coming out from this and i think market is affecting this already. however, de-nuclear's asian, what does that really mean between korea and the u.s.? yvonne: and japan. alex: and japan. and the u.s. is going to be the one that is really important. i think the market is ahead with andmeeting of kim jong-un trump. that will be the one that marks everything. yvonne: do you think president trump is thinking about japan when he enters into these talks?

? we talked about abe going to mar-a-lago. itdidn't yield too much when comes to getting kim jong-un to potentially stop when it comes to mid range missiles as well. but it doesn't seem like the president is thinking about that right now. the l.a. between japan and korea, south korea, the u.s., there is a strong tie here. i have to say, he is definitely looking into it. there an opportunity, if we do see a peace treaty, for japan to invest into north korea? this, koreaall of and japan have a long history. a long economical relationship there. in the long run, we will definitely invest into it. yvonne: what you buying in japan right now? seems a few have been pretty conscious when it comes to japanese markets. what is a good hedge at the moment? alex: good hedges, i will

because his right now, until september and see what really comes out with abe. we haven'te war, been talking about it, but we really should be worrying about it. we should watch other currency moves. 109, 110 is a comfortable level. if the yen gets stronger, that will be a tricky part because we won't want the end to be so strong. yvonne: alex, we will leave it there. president and ceo of invesco japan.anagement a taking a back to the live pictures as well as the countdown to this meet between the two koreas. we are about three minutes presumably away from when kim jong-un will arrive. people are lining up just for the arrival. steve back into the conversation. what is the latest? as you arehing just except i'm watching on korean high-speed broadband here.

we are seeing those doors occasionally focused on the ofilion on the northern side the village year where kim jong-un is expected to come out once the doors open. he will walk down the steps and walked towards the south korean side, where we have seen president moon jae-in is already there with his entourage. they will reach across the demarcation line and shake cans. we are still waiting -- shake ha nds. minutes two and a half we will get kim jong-un to make the historic steps down the i'm justinto the -- watching it here and i just lost it. [laughter] anyway, if someone can take my phone and bring up the feet again, and watch it, -- in rightwe will jump now because your thing live pictures of kim jong-un finally coming out of those doors. as steve just said, you can see

the huge entourage surrounding him, possibly security, his own government officials, but just taking in the site for him walking for this historic meeting is so significant already. we are seeing his entourage now leave him as he comes across to the side of south korea. there is moon jae-in waiting for this historic handshake. let's take a watch. and there you have it. a historic can take that is being watched around the world. the first time that this has happened in 11 years. .miles from moon jae-in i would love to know what they are talking about right now. smiles also from kim jong-un crossing over officially into the south korean side, i

believe. yes. posing for photos now. wow, this is history. yvonne: it really is, remy. it should be a long schedule as well for these two leaders. now that they have been greeted, they are welcomed by the south korean under guard. kim jong-un will meet this honor and itpose for photos, can: 30 local time, look at them holding hands. [applause] entering into the piece house there. a little bit more about the de-nuclear reservation a potential priest treaties and also, what it means for economic reform and development for north korea. steve, what the make of these pictures right now? >> this is very historic. you can see the two men holding hands as they step across to the east side of the demarcation line showing mutual respect and that is something that moon

jae-in said will be pivotal to the success of the summit. we are announcing photos being taken with a couple of children who i understand at come from one of the villages that are in the joint security area, not panmunjom. it is the truth village. there is another village within the dmz and these two children are to have said to come from that. now, we are nowhere close to unification, but we are potentially closer to some sort of end to the armistice and moving into some sort of peace talks. it looks like they are all smiling, they have been holding hands, and this is quite an historic moment right now especially for the people of korea living under the fear of possible conflict for the last 65 years of tenuous peace. yvonne: it seems like we saw president moon jae-in step into

the north korean side as well for half a symbolic gesture about these two koreas. we have been talking about why there is so much optimism this time around. from theome 18 years sunshine policy which yielded little results when it came to de-nuclear relation. why do you think there is so much help this time around of this timegh -- hope around of breakthrough. is it because kim jong-un can set limits or is he really a leader that is serious about economic reform and development? ♪ >> on the one hand, while they are telling the world they are dismantling their testing site and halting nuclear tests, to the domestic audience in north korea, kim jong-un and the leadership in pyongyang have been telling the people that they are now a nuclear state. they can come to this summit as a nuclear power, and then

potentially had into those negotiations or summit with president trump as a nuclear power. de-nuclear relation means something different to the north koreans. de-nuclear relation to them means american warheads off of the peninsula as well. we are a long ways from that and, potentially, we are a long ways away from unification. now, it looks like a conciliatory toast and friendships as they handshake across the border. remarkable to see these two men walking side-by-side with the korean honor guard here. as theyes will fade sit at the table. in terms of potential results here, a lot of our analysts have been saying it is just for optics reason. the first, most concrete thing we can expect out of this nine hour day, what is the first thing we should see?

i think the first and foremost will be a framework of agreement on some sort of steve -- some sort of peace pact. also, the united states will be undoubtedly behind-the-scenes pushing moon jae-in to get a firm timetable behind kim jong-un to fulfill his promises weapons and nuclear programs. at the same time, i'm sure the north koreans will be wanting any clarity on how far their cooperative tone will lead to an easing of sanctions. keep in mind, these are not just out korea sanctions, these are international sanctions through the united nations. it is not just moon jae-in's ability to say we will all alleviate sanctions, what they can do is start making framework agreements on investment treaties into places like the industrial complex. -- or contracts to

build telecoms and infrastructure. those are the initial steps that will lead to more cooperation. as i said earlier, moon jae-in has been a lot of capital on trying to make peace first and then that will lead to cooperation. it looks as though they at least made that first positive step. literally and figuratively. ramy: as we are watching these live pictures of history being made, in the west, outside of north korea, i am wondering if you can give us some insight into what north koreans may be seeing if they are seeing and how thisll, may be portrayed when kim jong-un goes back to north korea? ♪ >> this is going to undoubtedly be per trade in the north as a summit of equals. right? between north and south korea. and that the north has a long

maintained they are the rightful rulers of the korean peninsula, but this is the first step with the two gentlemen are not necessarily adversaries, but they are equals and, keep in mind, he is the head of a nuclear state. that is the message they will be taking to the people of north korea. that is what they said all along. yvonne: of course, we love watching pictures of the honor guard from the south korean military greeting the north korean leader. what is going to be happening in the next couple of minutes or so is moon jae-in will introduce his people to kim jong-un and it will be vice versa. kim will then do the same with the south korean president. they will then walk over to the peace house where kim jong-un will be shining the guestbook -- signing the guestbook. then, more photo time. a lot of optics here, a lot of symbolism. can we get more subsequent results is the key.

and kim jong-un is sending complex signals on what he might do when it comes to reaching some type of deal. you think these are genuine intentions right now? what are going to be the biggest trade-offs? steve: we don't know how genuine kim jong-un's parrot the north koreans have broken their promise is in years past. the japanese have long said we believe them, they have made overtures, we have given them aid and money, and at the end of the day, all they did was keep our money. i they going to keep our promises, that is the key -- keep their promises. everyone wants to know if kim jong-un is sincere. but you never know at the end of the day. what we do know is that baby steps on reconciliation are happening. the south koreans are going to set up a liaison office in pyongyang.

they also reestablished and set up a hotline between the two leaders. that the two leaders can talk directly. that also would have been unheard of just a few months ago. the fact that donald trump is kimg to make -- meet jong-un in a months time, that was unheard of a month ago. we are having a lot of historical moments right now. yvonne: we certainly are. he almost looks a bit nervous as well. kim jong-un. this is obviously a big moment for him as well. steve, just a second, we bring in our bloomberg intelligence. the result may be a slow opening up of the country that happened in china after 1979. we want to bring in our senior industry analyst here. moment thatstoric we are watching right now. we know north korea is one of the poorest countries on earth,

but take us through what are the steps needed to open up this economy? a good question. we look at a variety of scenarios. we are not financial analysts -- we are financial analysts, not geopolitical analysts here at what we did was look at what reasonable scenario would be. that is north korea slowly opening up like you said in the same way china did back in 1979. portionss soaking up of its economy. one thing is that north korea is one of the poorest countries in asia. gdp per capita is below that of miramar, cambodia, so we look at a variety of industries. if you take one of the many , telecommunications, and a whole bunch of other stuff, on energy alone for the country to power itself, they need 122 billion u.s. dollars on

energy alone. that would be invested over a. of 10 years. that is one of the -- a period of 10 years. that is one thing. ramy: i'm curious about the role of china, joe's it. we have been seeing that china has reduced its trade flow by 2015 -- billion between excuse me, between 2016 and 2017. how much might that change and will it change quickly because of what is happening here? joseph: absolutely because, if there is ap's quota assigned and north korea is very genuine assigned, piece quota and north korea is genuine about -- the thing about china, they are really good at building

high-quality cheap infrastructure. we talk about wind farms, railroads, they do it very well and very quickly. so china would obviously play a very important role there. yvonne: are there other nation to would want to jump in on this opportunity? i was asking alex ito from and you see where else are people wanting change in investment? joseph: aside from geopolitics, i think any country including the united states would be interested in developing north korea. it just happens that china is next door. china now, as opposed to policies back in 2000, is a much stronger country. it has much more experience in building infrastructure and it has the financing muscle. a lot of these investments would --bably take place between

with take place and be financed by banks. in terms of south korea itself, presumably north korea would want to be with their kindred spirit in terms of investments here. i'm taking a look at tliv while we watch these pictures of the two leaders continuing to walk into their meetinghouse. stocks of companies that might benefit are rising. -- fertilizers rose nearly 60% under south korean support. what do you think might be positives in terms of stocks in in case, or if and when south korea is able to support north korea? i think that is a pretty obvious one. anything to do with agricultural rising or industrial machinery because this is what north korea will immediately need.

but we saw for example, looking at electric power, korea power would be difficult to get to help north korea in developing public company and am not sure it's investors would really have the risk appetite. equipment and services, and the other is having physical assets and north korea. that may take a little longer. yvonne: taking a look at the live pictures now, what you are watching his kim jong-un signing the guest inside of the peace house. moon jae-in is watching over him. joseph, we were just talking about, how do you get this kind of data when it comes to north korea? it is very hard to get access into such a country, but we have seen the likes of a number of people coming out in that be ok that signs are looking -- boj

that kind of looking bad. and you looking other indicators, perhaps, that see different lights. joseph: there is a lot of data. it is difficult to find any data on north korea. the iea on the energy side, they had some numbers and a lot of people questioned whether those numbers are reliable or not. if we look at a very rough gdp estimates, there is a few entities estimating gdp of north korea. so we use those nor -- those numbers to back up how much money they will need for investment policy. it is very hard to get. yvonne: you look at infant mortality rate, rain output, you really have to dig deep for concrete data here. joseph, thank you. joseph, with some of the fascinating research on what it could take to open up the north korean economy. we bring back steve who is live

at panmunjom right now. we are looking at pictures of the two leaders heading into that these house. now, finally getting into those talks. what can we expect in the next couple of hours, steve? me on theryone around rooftop has been watching it on the high-speed broadband here on their mobile phones. there's a big group of young people carrying around the unification flag, watching it on the big screen. it is quite a festive occasion --see these leaders of the they are still adversaries, keep that in mind, shaking hands, smiling, stepping into each other's territory. what is going to happen is more circumstance for the next few atutes, then we will get, 10:30 local time, 46 minutes from now, the two sides will sit across from each other at the or inin those thoughts the peace house and they will start negotiating what they need to negotiate.

could that mean a peace pact? apseast the frame work for will deal will be discussed between the two leaders. i want to pick up on what does it was talking about on the economic benefits. they often times talk about the peace dividends. who will benefit the most from the peace dividends if there is aps packed. most people say, given the sides of the south korean economy and the smaller side of the north korean economy, did the north koreans -- that the north koreans will have the quickest dividend. of the northa koreans is 1258. there's a lot of catching up to do. yvonne: less than 5% of the south korean -- steve, thank you. we are seeing how things are shaping up there in panmunjom.

in the meantime, let's get you caught up with the asian markets. pretty good on friday morning. for the latest with sophie, all on korea. >> the sun is rising on korean assets. policy takes effect as we bear witness to history. the cost goes over 1% set for the best today rise being march 12. easy tech gaining ground and the korean won is on the up adding a third of a percent. is edging toward the 1075 panel as several analysts had expected for the currency pair in the run-up to the summit. we are anticipating one strike term from the summit and as the backdrop of rising treasury yields is also taken into account. looking elsewhere for it comes to the korean session, let's check in on term from the summit and as the the korean won to see the jump in the currency. we had a jumping toward the 1075 handle.

it is softening by just a touch. take a look at the map. we have tech and financials leading the gain. today as intelst is added to the positive outlook for chip demand along with others. we do have telco gaining ground. geely segment under pressure is utilities. , weack pointed out early might just find that could be difficult given the peace dividend because it is a public listed company. areag a look at the last in this space, i want to highlight we have korean tenure bonds yields continuing to drop. rainy -- ramy? ramy: the sun is also shining on the korean peninsula in terms of the sunshine policy that is trying to be pushed today.

you an official statement that we got out of the white house. this is coming from the press secretary's office on what they are calling the inter-korean summit. i will redo this in full. on the occasion of republic of korea president moon jae-in's historic meeting with kim jong-un, we wish the korean people well. hopeful that talks will achieve progress toward a future of peace and prosperity for the entire korean peninsula. a little bit more here. the united states appreciates coordination and looks forward to robust discussions in preparation for the planned meeting between president donald j. trump and kim jong-un in the coming weeks. you can see support, you can see positivity, and you can also see the white house in this statement pushing ahead with with donald trump and kim jong-un off of the back of this already historic day. already an historic morning for

asia, and historic morning for the korean peninsula to see what will happen. possibly in the next month or month and a half or so. the north leaders, korean leader in u.s. leader meet after moon jae-in and kim jong-un talk over the next several hours of today. right now, they are in the peace house having those discussions. we just saw the doors close on them a few minutes ago. on the wall, a fly but we will get developing news as we get it. in the meantime, let's get the first word news with paul allen. paul? japan'ss, rainy, factory output continues to rise into 2018 industrial production rose 1.2%. it gained 2.2% from the previous year. been supportedas by overseas demand for japanese

industrial products. u.s. china trade tensions could put that at risk. thatnum search on reports they tend to keep control. they are counting on lobbying to ease u.s. sanctions with the european industry warning of chaos as the situation -- if the situation is not resolved. washington hints at easing the measures. we are also being told of delays of them resuming supplies of aluminum. and johnson is behind bars he was taken immediately to prison. and his his head lawyers were stunned as the judge rejected his request to surrender at a later date. the bank's head was guilty of wire ford and conspiracy of running $3.5 billion client orders. bill cosby could die in prison

after being found guilty on three counts of aggravated indecent assault. a pennsylvania jury convicted himin 2000 -- convicted from charges of 2004. he will be sentenced at a later date. >> today, this jury has shown -- that me too movement the me too movement is saying beingomen are worthy of relieved. i think the jury. global news, 24 hours a day, powered by more than 2700 analysts and journalists in more than 120 countries. i'm paul allen, this is bloomberg. yvonne: paul, thank you. we continue the coverage here on these korean summit. the prime minister, more from our interview telling us how is warm interview with donald trump and how he sees the rise of chinese power.

this is bloomberg. ♪ ♪

♪ ramy: welcome back, the malaysian prime minister says china's growth to superpower status should not put it at odds with the u.s. even though he called it "a cliche to," talk about a peaceful rise,". he also told us about his relationship with donald trump.

>> i have a good, warm personal relationship with president donald trump. i knew him before he became famous. he was famous then, but he is more famous today. that yous those suggest to him fit with his priorities, if you like, then, he will be very receptive. he is not bothered by things that don't matter to him in that sense. . >> do you talk with him about his view on the u.s. role in asia? power,nce he came to there has been concerns about a possible u.s. retrenchment in the region after decades of providing something of a security of relative. is that something you are still concerned about, and you think that gives an opportunity to china to escalate its rise in the region? superpowerse two have a crucial role to play in

asia because if they play their part in a constructive way, then i think asia will definitely be the most progressive region and the world. >> to see a point at which china will become the biggest power in this region? do you think that is a natural consequence of the economic clout? >> china will be the biggest economy, certainly. that is a fact. but, china will not be able to match the united states in terms of being the military superpower. the united states will still be --theedominantly strongest in that sense. rise, and sometimes seeing evilnous

china rising. what is your view on china's rise and what kind of power do you think it wants to be? >> the rise of china is inevitable. you can't stopy, it. it is inevitable. a always like to see china as force of good for the region. that was the malaysian prime minister speaking exclusively with bloomberg. there's much more an hour malaysian special on friday here on bloomberg television. make sure to check it out. we continue our korea summit. this is bloomberg. ♪

>> this is happening. it is a historic day as north korea's leader meet on the top levels, kim jong-un the first to cross the border. salamat in hong kong. jong-un steps into south korean territory, and he writes in the guestbook, a new history begins now. could this pave the way for a more historic summit between donald j. trump and kim jong-un? we will explore that. this is "bloomberg markets: asia