shery: welcome to "daybreak asia ." i am shery ahn in new york. haidi: i am haidi stroud-watts in sydney. we are counting you down to asia's major market open. halts u.s.rump funding to the world health organization, saying it has failed to share coronavirus at data. the imf warns a downturn will be worse than the great depression. u.s. bank earnings get off to a pretty abysmal start. j.p. morgan and wells fargo announcing the highest loan loss

provisions in a decade and a vote on the virus. south korea heads to the polls in an election seen as a referendum on president moon's pandemic performance. shery: we are seeing qe stocks gaining ground again, now at the highest level in over a month. and this after the u.s. really finished at a one month high for the s&p 500 jumping. we had gains in tech giants. u.s. futures at the moment under pressure, down 1%. nikkei futures not doing much right now. we have the japanese yen holding steady but this after four sessions of gains. we had safe haven demand as we continue to see concerns of the coronavirus outbreak. wti at the moment rebounding after plunging more than 10% in the u.s. session to the lowest level in two weeks. this despite that historic opec-plus agreement. closedave south korea today for parliamentary elections.

happening right now, president trump having his daily coronavirus presser. he said that he hoped u.s. funding to the world health organization failed in its basic duty to tell the world about what was going on with the coronavirus. whowta -- saying that the must be held accountable. he said that he will authorize each governor to implement a reopening plan and he listed dozens of companies that were weighing on the reopening as well. max neeson,re from who joins us on the phone. let me get started with who funding because we know that the u.s. has already paid out around $890 million or so during its current two-year funding cycle. given that we have an ongoing pandemic right now, around the

world, how will this impact the who before we go to max -- president trump. let's listen into the president at the moment. pres. trump: all the mistakes that were made, something we have to look at. it is very china centric. i told that to president xi. i said that the world health organization is very china is,ric, meaning whatever it china was always right. you cannot do that. you cannot do that. not right, and again, it is not a question of money, but when we are spending $500 million and million,spending $34 40 million, $42 million in the case, again, it is not money, but it is not right. we will see. this is an evaluation period but at the meantime we are putting a hold on all funds going to world health. we will be able to take that money and channel it to the

areas that most needed. that is another way of doing it, but we have not been treated properly. >> mr. president, you mentioned you will be speaking with all the governors. make recommendations. pres. trump: probably thursday. >> what if they do not listen to you or take your advice or obey you? will you consider taking away their federal funding? pres. trump: i don't want to say that. they will listen. they will be fine. i think we will have a good relationship. they need the federal government not only for funding, and i am not saying take it away, but may need it for advice. they need may be equipment that we have. we have a tremendous stockpile that we are in the process of completing. we are in a very good position. the cupboard was bare when i got here. nobody ever thought anything like this was going to happen but it did happen. the governors will be very very respectful of the presidency. again, this is not me. this is the presidency. the presidency has such a great

importance in terms of what we are doing and you can talk about constitution. you can talk about federalism. you can talk about whatever you want, but the best way -- i am talking now from a material standpoint, is to let individual governors run individual states and come to us if they have difficulty and we will help them. testingalk about having and tracing equipment and the facility for that in place to open up the government. dr. fauci said this morning that that critical testing and tracing ability does not currently exist. pres. trump: i don't know about that. i don't know. i don't know what he said. nobody knows. >> my question is, will it exist by may 1? gita: the individual -- pres. trump: the individual governors have testing. we have many forms of testing and new testing is being developed. our country has to get up and. -- opened.

and it will get open, and it will get open safely and hopefully quickly. some areas quicker than other areas, but there is tremendous testing and the governors will use whatever testing is necessary and if they are not satisfied with their testing, they should not open, but they will use ever testing is necessary. go ahead please. you, mr. president. will you support the organization again if he is immediately replaced? pres. trump: we are doing an investigation. i do not know the gentleman but i know there's been problems and it's been very unfair to the united states, just like the wto has been very, very unfair, and now, they are coming into line. they consider to china in developing nation and because china is a developing nation, they take massive advantage of the united states. why didn't other presidents stop this? we are looking at that very strongly. world trade. i have a problem with world

health, world trade, both of them. i am not sure which is worse, if you want to know the truth, but we will figure it out, ok? >> mr. president, you are just praisingng the who for china as transparent but you were saying many of the same things about china just a couple of months ago. i mean, how do you swear your decision? -- square your decision? pres. trump: we are going to be watching very much to see -- we have a little bit waylaid by the virus, but look, i would love to have a good relationship with china, but if you look -- we made a phenomenal deal. china has paid, because of me, china has paid us tens of billions of dollars over the course of a very short period of time. some of that money has been spent to farmers, where they were targeted by china. we cannot let that happen. we cannot let that happen. so we ended up signing a very good trade deal. now, i want to see if china

lives up to it. i know president xi. i think he will live up to it. if he does live up to it, that will be ok, too. we have very good alternatives. >> mr. president -- >> 600,000 cases, 2500 deaths. i know you want to blame the who but i have spoken to hundreds of people saying they still cannot get tested. they are not social distancing. excuse me.: excuse me. i know your question. the governors are supposed to be testing. it is up to the governors. go ahead, please. quiet. quiet. quiet. >> if we could get back to -- mr. president -- [crosstalk] >> they are not social distancing -- pres. trump: the governors are doing the testing. it is not up to the federal government and it has not been up to the federal government. [crosstalk] pres. trump: i told them, when

they put this guy here, nothing but trouble. he is a showboat. if you keep talking, i will leave, and you can have it out with the rest of these people. if you keep talking, i am going to leave, and you can have it out with them. just a loudmouth. go ahead. listingou basically your slow the spread before the may 1 deadline? pres. trump: the governors are going to be running their individual states. some of them will say i cannot open now and some of them may last longer than we even with think. others will say i can. i don't want to mention states, but there are numerous states that are in great shape right now. they are viewing the rest of the country like we do not even believe this is happening. we have a lot of those states. they are set to open practically now. i mean, they would be open now. you're going to let them open sooner than the date. it will be very soon. sooner than the end of the month. but there are many states out there that are looking at this,

and they are reviewing it, and they are saying we should not be even included in this. you know, there's some that want to open up almost now. if we disagree with it, we are not going to let them open. if some governor has a lot of problems, a lot of cases, a lot of debts, and they want to open early, we will not let it happen. we are there to watch. we are there to help. but we are also there to be critics. and on testing, very important, we have always wanted the states to do the testing. we are now providing great testing, but the state has to provide the great testing. the state has to provide the ventilators, but they did not do that, so we ended up going into the ventilator business, essentially, and we made tens of thousands of ventilators, and we g problem for the states, but we want them to do the testing and we are there to help. one question. just one. >> can i follow-up on -- can i follow-up on jordan's question?

do you want to walk back to where you did praising china in january for being transparent? pres. trump: i am always respectful of china. i am respect for live other countries. in the meantime, china has paid us nothing in your last administration, nothing in any previous administration. they paid us tens of billions of dollars because of what we have done. and the trade deal we have, they have to give us 250 billion dollars in purchases. let's see if they do that. and they are also paying us 25% or $250 billion in tariffs, so we are taking an billions of dollars for china, from china. they never paid us $.10. that is a great thing. now, if they do not produce, or if we find out bad things, we are not going to be happy, but right now -- and we are doing that. that is what we are doing. look, we have an investigation underway. we are paying almost $500

million. we have an investigation underway on the world health organization. we will find out exactly what went on, and we may be satisfied that it can be remedied, and we may be satisfied that it is so bad that it cannot be remedied, and if it cannot, we are going to go a different rout. >> you were criticizing the who for praising china for being transparent but you also praised china for being transparent. pres. trump: i don't talk about china's transparency. if i am so good to china, how come i was the only leader of a country that closed our borders tightly against china? and by the way, when i closed our border, that was long ahead about what anybody -- you can ask anybody that was in the room. 21 people. i was the one person that wanted to do it. debra can tell you that better than anybody. i was the one person that wanted to do it. you know why? because i don't believe everything i hear. if we did not close our border

early, very early, long before the kind of dates you are talking about, we would have had probably hundreds of thousands more deaths. please. >> i am talking about how you -- >> last week, you said you would have data in the coming days about the coronavirus disproportionately impacting black americans. pres. trump: that is being worked on very strongly. >> when will you have that? pres. trump: within two weeks. we are working on that very strongly. cdc is working but we are getting reports on that. please. go ahead. in the back. yes. >> you are talking about reopening parts of the country by the end of the month. if you do that, and as a result, you see a spike of cases in those areas, -- pres. trump: some countries have and some countries have not. i am watching other countries, starting other countries as they open. i don't want to get into names because for some, it would be a little bit bare sing. i am studying other countries as we go along. we have looked at every country that has opened. some successfully, some ok. no total disaster, but some ok.

and some have to go back to the hotspot and fix the hotspot. we think we are going to do it very successfully. again, we have one country but we have lots of different pieces. the puzzle. we have beautiful pieces, beautiful states with capable governors. they know when it is time to open. we do not want to put pressure on anybody. i am not going to put any pressure on any governor to open. i am not going to say to governor cuomo, you have got to open within seven days. i want him to take his time, do it right, and then open new york. i am not putting any pressure on the governors. some of them do not need pressure. they are ready to go. and that is a good thing. we will open it up, and beautiful little pieces as it comes along. please, go ahead. >> just a quick question. you spoke about governor cuomo. i wonder if you have any thoughts on some of his remarks from earlier today where he basically said that were new york to be pressured to be opened, it would cause a constitutional crisis and he

basically said that you have declared yourself king trump. pres. trump: i heard he said that i did not see the remarks. he understands how we helped him. he needed help. we gave him 2900 hospital beds. he did not use them. we gave him a ship. he did not use it. i am saying that is good because that means he did not need them, but we said it was too much but we wanted to -- we said toerr on the -- to err on the side of caution. we said we don't think you needed that if you do, we will have it built. the army corps of engineers did a fantastic job. the u.s. navy did a fantastic job. we had the ship redesigned for covid. they still did not have very many people going in. now, we will get along just fine. he understands. we will get along just fine. president, how do you ensure workers --

-- getting sick. pres. trump: talk up louder. >> what is your assurance from workers who are asked to go back to work but are fearful? pres. trump: the governors will want to make sure everything is safe. companies can do testing on may be weekly basis. you have to do it every day with the same worker, but they can do testing. they can do temperature gauges. making do a lot of different things. we are only talking about for a period of time. eventually, we want to get back to where we were. we want people actually sitting next to each other in ballgames. we are not going to rip out every other seat in baseball stadiums and football stadiums. we want to go back to where we were. we want people to understand that. we will not be like the way you are. 300 reporters in the back that want to sit. look at the way this looks. i don't even like the way it looks although i have a lot fewer reporters. that's ok with me. look at the way this looks. i have never seen anything quite

like it. there are a lot of people. we don't want this. i don't want this. eventually, we are going back. restaurants had 150 seats are going to have 150 seats, not 50 seats because they cannot make it at 50 seats, but more importantly, the atmosphere is even better. we have to get used to it. i don't know that people will be shaking hands as readily. some well. some of the hospital people today -- will people be shaking hands again? most of them said probably. because there is some kind of a theme to it. i was never a big hand shaker, but when i ran for politics, i said i think i better start shaking people's hands. >> a couple of financial questions if i could. larry kudlow said this morning that the current run rate, the paycheck protection money will run out very soon. do you plan to re-up it? it stalled in congress. what can you do as president to try to move that forward? pres. trump: we are trying to get that done.

last time, the democrats put kennedy center -- i have great respect for kennedy center, but i hated putting it in the bill because it is just not appropriate, right? but they want it it in. they had their own political reason. i said watch the way that blows up. i think it blew up in their faces. we want to take care of our workers. we will worry about other pet projects of democrats and also republicans later. but it's been a tremendously successful program. i think you see it. the banks have stepped up hundreds of thousands of loan applications approved. it has been a tremendous program. really, it has been. and obviously, it was at a point where we are almost -- we are almost -- the money will be expired, and we could use that for the workers. we want to be able to make sure that small businesses stay open, john, and i think that will happen. go ahead. >> california's governor sent

out a list of criteria for reopening the economy. that you said earlier there were as many as 20 states that could reopen their economies as early as may 1. pres. trump: there are 20 states. i was given 29 states who are in very, very good shape. i don't want to say whether or not the governors spoke with me about that but we have had a very good relationship, gavin newsom, and a very good relationship. in the back. go ahead please. >> i have two questions. pres. trump: one question. >> it is for a person who cannot be here. pres. trump: who cares? if you cannot be here, that's too bad. >> one question i have about -- an economist says that there is a danger that the food supply could be interrupted during this pandemic, and i wanted to know what you are going to do about it. pres. trump: i think our farmers

are incredible. they are producing unbelievable levels of food. our transportation, that is one of the reasons i have the transportation people on the line tomorrow for the delivery of the food. we are doing phenomenally with the food and i will say the stores program walmart, which is a lot of the food, and many of the stores, they seem to be in very good shape that i have not heard that at all. we will be very strong on food supply. how about one more question? >> the death projections you mentioned earlier are based on full social distancing until the end of may. so if you ease up on these guidelines now, how many more americans do you think are going to die? pres. trump: we will have guidelines even for the states that open. and they will be guidelines. but we will not have any problem with that. your questions are very interesting, but the state center opening are not states which will have a problem with that, plus they will have to adhere to guidelines until a certain point into the future when the enemy is vanquished.

>> the reason they do not have a problem now is because of social distancing. if you ease the guidelines -- pres. trump: and some of that will stay in effect. much of it will stay in effect for a period of time. there are different kinds of states. they have lots of room. they have fewer people, and they have lots of room, and that is one of the primary reasons. i want to thank you all very much. a lot of positive things are happening. we will have some very strong recommendations for the governors. we are going to work with the governors. the governors are going to do a good job and if they do not do a good job, we are going to come down on them very hard. we will have no other choice. thank you all very much. thank you. thank you. >> how on earth -- shery: president trump's press conference on the coronavirus outbreak. he was talking about 29 states being in good shape. they could reopen their economies even before may 1, saying he will authorize each governor to implement reopening their economies, and of course, another big piece of news during

this press conference was the fact that the u.s. will be halting funding to the who given how they have reacted to the coronavirus outbreak, and their relationship to china. let's get more from max neeson. max, let me get started with one of the big news today, which was the who, and as i was asking earlier, i was wondering how much this will hurt an impact the institution right now, given that there is already a funding cycle going on and the u.s. has contributed more than $800 million already. max: yes, so it seems unlikely that there will be an immediate the day-to-dayof funding of the organization, especially because the president's was sort of vague. you know, it is an investigation, it is not something where they are pulling a check that they would go out in the very near term. it sounds like, but in terms of

whether this is a good idea to threaten the funding of the world's public health organization in the middle of a pandemic, obviously not. you know, you can find issues with parts of the organization's response, but they are absolutely critical, especially ,n developing countries delivering aid, managing diseases,s and global trials for vaccines, looking at some of the potential therapeutic options, so you know, even to threaten it, even if it will not have any immediate financial impact, is irresponsible and also pretty clearly an attempt to deflect from questions about the president's handling of the crisis itself. we are just getting some more lines crossing the bloomberg at the moment, taking a look at what we are seeing just at the moment. house democrats saying president trump no authority to hold the

funding that is directed to the world health organization, so it sounds like, you know, a tussle is being set up there, but i am wondering, as you say, the president seems to look at world trade and world health funding as something that goes one way, right? the u.s. pays for this to help other countries. in what ways will this be detrimental, it cut to funding to the who, detrimental to the united states? you already mentioned global coordination when it comes to vaccine trials. max: yes, that is one of the critical ones. also, this is a pandemic, one that spread from country to country, and you need to have a coordinated international response. if you leave everything up to individual countries or halt aid to other countries, you just have more sources of transmission around the world. if you want to get back to normal, you cannot ban travel throughout the world, so it is crucial to have an organization work.- doing that kind of

between epidemics, that is the organization that is doing the hard work of monitoring, of advancing science, of advancing public health around the world so you have better outcomes when there is a crisis, so the u.s. absolutely does get a lot from the world health organization, even though that is not what you are hearing from the president at the moment. shery: when the president says that if they look at the who, and they don't like what they see, that they could go a different routes. what would that routes like even within the united states? we have seen criticism about the trump administration letting those officials handle the pandemics, just be dissolved. not to mention that they tried to really seek some cuts to the budget at the cdc as well. idea of, so i mean, the the trump administration creating some kind of new global public health infrastructure does not exactly engender

confidence when it has not supported or listened to the one that it has in the united states for the most part. is no actual there alternative. it is just the president suggesting that there is some kind of theoretical better option when one, as far as i know, does not exist. it has to be built in the middle of a pandemic, when the country is still struggling to get sufficient levels of testing, let alone think about how to internationally coordinate the response to the world's public health problems, which go well .eyond just this coronavirus the who does so much other work. it is successfully combating anna bola -- epidemican opal -- an ebola epidemic in africa as well. shery: please explain to me what the relationship is between the federal government and dates, because when we were coming into

this pandemics, president trump kept insisting that stockpiling, that testing was on up to the states. right now, he is saying he has authority when it comes to reopening the economy. max: the president seems to the degreemind about of his executive authority and the federal government's authority on sort of a daily basis. you know, when it is an issue that has been something of a failure, he immediately says it is the states fault. when it is a priority of his, like rapidly reopening the economy, immediately, he has the power. you know, there is not a kind of fundamental, constitutional basis one way or another. it is just the president's interpretation of what is politically advantageous at the moment. haidi: thank you so much for going through all of this with us.

max neeson after what was a very eventful press briefing from president trump. we have lots more to come including more analysis of the who funding cuts from the u.s. this is bloomberg. ♪ these days you need faster internet that does all you

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>> i am karina mitchell. let's get your first word headlines. the imf warning the so-called lockdown recession will be the deepest in almost a century and says a global contraction and subsequent recoveries will be worse than forecast if the coronavirus is not halted. in its first world economic outlook since the worldwide freeze, the fund predicts global gdp will shrink 3%, the deepest fall since the depression of the 1930's. if things continue the way they are now in the second half, we are looking at severe downside scenarios, so we have constructed scenarios where global growth could fall to -6%

in 2020, and that will be a time when financial conditions will be much tighter than what we are seeing now. haidi: president trump's top infection expert says the u.s. does not yet have the testing procedures to begin reopening the economy. anthony fauci's words strike a note of caution in the face of increasingly bullish productions from the white house -- projections from the white house. anthony fauci said there are things in place that are efficient but we are not there yet. indonesia surprised at the markets by leaving its key rate unchanged although it lowered requirements in the face of a severe downturn triggered by the virus. thank indonesia helped steady after two consecutive cuts, leading the seven day repurchase rate. most have seen a cut of 25 basis points. some of the world's biggest copper mines are being forced to halt production as the virus dampens global demand. investors are concerned about future supply just as data shows

chinese trade would whether the pandemic better than forecast. copper rose to a four-week high of $5,200. global news, 24 hours a day, on air and on quicktake by bloomberg, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. i am karina mitchell. this is bloomberg. the federal reserve has kicked off its program to buy commercial paper just as wall street braces rain earnings season likely hit by the coronavirus pandemic. our next guest says the fed's move has created a once in a decade opportunity to buy high-yield credit. theresa joins us from san francisco. great to have you with us. tell us how having the federal reserve backstop corporate credit here in the u.s., providing a floor, helps asian high-yield. >> that is a great question.

including credit into its buying programs, it specifically targeted the fallen angels which are the companies that were investment grade rated but have been downgraded to junk by one or more ratings agencies. that really does provide a floor for the u.s. how does that translate into opportunities from asia? trying toestors are discern relative value, so typically, they like to compare apples to apples. they want to get paid something country,credit in one and if they see that country offering a higher spread than another, they are inclined to go where they can find a better risk premium, so with that, we still see asia credit offering a lot of opportunities because they have lagged in this rally. the other consideration is the actual narrowing of offer spreads.

typically, most of the investment grade bonds will trade. high-yield may trade at one point or two points, but in the recent weeks, we have actually to fiveeads widen points. with au are transacting five point offer, that does not leave a lot of room to be wrong, program, even the signaling of it has already done a lot for the markets in narrowing offer spreads, which is so critical for any transaction. shery: what are we expecting in terms of default rates compared to the financial crisis of 2008? expect the faults to rise from the current levels so if you look at rolling 12 month default rates, they are hovering around 2%. that,lver lining here is at current levels of high-yield spreads hovering around 850 to 950 basis points, it is already

impounding a very high historical default rate. to assume a historical recovery of $.45 on the dollar, which has been the average recovery rate. we can calculate that the current spreads are already impounding the default rate. if you actually look at the fact that default rates did reach the mid teens in the global financial crisis, we are basically, you know, going to be compensated for that level of default today. ishink the upside down skew attractive because we also think that asia will weather the storm better than other regions. especially given places like china. we are the first to experience the coronavirus and will likely be the first to come out of it. ratesually think default are currently expecting the worst case scenario.

even in the case of a worst-case scenario, credit markets are looking more to benefit and then equity markets given the levels of cash preservation efforts that we are seeing. teresa: absolutely right. i think what we have learned from past crises is that credit markets always tend to be the first to recover. really reason, to understand that capital structures look like a waterfall. when the company gets cash flow, you have to pay your creditors first, and whatever is left over accrues to the equity. and the real crux of the problem currently is the uncertainty around the magnitude of the current crisis. if we can focus on the question of survivability, which is what credit is really about, as long as you have a high degree of confidence that this company is not going to default, then you can actually buy the bonds at a substantial discount and lock in

a really nice yield. equities, on the other hand, are always dependent on a discounted cash flow analysis where you just do not know at this point, given the uncertainty, how much cash flow there will be, because this prices -- crisis could be more prolonged over several quarters. >>'s asia high-yield where you would recommend investors to be now? teresa: yes. i do think that the risk return trade-off, when you consider interest rates, the best skew is in asia high-yield. before,, i mentioned not only has the crisis compounded rates, but empirically, if you actually have the opportunity to invest at today's price levels, you would have actually been able to read very attractive returns north of 10% on an annualized basis. it is just important to make

sure you do have a long-term investment horizon because we could very well double-dip, so having at least a one-year investment horizon and three-year horizon can really enable an investor to have the staying power to hold and to lock in very attractive returns. shery: are there any particular country assets that you should avoid? i think that may be avoidance is a strong word, but we are concerned about local currency bonds in emerging markets. countries with relatively underdeveloped health care systems are really still just grappling with the uncertainties we have just been discussing. two countries that we are more concerned about our indonesia and india. both of these countries have large populations. both countries have deficits of both negative for school as well as negative capital accounts,

and there is no doubt that the fiscal deficits will only get that from the expenditures countries will have to spend to fight the contagion. on top of that is the fact that there has been a flight of capital from foreigners selling. the silver lining is that both of these governments have very strong, decisive leadership to really steer them through the crisis. sign ofe is no inflation, especially with the oil prices hovering in the 20's. it really does leave central banks with more room to cut rates, so the fact that bank indonesia did not cut rates this morning is actually quite a surprise to the investors because we do think that they do have room and they may be saving that for later on. always great to have you with us. it's a portfolio manager,

theresa, joining us out of san francisco. coming up, we have a big interview for a cochairman, ray dalio, who joins bloomberg exclusively at 10:00 p.m. if you are watching in hong kong, 10:00 a.m. wednesday in new york. this is bloomberg. ♪

>> as we heard earlier,

president trump has suspended u.s. funding for the world health organization, saying it failed in its duty and was slow to report details of the coronavirus. he has also called it china centric. we have the power project director and senior advisor for asia. bonnie, how much does this latest move from the trump administration kind of play into the hands of beijing? we saw earlier today president trump saying he has a problem with the who, a problem with the wto, does not know which is worse, but these global institutions are very much his bugbear, and within his playbook. does that really play into beijing's ambition is take more of a global role, particularly as it reshapes and smooths over the way that it has handled the pandemic? i think beijing has seen opportunities that it has tried to take advantage of. that has been presented by the trump administration's walking away from some of these

international organizations. the who being just the latest. we saw this with the paris climate change, for example. the trump administration's blocking of progress. the world trade organization settlement mechanism. they are saying they support multilateralism, they are supporters and champions of globalization. they want to work with the rest of the world, and that the united states is a problem, so in this case, yes, the trump administration's suggestion that it will cut its funding to the who probably does, to some extent, worked to chinese advantage. what has been unusual, noteworthy, to you in terms of the chinese narratives and i guess the propaganda push now that we have had the economy

reopen, seemingly the worst of the pandemic and the outbreak behind it? have been trying to divert attention away from the mistakes that they made in the early phase of the epidemic when it broke out in wuhan. they covered up information. they silenced chinese doctors who recognized the risk of the virus spreading, trying to alert the chinese public, so we see chinese propaganda now that is based on this narrative that beijing quickly got the virus under control and saved many lives, and they are doing a great job in comparison to what many western countries are doing, particularly the united states, as we see cases continue to rise. and so, you know, i think the chinese just are trying to dominate the narrative, suggest that maybe the virus did not even start in china, that it could have been brought by the u.s. army.

this has really injected a lot more friction into the u.s.-china relationship. shery: isn't that exactly what washington is doing as well? we have to watch this promotional video by president trump just yesterday on how well he handled the coronavirus outbreak here in the u.s. after all, they were given around a two month heads up that this was coming the u.s.'s way. bonnie: well, absolutely, the united states and president trump are trying to present their own narrative of whose fault this is, that china should have given us more information in advance, but the reality is that, yes, i think the united states did have a heads up, and china did give us some time to prepare for it, and that time was not used very effectively, but what we see is this sort of

vying of narratives in the global propaganda war, and i am aresure that countries really paying attention to china's narrative or buying the u.s. narrative either. meantime, how does this affect third-party nations? a lot of them who depend both on trade with china, on political relations with the united states, they will be caught in the middle as relationships just continue to deteriorate between the two giants. bonnie: i think that is absolutely true even before the outbreak of covid-19. has beena relationship increasingly competitive and antagonistic, and many countries have i think been squeezed, particularly smaller countries who do not want to be forced to choose between the u.s. and china. many countries have benefited

from what they see as china's economic largess and belt and road projects. they want chinese loans. they don't want to be targets of chinese economic punishment, which we have seen against many countries in the world over the last decade. to they nevertheless want have good relations with the united states and want the united states to deter china from using force or even political or economic coercive measures against them, so we do think countries feel squeezed and that their interests are potentially being damaged as this tension between beijing and washington continue to get ratcheted up. is some of the criticism leveled at the who in terms of its political alignment fair? you would have cemented interview by a hong kong

journalist where he attempted to ask a who advisor about how one member was given the brushoff and he hung up on her. do you think some of that criticism is something the who needs to take on and address? bonnie: i do, and i watched that video, and the who is not alone in u.n. agencies that are being influenced by china. sometimes, it is because of who is at the head. and is case, it is -- think he wants to have very good relations with china. we see this in the international civil aviation organization where taiwan also should be a participant, and it is not, and of course, taiwan used to be an observer in the world health assembly. the executive arm of the who, but it is not any longer, so i think that international organizations want to preserve good relations with china, access to chinese officials, and

in this case, chinese health authorities, and they are really worried about saying anything positive about taiwan. when we are talking about the diseases that don't respect orders, we saw this in the case of sars. we should have learned this in 2003, but here we are many years later, having to learn the same lessons over again. taiwan with its almost 24 million people should not be excluded from the world health organization. thank you very much for that, bonnie glaser. coming up, south korea is about to start voting in an election seen as a referendum on president moon's handling of the coronavirus crisis. preview next. this is bloomberg. ♪

shery: let's get a quick check of the latest business flash headlines. total is seeking 11 billion dollars in short-term financing to whether the upheaval from the coronavirus. lenders have been invited to join the one-year loan agreement with an extension option with bnp paribas and credit agricole leading the deal. total follows bp and royal dutch shell in boosting credit lines as the virus fallout hits demand for oil. sell and agreed to

lease claims in a deal worth $1 billion as it tries to raise cash amid the coronavirus crisis area we are told it will pocket $750 million from bba in leasing and 250 million from a finance company. the deal may be announced in the next week. they want to boost liquidity from the private sector to reduce its attendance on any governments or. to cut more staff by the end of may but will not say how many. at aeo told employees meeting alongside the chief operating officer of we works biggest shareholder, softbank, which pulled out of a rescue deal two weeks ago. they cut 2400 positions last year after its ipo unraveled and terminated another 250 jobs last month. haidi: south korea votes today in a general election viewed as

a referendum. for a preview, we are joined on the line from hong kong by chief north asia correspondent stephen engle. why is south korea going ahead with this election? other countries have put off major political events in this time of pandemic. go toer let a good crisis waste, and it seems to be playing out in south korea with me and upon a perception that early intervention, tackling the virus early, helped moon rebuild support that had been battered as well by the economic slowdown that was phased in south korea, the corruption scandals involving presidential aides. there was increased tensions with north korea. keep in mind south korea was one of the first global hotspots for the coronavirus, initially number two encases cases after china, but it acted fairly swiftly in the main areas of the epicenter, lockdowns and

widespread testing. south korea now, according to the johns hopkins coronavirus resource website, is 22nd on the list of number of cases with 10,564 cases 222 deaths. -- cases and 222 -- p they looked like they were heading for a defeat in this election, but then the virus kind of swallowed up all of the other controversies, and there are 300 seats up for grabs in the national assembly. the democratic party has 120 seats. the main opposition has 92. they have a sizable lead. they will be looking to add to that. politicstching korean for years, it has always been very difficult to gauge where the parties stand on particular issues. when it comes to the economy itself, does the main opposition party have anything to different from the governing party at this point? stephen: that is an interesting

question because the outbreak has actually brought the main opposition actually closer to moon on those issues of support for the economy and economic stimulus. the only real big question is how much economic stimulus will the various parties, you know, push for? moon wants a second budget to have direct payments to households. the opposition, he wants even bolder stimulus, and if they pull off a surprise victory, because, again, as you know, south korea elections are wild. they have had various upsets in the past. he has wanted to see or perhaps we could see more corporate tax cuts move higher on the economic agenda, but generally speaking, they have, in lockstep, the economic stimulus, given the coronavirus epidemic is a priority. however, just how to do that is the big question. keep in mind, moons record on the economy has been mixed.

originally, he was elected on promises to boost income of her average koreans, address widening wealth gaps, and also kind of curb the influence of conglomerates, but you know, that move to double digit increases in the minimum wage in 2018 and 2019, that triggered layoffs, so that backfired. it will be interesting to see if his plan for a second budget and more stimulus and direct payments to households will gain him more seats in the national assembly. shery: stephen engle in hong kong, thank you very much for the latest on korean politics paid we will get you more perspective on the election. we are joined by the bank of america securities. that's get you a quick check of the markets right now. we are seeing kiwi stocks gaining ground at the highest level in over a month. sydney futures unchanged at the moment. of course, we do continue to watch the aussie dollar. we are getting westpac april consumer confidence numbers out of australia as well. a little bit of pressure for nikkei futures in u.s. futures

at the moment. this is by the fact we saw the s&p 500 jumping to one month highs. plenty more to come on "daybreak asia." this is bloomberg. ♪

>> good evening from bloomberg's global headquarters in new york. i'm shery ahn. haidi: australia and japan have just opened for trade. welcome to "bloomberg daybreak: asia." our top stories this hour -- president trump steps up his fight with the world health organization. he is holding u.s. funding. u.s. airlines take off in late trade after aging agreement on the liens of aid -- on billions

of aid. a vote on the virus. south korea heads to the polls in an election seen as a referendum on president moon's pandemic performance. shery: japan and australia coming online. australia away on parliament reelections. the nikkei down 0.5%. topix also down four times of 1%. -- four tenths of 1%. significant strength for the japanese yen throughout the week. four sessions of gains against the u.s. dollar. a report saying the boj will ease corporate difficulties later this month. we have seen the stimulus package worth 20% of gdp in japan amidst cases in the coronavirus cases in the country continuing to rise. this coming on the back of more gains for u.s. markets. the s&p 500 jumping to a one-month high. we are seeing pressures for u.s.

futures. taking a look at the staggered open going into the start of trading in sydney, we saw ozzie stocks, -- ausie stocks, asx 200 up 21%. half of the subsectors trading in sydney have entered bull markets independently, up 20%. yet to catch up. it doesn't look like consumer staples will get there. we are seeing weakness in the first few minutes of the staggered open in sydney. we are seeing continued strength from the aussie dollar. in yesterday's session, it was the best performer against the u.s. dollar. optimism continues to build into whether we will go into every opening of the businesses shut in australia. we are continuing to watch

performance in new zealand, kiwi stocks entering a bull market as well. the government performance has been pretty lauded as being swift and the clarity applauded as well. this is what we see when it comes to the oil patch. markets disappointed by the opec plus agreement, citing it is ultimately not enough to deal with the demand obstruction story. we have a containment story for brent and wti whitening. president donald trump has instructed his administration to temporarily hold funding to the world health organization. china'sthe w.h.o. took claims about the coronavirus at face value and failed to share information about the pandemic as it spread. let's bring in a pandemic expert. great to have you to react to this.

does this really play into the ambitions of beijing? does it surprise you, given we have seen since the beginning of his and ministrations, president trump -- his administration, president trump's playbook has been to rally against global organizations. adam: it doesn't surprise me to hear he made this decision, although it is one of the most disappointing and irresponsible decisions president trump has made. there are a number of faults with the world health organization. it is a large bureaucracy. there are some issues there in terms of how it operates. this is an example of president trump trying to rewrite history. w.h.o. has been on the ball with this pandemic from the start, sharing information readily and rapidly. it is more a reflection of the fact that his administration does not -- did not reflect

early and now he is trying to shift blame to a multilateral institution. in terms of the damage, we talked about the w.h.o.'s role when it comes to coordinating global vaccine trials, top of mind, therapeutics as well. the narrative president trump seems to believe in is the money funding these global bodies is a one-way story, that the u.s. pace to support the benefits -- pays to support the benefits for other countries. what are the detriments to the u.s. cutting funding? adam: the way w.h.o. funding operates are on two different funding strains. contributions are based on a calculation created in the 1940's that would look at a population density, the number of the population and the gdp. on that basis, a calculation is

made as to what countries need to pay dues. because the u.s. is one of the stockist economies, the u.s. government pays around 25% of the w.h.o.'s budget. has as. government also lot of voluntary contributions, providing funding for specific health projects. it is unclear whether those funding cuts in the president's announcement will include those as well. either way of it will have a negative impact on particularly low income companies -- income countries the w.h.o. is trying to assist. it will undermine the u.s. in the long term as well. -- sees the united states this sees the united states walking away from a leadership role in the middle of a pandemic. we have often looked to the u.s.

as being a leader in global health. it has basically now vacated the field, which will allow other countries to potentially step up and assume that role. >> what other countries would step up? would that be china? adam: china very well could be one of the countries trying to occupy the space in the w.h.o. the u.s. is vacating. we could also potentially see other countries -- they may start to look at increasing their funding to w.h.o. one of the only benefits that could come out of this is we finally revisit the funding arrangements for the world health organization, which have basically been hamstrung since the 1980's when assessed contributions were frozen. the organization has constantly struggled with getting sufficient funding in order to do its work. start to see a

change in the balance of power within w.h.o. as well. >> when president trump says he could be taking his money away and going on different routes than the w.h.o., who does he mean? we have seen the trump administration trying to cut key parts of the cdc's budget, not to mention the dissolution of the group of experts at the white house when it came to pandemic handling. adam: that is a good question. we don't have enough detail as to how president trump is looking to reallocate this funding. he mentioned it will be re-dispersed through other routes, but it is unclear what routes that will be. there are no other international organizations that is as well-placed as the w.h.o. to help low income countries with technical assistance and expertise in the middle of a pandemic. it is unclear where he is

thinking he could redirect this money, unless it is done on a bilateral basis. we have seen in the past that bilateral arrangements obviously exclude a large number of countries. it is unclear where this money is spent and how it will be redirected, or which organizations the u.s. will seek to utilize now. >> university of sydney associate professor, thank you very much for your time. let's turn to karina mitchell for the first word headlines. karina: the imf warns a recession will be the deepest in a century and says the global retraction and subsequent recovery will be worse than forecast if the coronavirus is not halted. in its first economic outlook since the worldwide freeze, the fund predicts global gdp will shrink 3% this year, the deepest fall since the depression of the 1930's. if things continue the way

they are now in the second half, we are looking at severe downside scenarios. we have constructed scenarios of global growth controlled to -6% in 2020. that will be a time when financial conditions will be much tighter than we are seeing now. karina: italy has loosened the virus curb, letting shops reopen as long as they maintain social distancing rules. the list of retailers includes bookstores. the government saying students need to stock up. spain is under fire for letting construction work resumes. critics saying madrid is being reckless. met by video link to plan a coordinated strategy for the virus with their economies increasingly battered by travel and work restrictions. witheeting was hosted delegates saying the pandemic will be brought and deep.

growth targets have been slashed with tourism and retail particularly badly hit. u.s. airlines agreed to april luminary deal with the treasury department -- to a preliminary deal with the treasury department to receive aid. billion. will get $3.2 the money is part of a $25 billion assistance package for commercial airlines as part of the $2.2 trillion stimulus announced last month. 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'm karina mitchell. this is bloomberg. we will hearahead, more from the imf's chief economist on why the coronavirus created a crisis like no other. this as the fund forecasts a 3% contraction in global growth. coming up next, the head of asia research tells us why tech stocks continue to outperform as

markets swing in both directions. this is bloomberg. ♪

haidi: southeast asian equities have risen more than 20% from recent lows with consumer stock leading gains. let's get perspective with julius baer head of asia research mark matthews.

we are talking about markets such as the philippines, indonesia, thailand, all entering bull market territory. i do wonder how surprising this is given the dollar remains fairly strong. mark: the dollar has actually been declining for over a week now. i think you hit the nail on the head. that is probably the reason why these markets are rising. they are inversely correlated with the dollar. there is a general sense that the liquidity funding scramble for liquidity is over and the fed is providing an unlimited amount of liquidity. what we saw with the global financial crisis, even the asian crisis, is these economies can bounce back quickly. so can india, by the way. if we are looking at an environment with a weaker dollar and these markets have underperformed for a very long time, i'm not surprised to see them rising the way they are.

>> when it comes to individual sectors, how interesting is it we see growth stocks outperform while value stocks underperforming, both enable and bear market? -- in a bull and bear market? that it is understooandable value has outperformed in times of high interest rates. when interest rates are low, maybe that is because the economy is good usually. it is not good today. at least when interest rates are low, people are willing to take a chance on growth stocks. i think it is interesting that tech outperformed so much on the way up. it also outperformed on the way down. now we are going up again. i just looked this morning -- amazon is 5% higher than it was even before the virus hit. it is up 24% so far this year.

these companies tend to be agnostic to the economy. they have the lowest correlation to economic indicators, to bond yields. they trade on their strong growth, their great products, their great brand names. if you look at their price to growth rate, it is in the middle of the range compared to the other sectors. it is interesting. the tech stocks are outperforming on the way up again. haidi: there is so little visibility going into this earnings season that if tech has been the slowest to fall and weakest to recover, do you continue adding to that strategy? classes -- youet could be talking about amazon or netflix or communication companies. mark:mark: there are only two

countries in the world that have material technology sectors, the u.s. and china. we like both. i would say take a company like apple where you've got something cash on thellion of balance sheet. you have products and services people can still buy online when they are quarantined at home. one of the best brand names at home with hundreds of millions of users. when you are buying that stock, how much are you really paying for just this year's earnings? assuming -- which i don't think they will be wiped out -- say you are paying a maximum of 5% for this year's earnings. good, quality technology youanies are the ones that should go for. when you've got a

situation where markets are bouncing back into bull territory despite the imf predicting the worst downturn since the great depression, chances of the u.s. recession priced in for the next 12 months, what is even a contrarian view now? mark: i a great. what is being a contrarian these days? clearly the s&p is still down year to date 12%. but it is up 27% from march 23. is this a bear market, is this a bull market? you have to acknowledge, technically, this is able market. how can that be happening with these dire forecasts? if you look at the w.h.o.'s daily situation report, the virus news is improving. the epidemic has been declining globally for the last three days. if you look at the number of total confirmed cases globally.

we are hearing less about economies closing and more about economies opening up -- austria, denmark, even italy are starting to ease restrictions. certain states in america are talking about it too. then you have developments on protection. he st. louis fed president said mass testing can be rolled out. news on vaccines are coming out. could have one as soon as september. then you have the fed's massive intervention, quantitative easing. you put those together and add on the fact that the dollar has been falling, that tends to explain why markets are where they are. shery: mark matthews with us. a respite, but not a recovery. u.s. airlines reached

preliminary agreements to access billions of dollars in aid. we have those details up next. this is bloomberg. ♪

haidi: let's get a quick check of the latest business headlines. amazon has been a standout amid the coronavirus upheaval. its stock rally returned the company to all-time highs. while the s&p 500 is in negative rate -- is in negative territory so far, amazon has risen. amazon has benefited from the closure of physical stores and a surge in online shopping. airbnb is going to raise $1 billion as it braces for an extent it for let from the coronavirus. sources say it is the second financing deal in a week that like oaktreestors

capital. it is building on a deal from silverlake and 6th street partners, both of which are participating in this new financing agreement. office sharing startup wework is to cut more staff by the end of may, but it won't say how many. its ceo told employees of the plan in a meeting alongside the chief operating officer of wework's biggest shareholder, softbank. wework cut 2400 positions last year after its ceo unraveled and terminated 250 jobs last month. >> major u.s. airlines reached a tentative agreement with the white house on federal aid for the coronavirus. president trump spoke about the payroll support program earlier. pres. trump: this agreement will fully support airline industry workers, preserve the fido role airlines play -- vital role airlines play in our economy. airlines are now in good shape. shery: bloomberg's aviation

reporter joins us now on the line. we have seen the standoff between the treasury department and airlines. what was the issue, and how did it get resolved? theyday, they announced had reached deals, in principle at least, with 10 of the largest u.s. airlines. they will get the bulk of the $25 billion that was set aside for payroll relief. i think it is fair to say the chief issue was they were trying to get money to preserve payroll ts quickly as possible, bu several important lawmakers and others in the country have felt burned by previous bailout programs, such as the 2008 banking collapse. so they wanted to impose some

kind of measures that would ensure taxpayers get at least some money back. there was some misgiving occasion about what that was -- some miscommunication about what that was. the legislation passed last month was not clear. there was pushback between the airlines. it turned out not all of the money is going out as grants. has tol be a loan that be repaid. of that 30%, airlines will have to post warrants, stocks warrants equal to about another 10%. it is a sizable amount of money they have to put up in order to get this aid. a sizable amount, but the airlines can't rely on federal funding, right? they are tapping existing credit

facilities. alan: right. that is absolutely true. all of the airlines we spoke to today talked about the certain multipronged approach of taking this money. they have gotten deep concessions from their employees . example,an airlines, more than 30,000 employees have chosen to either retire work -- take unpaidrly or leave. alan, thank you for joining us, bloomberg's aviation reporter. we are getting breaking news. the latest coronavirus numbers out of china. 36 out of 46 new cases reported new symptomatic

cases are being reported as well. no new data when it comes to deaths. lots more to come. this is bloomberg. ♪

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>> we are getting breaking news. for april, consumer confidence for australia opening -- 75.6ing 7.7%, falling to for the month of april. that contrasts the more buoyant picture we had for the weekly numbers. a really volatile set of numbers. confidencesumer monthly figure falling 17.7%. completelmost a

shutdown of the services sector in australia. stores and restaurants closed. just a general dent in the sentiment. let's look at markets. australian stocks regardless of doom and gloom globally one of the many regional markets entering four-month territory as the previous session up 21% from march 21 low. just a bit down side 1/10 of 1% when it comes to trading in equity session in australia. aussie dollar was the best for summer -- best performer against the greenback as we continue to we'll see a targeted reopening of the australian robust recovery out of china after trade numbers out of china in wednesday session came in positive. this is what we are seeing with new zealand.

another market entering bull market territory. more efforts from the government to support the economy as the complete shutdown of the economy continues. japanese markets, we are looking at a downside when it comes to nikkei 225 down 6/10 of 1%. percent.wer by half a we are seeing a resumption of losses waived by consumer names like family mart in japan and downgrades when it comes to japanese earnings as many --panies globally declining when it comes to oil, continue downside as we see doubts of the opec-plus deal. oily: a little rebound on but it feels like the historic

deal did not even happen. the imf latest world outlook says the current downturn could be the steepest in almost a century. we spoke with the chief economist. our baseline is that the epidemic will be concentrated in the second quarter for most countries in the world and continue pensioners -- containment measures will be in the second quarter and then a gradual removal. we will start seeing initial signs of recovery in the second half. but we also have other scenarios. do you see this being led by countries like china and the united states? first in, first out? how do you expect this to build in the coming months? was hit severely in the

first quarter and we have a deep contraction in the first quarter for china. we are seeing signs of recovery, but it is not back to business as usual. growthtters for china's matters what is happening in the rest of the world. numbers are up in china but there are severe lockdowns in many parts of the world and that could be extended and emerging markets are at the beginning of the pandemic. the global economy, it matters what is happening in the world. but if the baseline is right which is that most will be concentrated in the first half, we should start seeing strong recovery starting in the second half of the year. this,an environment like how difficult is it to throw out a forecast when you have no precedents? >> this is unprecedented. usually we like to rely on historical data and analysis to come up with projections but

when you do not have data from during a pandemic, it is hard to do. usually when you have a shock it is the bursting of financial bubble or a housing crisis, which we have seen in the past. but now we have to rely on public health officials to tell us how the virus will evolve and what sorts of therapies might come about. this is difficult. we are thinking about it that as long as containment measures are in place, some sectors are more severely hit than others. travel, tourism, entertainment. if your country relies heavily on these for your growth, you will be badly hit. but it is not just a health crisis. for emerging markets, vulnerabilities are magnetized -- magnified. this is a complex crisis to think about. >> i do not think we have really and theod the shock yet

shockwave back into the global economy yet. what do you expect to see in an emerging market in the coming months? >> i see it as a major downside risk to the baseline, which is things could get worse in emerging markets. we are assuming in the baseline that they will have a more severe health crisis than what we see now. but not at the same level as what we saw in your area of the u.s. in terms of containment measures. that could change and be different. it is not just a health crisis. and reversallapse in capital flows coming into their economy at a major drop in commodity prices. a fragile health system and high debt levels can compound the problems.

area where downside risks are severe and it is important for the international community to pay attention to emerging markets in low income countries. the imf chief economist. now we are joined by yvonne man coming to us from out of hong kong. in asia we are seeing tighter measures in singapore and india. the circuit breaker has been underway but the incremental increasing of measures, masks are mandatory outside. yvonne: yes. three months ago, we heard from the government saying residents do not need to wear masks, only if you were sick. so this is a reversal from the government. positions started to shift a few weeks ago because of reviews from the cdc and the w.h.o. singapore saw a local surge with a record high of 386 new cases

my and 334 new cases tuesday. casesday and 334 new tuesday. rule is face masks are mandatory outdoor. people exercising and those under two years old are accepted. -- are the exceptions. 84% of theork -- workforce already works from home. india, modi extended the nationwide lockdown through may 3 and they are evaluating every town to see if they are forcing lockdowns. areas less likely to turn into hotspot might be able to open up for essential activities after april 20. >> in europe there seems to be more signs of the crisis continuing to ease. yvonne: that's right.

spain, germany, italy reported fewer infections. italy has reported the fewest new infections in a month. overesting has slowed easter. the prime minister extended the lockdown until may 3 and they are considering allowing some companies to reopened later this month. toer countries are starting look at exit strategies. primaryset to reopen schools and daycare centers, which has drawn some criticism. the u.k. might still be in the thick of it. died, up frome the previous day, confirmed cases wrote to 98,873 and we heard from dominic raab saying

it is likely they will announce to extend the lockdown this week. >> thank you. we will have a number of major interviews coming up, including and saudiive director finance minister. this is bloomberg. ♪

the u.s. wherein president trump says he is suspending funding for the world health organization as his administration reviews his response to coronavirus. he says they are slow to share information, leading to thousands of deaths and economic damage but it is unclear when the halt would take affect or if the authority -- or if the president has authority. president trump: i am instructing my administration to halt funding of the world health organization as a review is conducted to assess the world health organization's role in severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus. the u.s. does not yet have the testing procedures needed to

reopen the economy. this from dr. fauci. haveresident and others speculated about lifting restrictions by may. james bullard expects the u.s. economy to recover in the second half as long as the government and private sector act forcefully to tackle the virus. he said there is no reason not to expect a v-shaped rebound despite pessimism. more economists see a moderate recovery. global news 24 hours a day, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. this is bloomberg. shery: south korea is the first major country to hold a general election amid the pandemic. let's look at the issues.

kyle, great to have you with us. economy and south korea is battered by record household debt and consumer confidence dropping. will be successful handling of coronavirus in the country change the narrative for the president and his party? thisthink by all accounts is their election to lose. in december, if you asked people with the key issues would be, you were talk about household and economic policies but fast-forward to april, the key issue is not the election being a referendum of his policy, but how moon is handling the pandemic. south koreans say he is hitting the mark. up 15proval rating is

points since february and the highest rating since february of 2018. but two things could append expectations. first is voter turnout. they are concerned about physically getting to the polls to vote but the government has gone to great lengths to ensure a clean polling environment. three quarters of korean voters say they are not deterred because of the virus. so that should not be a problem. but the other issue is the minor will get more of the seats which is part of a new law change set up in december that allocates more proportional awayg to the minor party from the two major parties. so we do not know what to expect be mostly about

moon and his handling of coronavirus. >> since the start of his presidency, he has been vocal about decreasing the power of conglomerates and south korea. how will this affect the way extra budget funds are disbursed? they already have 10 billion and they want more money after that. >> i am not quite sure how this will play out yet. the conservatives and power have justmore skeptical conservatives and the national assembly have been more skeptical about paying for what the government has done so far to lower income households. but they are also more willing to overlook some of the democraticthat the party is not. so if the conservatives were in

power right now and favored to win, it would make things may be easier moving forward but if moon's party wins, you could see more activity. a platform of reforming the table has not been successful so far and if we see andparty winning today enacting major change to table reforms, we could really start to see change in the tables we have not seen yet. they have not asked for money yet but it seems like a matter companies arehese so dependent on the rest of the world, which is struggling, and they are structurally important to the south korean economy so it is something the government cannot overlook. what are we expecting in

terms of the economic campaigning side of things? electionsmpaign and play into how the economy is shaped as korea gets through the crisis? >> he really could serve two things. and inclusivee-in policies, there has been questions about the validity of what he has been doing but what we see here is focus on helping lower income houses and the lower rungs of society. they have been the ones hit hardest so far. what could validate the the policies the government has in purchasing so far is to help them go through the challenges that have been put up before them and really help move them forward and

enable them to push through so that the more progressive could help push policies through for the remainder of his term. does the longer-term economic outlook then favor the more socially supportive policies? around the world we've seen multiple governments doing whatever it takes now, but all trackwill end down the when the pandemic has been dealt with. >> it very well could. if you look at what has gone on recently, the ims just released the expectations for growth for the year -- imf just released the expectations for growth for the year and south korea does not look hit as hard.

moon might be getting a head inclusive growth focused policies that imf has supported the past few years in passing supplemental budgets. there has been a lot of support internationally for moon, beenre, but there have challenges at home on the conservative side. now things are coming full circle with covid-19 proving how important the policies are and we could see less resistance to the conservative side in south korea and help moon push through the policies and much like their handling of covid-19 has served as an example for other countries, so could they are welfare oriented policies serve as a template for countries as they tried to shoot for the v-shaped recovery from the pandemic. kyle, appreciate your time.

korea economic institute of america fellow and director of academic affairs. in daybreak:p asia. we will continue our coverage of the korean election. this is bloomberg. ♪

>> let's get a quick check of the headlines. for 150 of orders the 737 max last month but travel is exacerbating the fallout from the grounding. how cancellations have been previously announced by lester avalon holdings and other uses opted out over builders. iota says global carriers will lose more than $300 billion this year because of the virus. a jump of 25% from the earlier forecast. sell planesreed to and a deal worth $1 billion as they tried to erase crashed amid the coronavirus crisis. we are told they will pocket 750 theion -- 250 million from buy-in and the deal might be announced in the next week. delta wants to prove liquidity to reduce dependence on

government support. set to havealia hired investment banks by borrowing to the rate of funding. ubs and morgan stanley lead the search for capital to keep the airline afloat. virgin is seeking one and a half billion dollars and weighing several options including loans from the government and considering additional equity from shareholders and finding new investors. >> breaking news. the --.o. now refunding responding to trump's announcement an hour ago that the u.s. will look at cutting saying theyto them, have been favoring china in terms of reaction. now isn secretary saying not the time to reduce funding, criticizing trump's plan to halt

the funding. china is looking at merging the two biggest brokerage firms to create an investment banking giant. i'm going to bring in tom mackenzie. what is this about? it will create a behemoth. tom: it will. government shareholders started due diligence on how to structure the deal. create a major investment bank. there valley that -- they are valued at 67 billion u.s. dollars. they would have $142 billion in assets and 25,000 employees. this comes as china tries to open a financial sector worth

$45 trillion. officials want [indiscernible] is madecurity industry up of hundreds of small players across the country and they want to bring the two players together potentially to increase the footprint in china but there is no guarantee yet that discussions will result in a deal. >> tom mackenzie and beijing. to markethanded over open, let's look at stocks. likeese nikkei trading this. a little downside, down 3/10 of 1%. we continue to see strength for 107japanese yen, holding level. asx 200 under pressure. korean won rebounding half of a percent. closed fork market

that parliamentary will -- parliamentary elections. u.s. futures down half a percent after s&p 500 finished at a one month high. this is bloomberg. ♪ you doing okay?

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9:00 a.m. in beijing and singapore. i'm selina wang. i am rishaad in hong kong and we are counting to the start of the trading day on the chinese. the debate continues about the virus restrictions were nations can go back to work. the imf says it will be worse than the great depression. >>