>> i am paul allen in sydney. >> i am sophie kamaruddin in hong kong. we are counting down to asia's markets open. >> here are the top stories we are following in the next hour. u.s. stocks fall. leaving policymakers with no

bias. signs of a slowdown in the u.s.. auto sales stalled. later, we will have a look at qualcomm's earnings. it does seem a settlement in its legal battle with apple. but it's forecasts are being hit by weak cell phone demand in china. 9:00 thisme in at morning, we saw -- that we would see a record on the s&p 500. that all fell apart when we heard from jerome powell. basically the market. we would get a cut. that did not end up being the case. that cut people off guard. the 10 year treasury recouped up to its levels. were athe major averages

little lower. i want to see how things are shaping up for asian markets. sophie: we will be able to react to the fed update when we are back from the midweek break. teachers are hinting at a strike this thursday. the kiwi dollar is seeing losses marked by tuesday's disappointing jobs report. there has been a two-day decline. the worst of the property slump may have passed. we will get south korean inflation numbers. there are hints that slide -- slight gains for the index. korean exports fell in april, but by less than expected, which may see hopes of the trade

rebound. chinese and japanese markets remain off-line for the rest of the week. and the earnings parade continues today with national australia bank. on the subject of national australia bank, we have breaking news there. the first half just crossing the bloomberg terminal now. we have a first half cash profit .f $2.95 billion nab saying that the operating environment does remain difficult. they also are one of the hardest hits by the misconduct of the banking industry. losing both as chairman and ceo. for a newhe search ceo is now well underway. just to recap those numbers for you. billion.

let's get the first word news. sue: we start with the u.s. ramping up pressure on venezuela. a military intervention is not possible if there is no peaceful transition of the venezuela government. protests against the maduro regime are ongoing. but an appeal by juan guaido for army to abandon him seems to have failed. the trump administration is warning russia and cuba to stop assisting maduro. and warned of possible sections of they do. meanwhile, u.s. attorney general william barr has defended his er reportsf the muell as democrats accused them of misleading the congress and public on the special counsel's findings. he addressed the senate judiciary committee, finding himself on the disclosure that

mueller have written to him saying he has misrepresented his report. we first heard that the special counsel's decision not to decide the obstruction issue at the march 5 meeting when he came over to the department. we were frankly surprised that they work not going to reach a decision on obstruction. we asked them a lot about the reasoning behind this. and the basis for this. >> to the u.k., the defense secretary has been fired for the leaked private discussions about awei's role in britain. theresa may said he had not met the same standards as other cabinet members. she added that no other credible version of events to explain the leak has been identified. news 24 hours a day on air and at tictoc on twitter.

powered by more than 2700 journalists and 120 countries. this is bloomberg. taylor: thank you very much. federal reserve chairman jay powell made something very clear at his press conference. inflation orng president trump's constant criticisms will force them to cut interest rates. for now he is content to wait and see what happens next. we look at the key takeaways. the keyword is patience. >> yes indeed. thatat patient fed, patient pause since january, we can add the word transitory when we look at inflation. that is why jay powell things we have seen a steady decline year over year on the inflation gauges. let's listen to what he said at the press conference after the meeting. core inflation unexpectedly

fell as well. it stands at 1.6% for the previous 12 months. we suspect that some transitory factors may be a work. jump to the bloomberg library with me. let's look at the chart that shows this in pictures. we underscore the words. you can see so much on the right-hand side of this chart that you are far away from 2% inflation. much further away than you have been for a wild. jay powell saying that it is transitory, fair enough, but one of our experts pointing out that when you look at the core rate, which has fallen so much, you can only explain about half of it due to transitory factors. lower portfolio management services. that is market driven. they could rise again. andhing and apparel

internet shopping seems to put those things down pretty sharply. and airfares. he said what the fed has said four of the couple of meetings. stance ist policy appropriate. they don't see the need for a move in any direction. we will bring in another expert here. you spent more than two decades at the new york fed. reaction in the market that we saw today. it seems like we were caught a little bit offguard. but then when he came out and said that the next move might saw the cut, you really market lower toward the end of the session. were we caught off guard a little bit today? >> if people were, they should not have been. way he was telegraphing this language, has been consistent now for weeks. they did not see a move to an --

need to move in either direction. inflation is a bit soft. but on the whole, it is not a bad environment to be in. there is really no movement either way. i think the market got a little bit ahead of itself. it is way too soon to be talking about a cut. the other buzz word i learned today has been transitory. at what point is of inflation to low for too long that it is no longer transitory? >> i'm not sure what transitory means in this context. have a move in energy prices. let's say an increase will have a temporary impact. it moves to the value chain. after a while, it washes out. that shift up his transitory. it can work the same way when you have a downshift in energy prices. that is usually what we think about. reason isarel, the

internet shopping. it is not sure to me that that is transitory. that may be the new state of affairs. what is inches thing is that in the last few months, energy, which is usually the cause of transitory dynamics, has actually been going up. it has been going in the other direction. i was a little surprised that he invoked transitory, that word, and that way. your other question was how low is to love? -- too low? i looked in the bloomberg terminal before i came here. taylor: shameless plug. [laughter] >> the average year over year rate of the core is 1.7%. that includes the. of 2008 and 2009. we have had low inflation for quite a long time. i'm not sure why people are getting so excited about 1.5%.

that is really tracking that long-term average that we have seen. if people are average to buy shoes or apparel for cheaper prices, i'm not sure that is a bad thing. you know full well the federal reserve has made it very important to hit that 2% target. they are having a monetary policy review. it is sohy i think difficult for them to see inflation falling and say don't worry, it is transitory, we don't have to do anything. i think it raises the question. let's hammer it more. does that get the fed in trouble in a way? if you don't follow your own rules? >> i think what you are hinting at is maybe the problem with having a point target as opposed to a range. the fed is focusing on 2%. a lot of other central banks are focusing on 2%.

the argument that other economists have put on the line is that you should have a range. rarely will you hit the point exactly. you don't want to be criticized for being a couple of percentage points above or below. there is this fixation with 2%. in a way that is unhelpful. inflation dynamics do change over time. you don't really understand what causes higher inflation. economists have struggled to explain why it has been as low as it is with the unemployment rate being where it is. taylor: i assume manufacturing had a pretty steep drop. new orders were falling. jay powell has brush that off. is he counting on the end of a trade war and a trade deal being signed to get that export going again and getting manufacturing going? >> if he is, he is probably

overstating that. we have seen this trap off globally. on the one hand, the consumer looks pretty good. but the industrial economy is starting to weekend. that does tend to be the sector that leads late in the cycle. and the one that turns over first. that really does bear watching. so where does this leave us for the rest of the year? do you expect the fed to use later? you hit the right point with that last remark about the data. of course they will be watching the data. we should all believe them. as long as the economy is going well and inflation is relatively well-behaved, they will stay where they are. market likes to see movement.

they will speculate about the upside and downside in the next two months. there is no reason to expect that they will change in the next few months. unless you have some cataclysmic market event. otherwise, it is likely to be a move in the second half. but which direction? havedepends on whether you continued weakening. or do you have continued growth that ends up taking up inflation. it is way too soon to speculate on that. there is no evidence to push it effectively into either direction. thank you for joining us as morning. we will have a lot more analysis on the fed decision. ahead, and infusystems says on going uncertainty around brexit is one of the key concerns. we will have more from an

exclusive interview. up next, steve mnuchin says the latest talks with china were productive. this is bloomberg. ♪

taylor: u.s. stocks fell and the dollar rose on fed chief pals analysis of the economy. was there big movers? >> what we saw is the markets seem to be going toward those records, then dropped off after the fed comments. let's go into this market snapshot real quickly. we saw oil take a big deep as the inventories that usually come out in the wednesday that that were more various than expected. gold went on a wild ride.

trying to interpret what the language of the fed meant. it's go into some of the big movers. which was a lot of the follow-through on the earnings data. amd went slower but had a pop at some point. twilio, that is a software maker. a lot of analysts were concerned about valuation at this point. let's go into the bloomberg real quick. of these stories have been positive for the most part. you will notice that the latest chart watchers indicate that tech continues to power higher even though there are some individual concerns that are stock specific about valuation. thank you very much. the latest round of trade talks have wrapped up in beijing with secretary steven mnuchin calling them productive.

will continue in washington next week. let's see what we can expect. discussions in beijing go? message from steve mnuchin. he called them productive. he did not give a lot of details. they are scheduled to meet again next week in washington for some further talks. china has taken some anchor mental steps toward loosening regulations on financial services industries that will countries and other into the chinese market. some steps.ing at the same time that the trump administration is putting pressure on china, signaling in patients with the progress of the talks. that we should know in a couple of weeks whether they will result in an agreement or fail.

it is heading into next week that they are still talking. there has been some progress we have seen here. there is another tough week ahead. taylor: so much of the focus is on jay powell. but we cannot forget william barr's testimony. confirmingeadline will not testify to the house committee. what did we learn from them today? >> it was something of a political test. she testified that he handled the release of the report appropriately. reflectivemmary was of the findings. that is disputed by democrats. and also by a letter that m ueller sent to barr. fight is shaping up with the house democrats wanting him to be questioned by

lawyers from their committee. and he has declined to do that. that may set up a real fight over subpoenas. possible contempt citations. it will certainly add to democratic calls for barr to be impeached or to resign from his office for the way he handled the report. thank you for watching those stories for us. coming up, taking a hit. qualcomm shares fall on weak demand. we will have the details next. this is bloomberg. ♪

let's take a look at the top global tech stories of the day. zynga mobile game pioneer

monthlying subscriptions. users who sign up will be given next accountant. shares soared in after hours as the company be projections. stock is up 40% this year. tesla is being sued over a fatal crash in california. the autopilot system allegedly malfunctioned and steer the car into a concrete barrier on the highway. in the complaint, the family of the driver who died said the model lacked safety features like a properly functioning emergency braking system. and the square slumped in late trading after getting a disappointing forecast for the second quarter. it has not adjusted revenue. million below5

expectations. square blames increasing competition from rivals. those are the top global tech stories we are following. 's forecast got a big boost from its legal put out from apple. the chipmaker expects third-quarter revenue to be about $10 billion. half of that will be a one-time payment from apple for unpaid licensing fees. despite that, businesses have been disappointed with the company's performance. and we werenumbers on the call. how bad do they see this week? has had two problems. one was the apple litigation. not that that overhang is removed, apple -- qualcomm's business model has been vindicated. they become an investable story once again. that is going to some bumps in the road.

the market is weak. especially in the high-end handset market. qualcomm makes money in two ways. it sells chips to phones and it makes royalties off the phones. at high and handsets, the high-end handset number, the lower the royalty. this has tremendous margin impact. theou look at the sales for quarter, the sales were shortly -- slightly shy of estimates. you will see that double-edged sword in terms of q3 and potentially q4. china macro is a pretty significant headwind. this is an air pocket ahead of 5g. but 5g ramp is going to be slow and steady. makes up for all the weakness we are seeing and china macro in the next couple of quarters. key number that

analysts were waiting for. that is how much apple it inlcomm -- paid qualcomm that one-time settlement. up to $4.7 billion is that high or low? somewhere in between the rosy scenario and an ok scenario. roughly we estimate about a 2% royalty rate. the big difference between bits and potentially other royalty arrangements is qualcomm never had a direct relationship with apple. it's always had a relationship with the supplier. directs is a relationship. a long-term relationship. that qualcomm's business model has been vindicated is a solid thing. >> thank you.

"bloomberg technology." up next, a slowdown and auto sales. we will see why u.s. consumers are holding off on buying new wheels. this is bloomberg.

paul: 8:30 a.m. here in sydney. a warm on a morning. the markets are opened in 90 minutes. futures looking weaker. down for tencent 1%. after u.s. markets closed the fed indicated they aren't neither easing or tightening. i am paul allen. taylor: i'm taylor riggs where it is 630 to your watching "bloomberg daybreak: australia." let's get an update on first word news. we start with fed chairman jay powell who said u.s. inflation is possibly being held back, but what he called transitory -- by what he called transitory forces. though biased toward tightening

or easing. he spoke after the fomc left rates unchanged, adding that the fed's current stance is appropriate and there is no strong case for moving in either direction. powell has been attacked by president trump for not doing more to support the economy. >> the weak first quarter performance was not expected. i do not think is related to anything we did in terms of raising rates. it appears to be more -- we do not know this but you never know until with hindsight. some of it does appear to be idiosyncratic. su: meanwhile, a gauge of u.s. factories fell after --/month to the weakest level since late 20 16 signaling manufacturing headwinds have extended into the second quarter. this as companies continue to face uncertainty about trade. the isn or institute for supply management index slumped to 52.8 from 55.3 back in march, missing

all estimates in a bloomberg survey as a three of its five components the client -- components declined. president trump is to ask congress for $4.5 billion in emergency funds with the southern border, warning that homeland security is in danger of running out of money to deal with immigration. the request does not seek extra funding for a border wall, but may need skepticism from democrats after the president's decision to seize other federal money for that project. wikileaks founder julian assange has been sentenced in london to nearly one year in jail for skipping bail over a swedish investigation into an alleged rig. -- rape. assange has found asylum in the ecuadorian embassy and stayed there since 2000 12. assange is still facing extradition in the u.s. overcharges he conspired to illegally download classified government material. global news, 24 hours a day, on air and @tictoc on twitter,

powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in over 120 countries. i'm su keenan. this is bloomberg. thanks. most asian markets will be back online after the midweek break. what are you watching this morning, sophie? sophie: this morning we are keeping an ion woolworths. sales from continuing operations came in at 14.9 billion australian dollars with aussie food comparable sales rising 3.6%. watching nav in the spotlight after its results. cash profits rising 7% to $2.1 billion. that was waged by a promise. that prompted the lender to cut its dividend payouts. keeping and i on wealth manager a.m. p as it believes another $1.8 billion on misconduct lows. better market conditions lifting fund managers and is forecasting a 10% increase across sectors for the march quarter. medical equipment player resnick

also due to report today. we will be watching reactions to west farmers proposing to buy resources for 190 aussie dollars a share values the company at 702 -- $776 million. they have granted up to four weeks of due diligence. paul: thank you very much. let's get more on what we should be watching as the trading day gets underway. we have editor andrea pembroke with us. the fed's rate decision, the end of the morning widely expected. jerome powell's comments look less a dovish than we thought it how will this pele -- play out? andrea: i think it will be honing in on what the u.s. honed in on her the comments that there is no case for a right hike. there is no real case for a rate cut either. i think that will be the focus. we saw the s&p 500 come off of those record highs. markets have been rallying a lot.

been did -- have building and expectations that the next -- the next move from the fed would be a rate cut. those expectations have been largely won. we have been focusing on comments about factors that are keeping down inflation being transitory, and seeing a healthy u.s. economy later in the year. comments thatish investors had been focusing on until now. trading will also be fairly thin. china and the u.s. we will probably see those markets coming under pressure on what was probably a lot more hawkish tone from powell and the fed. taylor: i'm taking a look at the australian dollar. a year today to come it has shown weakness relative to the u.s. dollar which has shown strength.

you spoke with a forecaster and it seems the aussie dollar has poised a rally. what is behind that? is interesting, it is probably a fairly bald call. next group.t of my they were the most accurate forecaster on the first quarter survey. they see the aussie dollar going up 5%, by the end of the year. are is largely because they seeing this trade tensions easing. the timing of this is interesting because we have that reserved bank of australia meeting next week. -- factoring now in about a 50% chance that we will get a rate cut. it is interesting. they are not alone. bank of america, goldman sachs also saying the aussie dollar will probably be stronger by the end of the year. look, at the same time, keep in mind the chinese economy is

still fairly precarious. from trade talks are far being over. it is a very interesting call from this group that the aussie dollar is going to rally. taylor: aussie dollar set to rally we will have to check back in with asia editor andreea to see if that turns out to be true. let's -- and check out our library for some of the charts we have been talking about. it is on gtv go on the bloomberg terminal. five of the largest automakers missed sales estimates for april. fiat chrysler had the largest drop, followed by you josh followed toyota. let's run through the numbers with our bureau chief david welch. there it concerning this morning when we came in. it was broad-based weakness. every automaker seemed to miss.

what is behind the broad-based weakness we saw today? david: it was a bit of a surprise for a lot of the analysts making these forecasts. march was strong. if you dug into the numbers, there were sales to rental car fleets built in from automakers. ford was one khamenei son was another, that fueled the headline number. it was not a great month. the entire first four months of the year have been weak for auto sales. the market is softening up. interest rates are higher. that has played a role in this. automakers had to work harder last year to beat the 17 million mark, that is kind of what tells everybody this is a good industry. the year will probably finish below that. it does not mean it is bad. car companies can still make good money. general motors is saying with cost cuts, they will be near record profits. that is with caskets. consumers in the u.s. are not

buying. in china, we have seen a step back there as well. it is tough for the auto industry. probably for the next two months. we will know more in may, that is -- really, spring and summer selling seasons begin. that is the big sale. that will tell us where consumers really are. right now, not looking good. paul: we will know more in may. march was strong. tell us about april, what happened then? really you had higher interest rates for one. another issue is vehicles are getting more expensive. the average price gets higher it seems like every month. car companies are charging more, really focused not on volume, they are focused on margins, on pricing. they also have gotten rid of a lot of passenger cars. those were the entry-level nichols for people in the market who did not have a lot to spend. they are heading to the used market or they are waiting longer to buy a vehicle and holding on to the one they have.

you have those macro factors, higher interest rates, high pricing. you put it all together, and it is a pretty weak month. one thing you can say about the car companies is that they did not do a lot of discounting in april. you are not seeing big rebates. the only one that did was nissan. they had finance deals. they had a big month. everybody else did not. the one who made deals really had big sales gains, and that tells you where consumers want to see a deal or they do not see the need to go back. paul: all right. bloomberg detroit bureau chief at david welch, thank you for updating us on those auto sales numbers. the uncertainty around brexit is being compared to the worries that surfaced around the world as we headed toward new year's day 2000. we spoke -- someone spoke exclusively to bloomberg with copresident saying the simmering doubts about what happens next are a prime concern.

something that is a huge concern. therefore, it is a matter of concern to us as well. we work closely with them. we work very closely with our clients. what they are telling us is that the answer to take is impacting them. the uncertainty is impacting the investment plan. and the big concern for our clients is that they do not know what to brexit will take and what it will have -- what impact it will have on the business, on the people, but impact it will have on their and line. it is the uncertainty, and the uncertainty about the uncertainty. nobody knows if there is a fixed rate. there has been a comparison. to y2k. all of us knew when y2k would come to a head. in this case, nobody knows whether it will be june, july, october, or 2020 get has linda

-- or 2020. >> what are you doing? how are you anticipating it? >> i think it largely comes because of the impact we see on our clients and the impact comes on whether it can be mobile beyond the u.k., for instance. that is something we planned entirely. we are working closely on their plan. closely withorking the immigration authorities to get an early sense of what they are thinking. we are working with our employees, especially european employees to make sure we are able to address concerns they may have. has linda: what are the options available for you in securing talent. >> sure. if you look at localization all talent, there has been a huge initiative. if you look at the u.s., for instance, we have hired over 10,000 people in the past 15 months. we have a similar initiative going on in other parts of the

world including in the u.k., in europe, and in australia. also the acquisitions we have done over the past couple of months have helped us build a base of talent. for instance, we acquired a design studio. we acquired a company in the north it -- in the nordic. and we have done something else. >> is that adding to your cost? >> it is also adding to our capabilities in the region. because of the acquisitions. the reason we have done these acquisitions is because we feel they are of political skill and the ability to add unique skill sets. copresident was speaking with bloombergs haslinda amin. up next, is earned -- as earnings season enters into its final stretch, we will be joined by susan schmidt to get her outlook for stocks. that is up next. this is bloomberg. ♪

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taylor: i'm taylor riggs in new york. paul: i'm paul allen in sydney. you are watching "daybreak: australia." u.s. stocks raised recent gains after the federal reserve pushed back on market expectations. the next move would be a cut. let's look at what that means for stocks long-term with investors head of u.s. equities susan schmidt. let's start with the fed. u.s. equity markets take it dip on the news that came out of the fed. there was not is surprising statement, was that selloff overdone? susan: it was a very small did. don't forget we were a new highs for the s&p yesterday. i think it was just part of the flows of thend market. i think the fed statement was supportive of the market sentiment now. the fed is signaling that they

are willing to be patient, not rushing to do anything. it is 180 degrees opposite from where the market was in the fall when they were expecting rates throughout 2019. i think the fed is prudently backing that off and really reinforcing the message of wait and see. paul: another piece of the puzzle connected to the fed is the u.s. dollar. strengthening dollar, perhaps more of a risk to earnings going forward than anything else. susan: i think that is one of the issues. i think the fed is being cautious. we have a lot of moving pieces affecting the u.s. economy. a big part of that is sentiment. we have headline news with trade negotiations going on with china, there is news out of europe, i think the u.s. markets have been focused on the chinese economy as of late and they have been focused on our interest rates. having that 10 year at the 2.5% level i think makes people focus viable investment

of what can they get from those businesses that are showing they can hold their earnings, and get double-digit returns to the investors? i think that is what is driving the market. we have seen a lot of earnings that's far in the season, they have largely been positive. they have given confidence to the investors. taylor: largely positive earnings means we have to take a look at valuations as we talk about a numerator and denominator on the pe basis. if you come into my terminal, we are taking a look into what some people might be calling full valuations here. 16.8 times according to our metrics on the p/e ratio, above an average. a 1-2 are nowhere near standard deviation above that. where do we -- are we follow do we have room to run here? susan: i think if companies show ratesability and interest stay low, we have room to run. investors are being pushed back into the market. they can't afford to miss the

upside. we have seen an incredible run a year to date. we pick our dates arbitrarily. been january 1, it has great. if we go back and include a horrible december, things temper off. investors can't afford to sit on the sidelines, they have seen a lot of upside in the market. if they have been on the sidelines, they have missed out. higher than is average, the interest rates are lower than average. i really do think you have to look at the whole environment and put that in context. taylor: with interest rates talk aboute has been an earnings recession, very different from an economic this -- economic recession. we have had two bears start to come around, mike wilson at morgan stanley, someone from wells fargo, may be recover from what they thought up in an earnings recession and turning slightly more positive for the year. what are your views on an earning recession as earnings shape up to be better than we thought? susan: i am positive on the

market overall. i'm positive on companies showing its ability to outperform and continue to hold those margins and get growth in this market. i think there is a confidence in the underlying u.s. consumer. when you talk to regional banks, they are seeing confidence in their customers. strengtha grassroots that exists in the u.s. economy. we are seeing low unemployment, strong jobs growth, we are not seeing pressure from inflation yet. i do not agree with an earnings recession. i think there is still upside in this market, despite above average valuations. paul: i just want to quickly get your thoughts on europe as well. obviously a lot of risk there. we heard a moment ago about one commentator describing it as the next y2k. we have seen encouraging data. what is your attitude toward europe? susan: from the u.s. perspective which is where my funds are, i think you have to look at europe and look at that as a moving

situation. we do not have clarity on what is going on. we really thought the european economy with the improving by now, we would be seeing tapering and the support from the ecb. all of that is very different than what we are actually seeing. concern,eing softness, and a lot of confusion over the message with brexit. when you combine that with the international position for the u.s. perspective of trade negotiations with china, i think that really did set american investors back. with resolution on both fronts, the u.s. investor is focused toward china and led to europe fade into the background is noise. taylor: focusing on china. thank you. that was head of u.s. equities susan schmidt. more ahead on "daybreak: australia." good morning, asia. this is bloomberg. ♪

103or: south korea's billion dollars sovereign wealth fund is looking to deploy more

capital in china and southeast asia as it seeks to boost its holdings in alternative investment. spokeinvestment core ceo exclusively to bloomberg at the milken institute global conference in beverly hills. trend is looking for the ultimate investment. ,or example, 2017 [indiscernible] 84. would be by 2021. >> are you on track for that? >> yes. >> we have seen several funds putting more money into startups, it is not an area

looks -- you look at. has there been a change in mindset? >> yes. we have had an inventor investment. the last ceo introduced new investment. they clearly can decide what they think. it is a big development. >> they are the startups? -- where are the startups? >> we have one in china. southeast asia. >> u.s. markets? >> u.s. markets we definitely try to target. first is in asia.

it is closed. asian -- four for asia. the u.s. is the biggest market. >> is there a way to quantify the amount that will be invested into the tech space like the startups? know, it is a baby's pet. we try to increase it. i cannot say right now how much. ceo speakingent exclusively to bloomberg's haslinda amin. let's get a check of the latest business flash headlines. national australia banks first profit lows -- rose on business lending growth. cash profit up 7% to more than 2 billion u.s. dollars. the bank was forced to cut its dividends due to mounting customer concert -- conversation

costs. it has paid out it hundred million u.s. dollars to customers who were sold insurance and given poor financial advice. the monster new suv is helping take a sales lead over mercedes -- over mercedes. sales rose in april aided by the second full month of sales. bmw has sold more than 3.5 thousand -- three have thousand more. sales slumped 16% last month. toyota's lexus is the top gainer with sales rising 2.7% in april. plenty more still ahead in the next hour of "daybreak: australia." we will discuss the feds rate decision with fed president dennis lockhart. paul: that is almost it for "daybreak: australia." let's get a quick check on the markets before we leave you. trading in new zealand, the market opened right now. currently will be looking flat. the kiwi dollar holding firm after a selloff yesterday.

futures in australia, currently appointing weaker under .5%. we will have all of the action coming up in daybreak asia next. this is bloomberg. ♪ ♪

i'm paul allen in sydney. we are under one hour away from the australian market open. >> good evening from bloomberg's global headquarters in new york, i'm taylor riggs. sophie: and i'm sophie kamaruddin in hong kong. welcome to "daybreak: asia." ♪ paul: our top stories is thursday, japan and china remain closed. the rest of asia has a tough trading day as the fed pushes capitulation. it is being held back