♪ shery: good evening. i am shery anh alongside haidi stroud-watts. we are counting down to asia's major market open. our top stories, the world leading central banks meet this week with policymakers under growing pressure to support their economies through the virus and looming recession. global infections approach 3 million with death topping 200,000. the rate easing, with several governments planning a restart. oil climbs for a fourth straight

day. saudi arabia already scaling back production ahead of the may 1 deadline. let's take a look at how markets are setting up. new zealand is closed for the anzac day public holiday. no trading in kiwi stocks. seeing optimistic. japanese future going higher going into the bank of japan decision where bond buying could be on the table. watching the japanese yen as it passes through rumors and conflicting reports on the health of the north korean leader, watching for a risk asset. side in asiane trading monday, reflecting the pickup in u.s. trading friday although we are seeing u.s. futures trending lower in the morning asia session. saudi arabia has already started

curving output ahead of the may 1 starting date for the opec-plus output and production curve agreement. four days of gains when it comes to oil prices. shery: global confirmed cases having an impact on the markets, approaching 3 million according to data elected by bloomberg and johns hopkins university. there are signs new cases in the u.s. and europe are slowing. salamat.ng in rishaad europe seems to be easing, but the u.s. still seeing a rise. what is the latest? rishaad: what we have is the italian prime minister is saying his country will start using lockdown restrictions and could be doing so as soon as this fourth of may. that could be a key test to europe's efforts to restart. economies which happened -- have

been dropped to a halt. with caution already underway in countries like germany, austria, of the, at the same time scandinavian nations, we have got a situation with a bit of pressure. that has been building as it does suffer, europe's highest virus related death toll. there could be a resurgence of deaths, and he is saying it is irreversible damage to the italian economy. elsewhere what we are seeing is spain with the, highest number of cases. they are joined by the french, confirming at the moment they are having some tentative moves to restart their economy after what has been in effect weeks of lockdowns. getting back to italian leaders, trying to save their economy, heading for an 8% contraction

this year and it is behind the zero area, even before the pandemic happens. it is adding to the damage of the economy we are seeing and what damages it is, construct during -- construction and manufacturing allowed to reopen, retailers, public spaces like museums perhaps to follow in two weeks after that. from june the first we could see bars, restaurants and barbers open as well. haidi: boris johnson heading back to work later. he may have recovered, but the country has yet to do so. rishaad: lots of work. there will be -- how the lockdown could be eased as early as this week. he came back to work is sunday night, but he will be having his

first meeting of the covid-19 so-called war cabinet. apparently he will be ready to resume his role hosting press conferences. his allies have been hinting he could modify elements of the lockdown before the seventh of may deadline. he is increasingly bullish about the possibility of all restrictions. numbers, may 7, the date the government must review these but if you want to change restrictions earlier, or announced something earlier, he could go sooner as well. the number of deaths at sunday.s sell to 413 on the lowest number this month, 58% reduction on the peak. new cases of the virus also fell whooon the number of people

are in the hospital because of this disease as well and they are saying, or the nhs, that there was a definite trend in the reduced number of admissions. seeing in the u.s. many states starting to plan out phased reopening including in new york state. absolutely. this is a good trend overall. we have a 3.3% increase in the number of people being affected in the united states. we have other epicenters including the likes of connecticut, new jersey, which are seeing a slight reduction. but are they going to go to early? new york reporting 5000 902 5902 cases.

new deaths falling back to 367. with 2016t illinois cases. 59 additional deaths. pennsylvania as well seeing over 1000 cases. they have got nearly 41,000 cases and 13 at it. that is the fewest since april 3. new jersey is the second worst casesed state, about 3000 -- the governor said there could be an additional 75 deaths, bringing the statewide told to nearly 6000. back to you. .aidi: all right ok weaker there in hong kong with the covid-19 latest. let's go to karina mitchell. karina: japan is to extend its virus led state of emergency

beyond early may with the government admitting it may not be possible to lift restrictions as planned on may 6. climb in dailya infections, the first time the number has been below 100. it is unclear how long any extension would last. smallis set to let neighborhood stores open gradually a month into a lockdown that has savaged the academy -- the economy. all must wear face masks and adopt social distancing rules. marketplaces and shopping malls will remain closed until at least may 3. china is pledging to support its virus weakened economy saying the -- the pboc says fundamentals are unchanged and they will make funds available for businesses hit by the fallout. the virus has put china into the first contraction in decades

with increasing reliance on domestic demand to spur recovery. speculation over kim jong-un is intensifying amid reports of a medical team sent to china and movements of his train. satellite imagery is show -- images show one tree like his. beijing sent doctors and diplomats to pyongyang. south korea says they see nothing unusual. 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. week for central banks with the fed, ecb and boj announcing rate decisions. we discuss how the central bank meetings are likely to weigh on gold.

will grind is with us at the bottom of the hour. this is bloomberg. ♪

be an set to action-packed week with several bank decisions and decisions to bolster economies in the region. the bank of japan is first up with analysts expecting another step up in asset purchases. we have the ecb and the fed later on. our next guest joins us now. for all of the whatever it takes policy action we are seeing from global central banks, you are concerned that this doesn't necessarily have the ability to stimulate demand. our previous guest said all of this pent-up spending, demand, policy -- parties, consumption is going to be suppressed and then be delayed rather than

completely diminished -- does that make sense to you? is that how consumption behavior works? >> i wish i could agree. it happens that i don't. the reason is the degree of uncertainty -- radical uncertainty. for every household in the world [indiscernible] economics works in this way. if you have uncertainty increasing regarding your future income, you save. that is why i think [indiscernible] for a long time. central banks will be [indiscernible] it is not even going to the households in most cases. intermediated by the

financial sectors which means they won't put the money except for fiscal policy only in a few countries where you have the helicopter money, hong kong, japan and italy. i don't think it will be easy to create production nowadays. haidi: when it comes to the bank a keyan, as an example of example of central bank that is hitting and pushing the limits of extraordinary monetary policy, how much are they buying by doing bad debt ? has the covid-19 undone a lot of the hard achieved progress that has been made? yes. even before these measures what are announced of additional

unlimited purchases of -- we already had a balance sheet that was bigger than the japanese economy to put it in perspective. -- within banks liquidity. we know it was quite expensive to convert it to basically -- a different topic. you can plug as much liquidity as you want but there are dollar assets [indiscernible] japan.pective in and they will forward that are they can't convert it and increase assets elsewhere. -- they will hoard that. they can't convert it and increase assets elsewhere. basically the point here is that is not going to help. you would need to put the money

where it is most needed. the banks will not be ready to do that. we need to think of a more targeted way to put liquidity where it is needed rather than just central banks floating the markets. at the end of the day fiscal policy [indiscernible] to put the money where it is needed. [indiscernible] keep it in parliament, disposable income and [indiscernible] in this direction is certainly -- the more i see this general flooding of liquidity and wage [indiscernible] the more worried i am. shery: japan has not been growing -- going in the right direction when it comes to wages. coronavirusf the

outbreak, wage negotiations didn't look that promising. >> yes and rightly so. why would an employer porsche -- push up wages when they are forced to work with the current environment, very difficult, revenue being taken down, and we know that with the financial crisis experience, many of these rethinks will have to their policies. so why increase wages unless somebody paid for that increase. help keep wages higher [indiscernible] disposable income up there [indiscernible] olderdon't do that, the -- the other problem is --

[indiscernible] they don't have the demands under contract, reduce their margin to sell. that is why i think [indiscernible] or any inflation. shery: how much will it help regional economies the fact we might see a turnaround in chinese economic data? we are getting industrial profits today and those losses could narrow given the rebound in industrial production already. >> this brings me back to the same point in the sense that we percentres -- 90 plus of factories are back to production. the real question is [indiscernible]

quite worrisome because we see core inflation -- headlight. especially energy. but also user prices are in negative territory. so my fear is we will have very is sonvestor data which in this deflationary environment . this is clear [indiscernible] we got for march, which is basically negative. so that demand is really bad. investor profits [indiscernible] production because the margins will be increased by that much. revenues will be low. pushing down the margin.

[indiscernible] -- spiral [indiscernible] we know how hard it is to get out of that, to put capacity back in. you very much for joining us today. coming up next, speculation mounts over the health of kim jong-un after a series of weekend reports. we have the latest. this is bloomberg. ♪ erg. ♪

shery: speculation over north korean leader kim jong-un is intensifying amid reports of a medical team so from china and unexplained movements of his train. our reporter is on the line from seoul. she has are plenty of rumors including conflicting reports

from u.s. and south korean officials. where are we at when it comes to where kim jong-un is and how his health, how he is doing so far? >> the latest we heard, south korean officials were -- president moon jae-in's personal advisor spoke to cnn and fox news saying kim jong-un is alive and well. he is saying the reports surrounding kim jong-un being ill having been treated by foreign doctors are just short of rumors. reportss to show recent amongst the north korean watchers are very conflicting. we are seeing satellite imagery , saying they have spotted a special train by a coastal area where a lot of

north korea's missile launches have taken place. nhis is the home of where a icbm launch took place. and if he were to launch one now, it would directly the offensive towards donald trump because when they met in hanoi and in singapore, they made a not to beromising launching icbm's. that would be a detailed money north korean watchers could be focusing on. -- many north korean watchers could be focusing on. haidi: we are still trying to get to the bottom of it. what could it mean for south korea in terms of defense? andouth korea's liberal conservative spectrums, many are saying not only is it bad for

the security of the region overall but bad for south korean president moon jae-in's diplomatic efforts when he met kim jong-un, the historic handshake. it means if there was a lack of leadership within north korea, the south korean president has a lack of subjects to call at the other end of the hotline they set up in order to constantly promise a certain level of communication and for a consistent level of dialogue within the two koreas. and in terms of business, we are more familiar with the peace talks from 2018. that could be unwinding. so kim despite a different approach to other leadership in north korea, he has achieved two

things. he has a nuclear arsenal that can reach america and a relationship with the u.s. president. overall a lack of north korean leadership could be detrimental for both efforts. haidi: thank you. let's get you a quick check of the latest business flash headlines. trading in national australia bank has been halted pending an announcement over plans to raise $3.5 billion australian and a shared purchase plan. the suspension came after asus prize -- a surprise earlier announcement. cash profit was down 51%, around $1.5 billion australian. bank said its first-quarter results were above

market expectations, in a statement ahead of its earnings up on wednesday. they said the group tax was 600 million euros -- revenues are expected to be around 6.4 billion euros. customers of the bank of china have taken heavy losses on a foul bet on oil. the collapse of the product linked to u.s. crude futures has surged 10 fold to $1 billion. predictions have risen as information came in from 10,000 local branches across china we -- china. we are told the bill is not final. oil going in different directions. print gains for a fourth straight day and new york crude taking a slide. we will look at commodities with will ryan, the founder of atf provider. this is bloomberg. ♪

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haidi: let's take a look at how things are shaping up at the start of the trading week. kiwi stocks, new zealand off for the public highway -- public holiday. we are seeing upside when it comes to japanese equity futures. tracking those gains on wall street. a decline that -- u.s. futures at the moment. the yen holding steady despite these conflicting reports over health and status over the north herein -- north korean leader. we are watching for the bank of japan today and continuing to

watch oil, which is showing a contradictory picture. shery: during the split here. brent rising for a fourth straight day while wti is down after three days of gains. pressures meddled -- precious metals. let's bring in the founder of granite shares. we saw the oil market meltdown last week and what that meant for u.s. oil etf's. futures going below zero. what does the future hold for these etf's as we continue to see the turmoil and uncertainty with oil prices? will: good morning. thank you for having me. etf's, they the oil will continue to be popular because at the end of the day, they are the only mechanism that allows people to get direct exposure to oil investors cannot -- to get direct exposure to oil. etf'sxt big thing is the

backed by the futures contracts. that allows them to get exposure to the oils future price. as long as oil remains as popular as it has been, it will be demand for these products. shery: where do you see prices going? we are finally going to see the opec price cuts kick in may 5. a little bit late for the may futures. demand is being destroyed because of the coronavirus pandemic. will: right now, the world is awash with oil. we have too much supply. it is a simple equation. we have too much supply on the market and no demand or not nearly enough demand to make any difference. oil inor consumption of the united states is in the transportation sector. with noplanes flying, people driving, there is no demand. of this oil

being pumped. oil tankers, storage tanks filling up. the price in terms of the short to medium-term outlook is negative. things will recover at some point, but i do not expect to see oil prices back at the 70, $80 mark anytime soon. haidi: you expect to see the volatility in oil prices to slow through? you are saying etf's is a good buy? will: i think there will be volatility in a number of different commodities. a shutdown or a partial shutdown of a lot of sectors of the global economy. whether you are talking about oil, natural gas, certain

agricultural commodities, industrial metals, clearly demand for these products will be affected by what is happening right now. even obviously in the precious metals space, you are seeing big demand for something like gold, but you are also seeing supply disruptions as well in terms of mines affected by coronavirus. it is affecting all of the commodities to different degrees. this is certainly something that is not just limited to oil. do you see a meaningful recovery for platinum, the worst performer in that complex given that it looks like it will continue to be hit on the consumer side, industrial side, the contraction in global orders as well? isl: i think platinum

certainly something people should consider as being undervalued versus the other precious metals. the reason i say that is because the main use for platinum is in catalytic converters. they are the devices that clean the emissions on cars. platinum can be substituted with palladium. palladium is used for the same purposes but mainly with gasoline based cars. ath palladium trading more than double the price, there is a case for substitution of the metal. replacing palladium catalyst with platinum. for that reason, i think platinum could outperform palladium over the next 12 months. make no mistake, they are both very much industrial related commodities. the health of both of those is going to be linked in part to

the global economy. another metal in high demand is gold especially with central-bank action. you say etf's are the best way to own gold. what should investors keep in mind if they do go down this route? because, bearat in mind, the majority of my clients or people who buy etf's are looking to hold gold within a portfolio. if you are looking at it through the lens of an investment portfolio, owning gold is really the only way to do it. that is why it has become so popular. i am not saying buying coins or anything is not popular. that of course is a popular way to own gold. you just cannot do that within an investment portfolio. gold etf's are incredibly popular way to do that.

right now, we are seeing big demand for gold etf's, particularly those that are backed by physical gold. do not own futures contract and own the metal itself. when you are looking at that -- because gold does not pay a yield, it is important to invest etf's that are low. look for things like whether the gold is audited, whether the joint -- whether the bars are checked upon to make sure they are what they say in that gold is in the vault. what are your expectations for gold prices? we have seen a surge. investors needed the liquidity. we saw the drop in gold prices as well. will: that is right. i am positive on the outlook for gold. probably the most i have ever

been in my career. i have been involved in gold for a long time. through the last financial crisis, i was involved in the gold market. the performance of gold this time around was similar to what happened in 2008 where you have that initial huge dislocation of panic where people are getting margin calls and dashing for cash. in that environment, they are selling gold and other assets to raise cash to meet redemptions or margin calls. the gold price went down in that environment is like you did year as well. once that -- here as well. once that liquidation event passes, the fear of the broader market dislocation and the fear of the longer-term ramifications kick in. for almostround, every metric we look at, this crisis is just a lot lie bigger than 2008.

the money printing response is a lot bigger. the number of jobs lost in the u.s. has been a lot bigger. the time it will take to recover will be a lot longer. --this time of environment this kind of environment, you will have huge amounts of money and spendingmulus as well. that cocktail of events could cause an inflationary response we have not seen for several decades. haidi: thank you so much for joining us. we do have some breaking news from south korea, saying the third extra budget is expected to be nearly 30 trillion yuan. we did here over the past few days the finance ministers saying the size of this third extra budget is likely to be

substantial to reflect 10 trillion yuan. the steps to revitalizing the economy that has been battered by the covid-19 pandemic. and shutdowns we are hearing. this -- covid-19 pandemic and shutdowns. we are hearing is a 30 trillion budget. withmpact of commodities jp morgan's head of regional research. this is bloomberg. ♪

>> this is daybreak asia. the number of confirmed coronavirus cases around the world is approaching 3 million. that is according to data collected by bloomberg and johns university. more than 200,000 people have died so far with the u.s. alone suffering 53,000 fatalities. lowest inell to the nearly a month. governor cuomo says the worst point is behind the u.s. upn governments are moving towards lifting lockdowns. italy and france are said to announce a gradual reopening after they recorded their smallest rise in deaths in weeks. the e.u. has reported or than hundred thousand fatalities at is bracing for the deepest recession in living memory because of the lockdown.

leading poor authorities in asia, the middle east and north america have signed a declaration committing to remain open. .hey urge collaboration the declaration ensures ships can continue to dock and cruise and personnel to be kept as safe as possible. australia is lunching a covid-19 tracing up that will tell users if they have been in contact with someone who has tested positive. the government insists all data will be kept private. several cities are starting to relax restrictions with beaches in sydney reopening for exercising purposes. global news, 24 hours a day, on air and on quicktake by bloomberg, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in over 120 countries. this is bloomberg. haidi: trading in shares of

national australia bank have been suspended until wednesday after the lender announced plans to raise 2.2 billion in capital. our finance investing reporter is in sydney with the details. it was a surprise on lots of friends. lots of dire headlines that were crossing the bloomberg. what was key to you in this release? >> the key number we are waiting for whether we are covering banks and australia or new york is the banking figures. we know there will be a huge economic hit from the coronavirus. the question is how that will come through on the banks. australia is the first -- it has raised its impairment charge up to 807 million. that is a really big jump that

islects how bad it expecting things to be in australia, which is not seen anything like number of deaths other countries have had. we seeing int are terms of pricing pressure and margins given the near zero cash rates right now? >> it has clearly been an issue for national australia and it had been an issue before going into this crisis. what we are seeing is pushing on banks that were already finding some of their key profit levers were harder to pull. banks are also having to do things like payments holidays. we are seeing a lot of pressure building up here. does this alleviate some

of the bad press and the reputational damage that we saw australian banks suffer in light of the world commission into misconduct with some of the top executives taking a 20% pay cut? >> it is an interesting question. it is one people are increasingly starting to ask. i think the australian banks have responded quicker than some of their global peers. they have potentially been less tone deaf. they have been forward front cuts, which pay will be appreciated. equally, they have been prepared to offer support to customers, even many longtime critics have been relatively supported of their attitudes on this. the question is how long this would publish city will maintain -- visit good publicity will maintain. banks will have to make

decisions about which businesses will never get back on their feet and which will and will need support. right now, they have written public expectation away pretty well. they have some difficult decisions coming up. finance andloomberg investment reporter. thank you for that. do not miss some big guests coming up. ceo will beth care joining us. this is bloomberg. ♪

shery: despite withdrawing is 2020 forecast, intel surprised analysts with first quarter results. bob swan spoke to bloomberg earlier. >> what a wonderful start to the year for our company in incredibly challenging times with revenue growth of 23%, operating margin expanded by 10 points and earnings up over 60%. it was a great start to the year and much stronger than we had anticipated a few months ago. as we go into the second quarter, we raised our outlook on the top line. at the same time, we guided to lower gross margins.

i think investors are concerned i that. our message has been the lower gross margins in the second quarters have functioned as two things, both which are good for our company. first company -- first, we will qualify a new product in the first quarter. a lot of the expenses for that product sloped through the bottom line. it comes back in the second half of the year. secondly, we continue to make good progress on our process yields in the factories. as a result, we are going to ramp faster than we had anticipated. reasons, growth margins will compress in the second quarter. we put those as healthy things and a good indication that we continue to execute despite the incredible and challenging times we are operating in. >> have we seen the peak for

this year in terms of people working from home and bolstering demand that way? given that your q2 forecast was a little bit light, it would seem that is the way things are going? bob: i think that our outlook for q2 is solid double-digit growth, up around 12% as what we are anticipating. that is comprised of two things. one, our data centric collection of businesses, we see growing in the mid-20%. strong growth for our data centric businesses. on the others in the pc, we see it roughly flat or up slightly in the second quarter. that is coming off a strong 14% offline growth for the pc business in the first quarter. do not expect pc's to grow in double digits.

what we are looking at in the second quarter is 25% growth in our data centric businesses. pc business flat after a strong first quarter growth. that was the intel ceo bob swan speaking to us. tuesday, we were kicking it off with google alphabet reporting results. that is followed by facebook on wednesday and amazon on thursday. some believe amazon might be a few -- might be the few of the pandemic safe stocks. amazon has become a key component of how people can function while they are self-isolating in this crisis. >> one of the things a lot of the analysts are saying is we are going to find out how everyone else in the tech space is doing. how bad they were hit and the expectation is that amazon will

do very well. let's start with alphabet, the parent company of google. they know a lot of these digital ad tech demand companies have been hit bed. just how bad was it hit because business and airlines have effectively been shut down. upexpect to learn that right in the front with google. investors are looking to see how much non-surge revenue has come in. we learned youtube and google cloud, which they are reporting bring in billions. we are going to want to see if they were able to cut expenses to mitigate the damage. facebook has warned of adverse impact due to the pandemic. investors will want to know what they are doing to change up the ad trends. what new products they are coming out with. they are going to look at how the 45,000 remote workers that facebook has -- they are around

the world -- how the reduction in expenses because everyone is out there that reduces operating expenses -- if that is going to create a cushion among the damage. we have at least four major companies reporting on thursday including amazon. what are we expecting? su: what is interesting if you look at the group that is going to come out at the end of this week, how they have gone -- how they have done year to date, amazon has blown away everyone. shares are up 50% while other companies are really taking big heads like apple, -- taking big hits like apple, like twitter. microsoft is in the green. let's look at amazon because that is clearly going to be the focus. investors are looking for a big

topline growth. direct e-commerce sales. seller services and ad revenue. they are going to want to look at how they performed with some of the spending growth. those will be very interesting. in addition, grocery sales. how did those come out? a very tech packed week ahead. haidi: big week for earnings this week. su keenan in new york. let's get a check of the latest business flash headlines. jp morgan is looking to help companies untethered trillions of dollars through a new technology partnership. the bank is working with a platform that provides working capital solutions to redistribute the quiddity to smaller suppliers of large investment grade companies. multinationals would be able to pay suppliers earlier or lien on the balance sheet to keep money flowing. china has ordered the owner of tictoc to suspend downloads of

the app after discovery -- ordered to take down facial office tools for about a month. it gained huge popularity during the lockdown. airlines industries has started testing its online shopping portal days after facebook said it would invest $6 billion in digital assets owned by asia's richest man. it has gone live in three neighborhoods around mumbai. the deal gives reliance access whatsapps 400 million users under lockdown purity coming up, we have japan strategist nick smith. last, stephen shorts will be with us as we count down to the start of trading in tokyo and seoul.

this is bloomberg. ♪

haidi: a very good morning. major markets have just opened for trade. our top stories this hour, u.s. stock futures dipped in early trade as investors weigh the latest move. the yen holding steady. infections top 3 million. several government planning a

restart. about kimn announced jong-un's health. but he started with a quick check of the markets. now gaining aht tense of 1%. this coming after four sessions of losses last week. we have seen the japanese yen about 107 50y at level. the bank of japan are likely stepping up asset purchases. they are trying to stop this virus outbreak from destabilizing the financial system, not to mention triggering a wave of bankruptcy. last week, we heard the bank of japan will debate unlimited bond purchases. take a look at with south korea is doing. the kospi gaining for tens of

1%. extra budgetseen passed in south korea to handle this coronavirus outbreak. we are hearing from look up media a third extra budget is expected to be nearly 30 trillion yuan. we have seen a little bit of pressure for the south korea market given the uncertainties around the health of north korean leader kim jong-un. also hurting sentiment. howi: taking a look at things are trading in australia. a quite start to the week. -- a quiet start to the week. we have no trading in new zealand. we do have trading on the asx but no settlement today. this is what we are seeing in those first few minutes. we are continuing to watch national australia bank to see might come of the

trading halt. sale placement as well as the colossal client in first have earnings. the aussie dollar. holding steady. we are continuing to watch the bond market. a big week with ed bank of japan, ecb as well as the fed. this get some insight on the .arkets wi great to have you. let's start off with korea. we have more expectations we will get a mammoth extra budget. at the same time, we have the overlay of dio political concerns as well -- overlay of geopolitical concerns. is this a market you would be opportunistic about particularly with the doubt over a recovery in earnings and a recovery in consumption? quite concerned.

there is good reason to be cautious about everything going on in korea right now. the recent data we are seeing from private consumption gdp numbers, negative ppi. it is all saying korea might be in a weak place. that may be limited from that point of view. the upside is limited here. the economy is plugged into the global economy. ityou look at the exports, is an export led economy. we are not yet seeing any signs of recovery in the u.s. and e.u. to the biggest trading partners. that makes it a bit more difficult. you are right in terms of the response that korea needs. you are likely to see a greater response. the fiscal position is still very good. expectationsthe

are still quite high, they are coming down. inmight start looking better a quarter of so time. shery: i kind of gives rise to a question, which is, at this point in the market where there is expectation of reopening, a roadmap to be had, italy lifting restrictions. we are seeing cautious talk about potentially restrictions being lifted in hong kong as well. how much of a premium would you be paying for safety or is it at this point where you could be a little more aggressive? sat: looking around asian markets, one place that stands out is china. for the reasons you have mentioned. having some kind of recovery and progress makes it easier. north asia's head and shoulders above south asia.

also in terms of earnings outlook as well. looking at fiscal policy, how much room there is for north asian countries to respond to this. north asia looks more attractive to us. within that, some of the domestic sectors in china is also interesting. i think that is important. where case numbers are heading and north asia starting to cp can numbers. quite comfortable in investing in china. start looking at hong kong and taiwan at this point. shery: not to mention that china does benefit from cheaper oil. we have heard beijing trying to stockpile on those oil surprise given how cheap oil is. this translate to asset valuations?

will this transfer to asset prices in china and where would you look? is it still the consumption story? most countries in asia are going to be beneficiaries. we have an extreme level. arerally, low oil prices beneficial for most of asia. china as one of the best places for that. issuesas a host of other to deal with. ultimately, that will be a benefit for china. if you look at what they have been doing, it has been a targeted approach to any issue they have been facing over the last bubble of years. -- last couple of years. as these issues have emerged, trade issues and now the virus, they respond to them in a targeted way. that has been comforting to see that. in the past, it is not that reactive.

negative sectors do look good. a number of companies are actually positive year to date. there is a recovery underway. we are starting to see that production is getting around 1090% pre-covid levels. 90% pre-covid levels. those domestic sectors in china are still very interesting. if it has anything to do with domestic consumption, even infrastructure names, submit and that kind of thing has done well. they are paying high dividends. these things are important in this environment. shery: you mentioned india. what is going on there? we continue to see a surge in coronavirus cases. before that, we have seen their bags loaded with distressed assets.

how big of a risk is it to invest in that market? sat: we have been saying sometime it is a big risk. there has been a lot going on in india before the virus. unemployment, which was at a 45 year high before the virus. now, the unemployment rate is around 24%. limited.l position is there was already a shadow banking crisis brewing. those things have likely got worse in this environment. has you have a market that high valuation and earnings expectation has been to high every year for the -- has been too hi, i think there is a lot to be worried about. that has not done what we expected it would do.

the reform was quite limited. you thereis telling are a lot of things going on that one should be concerned about. the virus is going to make things a lot worse. how difficult is it going to be to come up with an exit strategy from what central banks and governments are doing at the moment without causing an even bigger selloff on the others of this? -- the other side of this? sat: i am not sure there is an exit strategy. we have not seen a normalization since 12 years. there is a blurry line between fiscal and what governments do and central banks do. i think this might continue for years and years. the role of those institutions is changing. governments are being a lot more active in taxation policies.

there was a thing -- that was a thing they do, but the kind of involvement we have seen is unprecedented. if you look at what central banks are doing, central banks know that global equities and liquidities are correlated. the fact that japan is buying etf's incredibly. when that kind of thing is going on, it is going to be hard for either of those institutions to step back from the market. the one lesson we have learned from the gfci is you cannot just stop when the crisis is over. you have to keep supporting the economy. they could take the form of structure. we also face an inflationary environment. with trade virtually nonexistent and everything else going on, we are going to be facing an inflationary environment. stepping backhat anytime soon. there will be a prolonged intervention from governments and central banks.

investors portfolio manager sat duhra. we are now hearing that taiwan will be considering easing restrictions in order to handle the coronavirus pandemic. dailyccording to united news, a newspaper published in taiwan. taiwan considering easing restrictions on virus protection. this as we continue to see virus cases mixed across asia. singapore cases rising, but china reporting no deaths front nine days. here are what some stocks across the pan are doing. nowre seeing a fan of surging trade they are seeing second quarter sales improving. mitsubishi motors is under pressure as they projected losses for the year. let's turn to karina mitchell for the first word headlines.

confirmede number of coronavirus cases around the world is approaching 3 million. that is according to data collected by jute -- by bloomsburg -- by bloomberg and johns hopkins university. suffering 53,000 fatalities. new york state fell to their lowest in nearly a month. the european governments are moving towards the thing virus lockdowns as hard-hit countries report a continuing slowing of fatalities. spain, italy and france are set to announce a gradual reopening after all three nations recorded their smallest rise in deaths in three weeks. thee.u. is bracing for deepest recession in living memory. u.k. prime minister oris johnson returns to work for the first time in three weeks.

a regular morning meeting to coordinate the fight against the infection and discuss when the u.k. plane be allowed to go back to work -- the u.k. might be allowed to go back to work. china is pledging to support its economy.kened the pboc says fundamentals are unchanged and it will make funds available for businesses hit by the pandemic shade the virus has pitched china into the first economic contraction in decades. the world's leading central banks meet this week with policy leaders under pressure to support their economies. the fed, bank of japan and ecb cover half of all global outlets and all have pledged trillions of dollars on asset purchases. all three convened meetings in the coming days. global news, 24 hours a day, on air and on quicktake by bloomberg, powered by more than

2700 journalists and analysts in over 120 countries. i'm karina mitchell. this is bloomberg. still ahead, stephen schwartz will be joining us to break down the region's latest economic outlook. said to be extending eight emergency. this is bloomberg. ♪

haidi: let's get you a check of the latest is flash headlines. trading in national australia bank has been halted pending an announcement to raise three to have billion aussie dollars with a shared purchase plan. the suspension came after a

surprise early announcement on earnings. 51% atofit was down around one and a half billion aussie dollars. dividends were slashed to $.30. says its first quarter results were above market expectations. in a statement on wednesday, the --k said it with a net income of 66 million euros. revenues are expected to be around 6.4 billion euros compared with estimates of 5.7 billion. customers at the bank of china are said to have taken heavy losses on a failed that on oil. u.s. crudeinked to futures has surged tenfold. additions had risen rapidly over the last few days. information came in from about 10,000 local branches of china. we are told the bill could still change.

this is what we are looking at when it comes to training in -- to trading in japanese markets. we are seeing some upside in asia following the gain we saw on wall street overnight. it is a semi-holiday in session with new zealand out of the action. south korea with expectations of a third extra budget. the latest media report saying 30 trillion could be the number. in australia, we are continuing to watch national australia bank with a stock potentially not trading until wednesday. u.s. futures seeing a little bit of that weakness as well. seeing that dislocation between brent and wti playing out with brent seeing four days of gains. lots more to come. this is bloomberg. ♪

shery: as japan nears three weeks under a state of emergency, reports indicate the government is weighing the need to extend the curve the on early may. singapore has become asia's most infected nation after china and india. how much longer could we see the japanese government extending that state of emergency? reports so far indicate the government may extend the state of emergency for as long as several more weeks. as of now, do not have exact details on how long are broad this would be. reportedr of new cases in osaka and tokyo have started to fall. experts say the rate of change has not been as fast as expected. has had the type of full lockdown in the rest of

countries. not have a legal power to punish people who disobey requests. so far, they have strongly urged people to cut interactions with others by 80% and still people to stay home. japan has been criticized for a lack of testing. professor and former world health organization chief says japan needs to massively expand testing capacity to 100,000 a day and the true number of people infected in japan is 10 times more the official count of 13,000 cases. tested japan has only 130,000 testing -- 130 thousand people, which is just a fraction of other countries. haidi: when it comes to singapore, the cases have been escalating. the government has been

struggling to get on top of these massive levels of infections in foreign worker dormitories. selina: despite having one of asia's smallest populations has become a hotspot and has the most infections in asia after china and india. the total number is no more than 13,000. just overtaking the number in japan. singapore has become a bit of a cautionary tale for countries that overlooked their disadvantaged population. singapore was seen as a global standard for contact tracing. experts say that singapore's weak points are failing to do testing early enough. community comprises 1/5 of the total population. singapore'sn 70% of covid cases. these migrant workers are in

close quarters in dormitories. reports of hygiene issues, lack of sanitation, overflowing trash chutes. none of that bodes well for trying to contain the virus. haidi: selina wang there. our china correspondent with the latest in singapore. we are seeing some tentative upsides when it comes to markets that are trading. the nikkei seeing the strongest gains, up by 1.5%. going into the bank of japan's meeting today where they are expected to discuss further action on even more bond buying. australia trading to the downside, about three tens of 1%. the bombshell news about institutional share prices -- share price. that stock halted from trading until we get more details on

these placement measures. u.s. futures showing some an upside onite friday. a path to normalization in the economy in some parts of the u.s.. the mystery of the health and whereabouts of the north korean leader has been growing in intensity over the weekend. we have had multiple contradicting reports suggesting he is either clinging to life or is alive and well. our north asia correspondent has been tracking the development. a big difference between those assessments. of senior leaders in north korea is a closely guarded secret. it leads to lots of speculation when kim jong-un is out of the public eye for so long. he has not been spotted in state media for at least a couple of weeks. he missed the important date on the calendar, april 15, which is the celebration of his

grandfather's birthday. it led to a lot of speculation among the diplomatic circles and the media that he perhaps was ill or incapacitated in some form. that he had cardiovascular surgery that perhaps went bad. the south korean government said that is not the case as far as our intelligence shows. now we are getting more reports over the weekend including one from japanese media saying kim was perhaps in a vegetative state and clinging to life. we have to take all of this with a grain of salt because we do not have a voice from the north korean government confirming or denying at this point. shery: we'll be watching that very closely. north asiale, chief correspondent. coming up next, japan central bank is expected to step up asset purchases.

the bank takes off its one-day meeting. do not miss big guests on bloomberg tv. ceo joins ush care in the next hour. this is bloomberg. ♪

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coronavirus cases for april 26. when it comes to confirm cases, only three confirmed cases. and two of the three were imported. when it comes to deaths, china reporting no coronavirus deaths for april 26. this would be the 10th consecutive day that china has reported no new death from coronavirus. 25 new asymptomatic cases and two has been imported.

let us turn to karina mitchell. >> that news is not so positive in japan which is extending its state of emergency beyond early may. local media saying the government is saying it may not be possible to lift restrictions as planned on may 6. it is unclear how long any virus extension would last nor how it may be widened. india is to allow small neighborhood stores reopen gradually after a month-long shutdown. that savaged the economy. all must wear facemasks. say shopping malls will remain closed as well as marketplaces until may 3. egypt has appealed for financial help from the imf to bolster

industrial confidence amidst the follow-up from the virus. the cabinet says talks are in an advanced stage. toolsf says the lending offer flexible resources. in yemen have declared self rule in aden in the south dealing a major blow to saudi arabia. control risks -- it is a significant setback to broker a deal. fighting flared in yemen in 2018 and has seen tens of thousands killed with survivors facing starvation. global news, 24 hours a day, on air and on quicktake by bloomberg, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in over 120 countries. i am karina mitchell and this is bloomberg. the bank of japan will

likely step up its asset purchase later on monday in an effort to stop the coronavirus from de-the financial system or triggering a wave of bankruptcies that could make any economic recovery painfully slow. joining us now from tokyo is cls strategists, nicholas smith. great to have you with us. there are reports that we could see the bank of japan announcing unlimited government biting of bonds. distorting the market function. how is this going to affect markets across japan? nicholas: i don't think the boj has been particularly emboldened in the japan story for some time. will comerrode up back and talk about unlimited whatever it takes. but he has been buying about a quarter of that against his goal.

thing is newrtant tools to support bank lending. you have to remember, japanese 66%. are only lending out they are in a much better position to support the economy then banks in most countries. they need some sort of confidence from the bank of japan that the bank will backstop them. and i think that is probably forthcoming. japanese have seen the yen stabilizing this month especially after the wild swings we saw in the month of march. how important is it for the boj to look as it is being as aggressive as other central banks around the world? if you don't come you could see more upward pressure on your currency. nicholas: that is understandable. the only currency that has strengthened this year against the dollar, the yen.

if you look at the real yield differential coming you would've thought that the yen should be stronger than it is at the moment. it has been surprisingly stable. at a very comfortable level for japanese companies. necklace, does -- fuellas, does the pandemic sentiment? does it unwind a lot of the hard-fought gains after abenomics? of whateverest more it takes from the bank of japan is going to have diminishing results? nicholas: that is an extraordinary comments. i think japan has been one of the most likely hit of any nation from this. i heard one commentators say on the bbc a few days ago that they would give japan a five out of handling this crisis.

if japan is a five out of 10, i guess the u.s. must be zero or negative. it has managed to keep the fatalities down but it has also allow the economy to take over. we only got a 50% locked down. i am sitting in the office at the moment. it is up to individuals to decide about how they are going to handle this. a lot of businesses are staying open. hit a loty has been less hard than many others. japanese companies are absolutely awash in cash. u.s. t 15 -- 15% in the they are cushioned against anything that happens.

and employment is tight. in which case, employment laws are very pro-employee so people can be pretty confident that their jobs will be there at the end of this against the absolute slaughter that has gone in -- that has gone on in the u.s. labor market. haidi: what opportunities -- how do you play the theory of a quicker than expected rebound or recovery in japan? how deep is the recovery given the fragility of some of these economic indicators before all of this happened? nicholas: you are quite right. the biggest risk to japan is the rest of the world. u.s. and europe cannot recover quickly come it will be harder for japanese businesses overseas to profit. but, one of the things that is looking positive is china has

snapped to back fast. companies, especially troubleurers, that had with supply chains in asia, now those chains are moving again. and the consumer should be in much better situation than consumers in much of the rest of the world. they have a stable job. he is unlikely to have the same ravages from unemployment that others have. they should be able to continue spending. i would've thought -- i would agree that japan would have a gdp dropping less than much of the world that i think it will come back faster than much of the rest of the world merely because it has not been hit so hard. i think capitalizing on businesses with supply chains in asia -- i think in terms of biting stocks, you certainly need to keep an eye on buy-in

companies with a big cash pile that are cushioned against this. and for the time being, we are talking growth stocks. when it comes to the tight labor market, i do wonder though given that we have seen these temporary workers begin laid-off even before the start of the new fiscal year given other issues like the tax hike, we have come into this year for the japanese economy at a much weaker state them before not to mention that if you continue to see the state of emergency across japan being expended as we are now hearing from reports, what is going to be the bigger impact across asset classes and that we mightiven have all of those positives you mentioned may be under pressure right now? nicholas: i don't understand

what you say about the state of emergency. the constitution does not give the prime minister the power to force people to stay at how so what the government is saying with this state of emergency is it would be nice or you tuesday at how but there is nothing we can do about it if you choose not to. it is a country that does not have these draconian lockdowns and treats people as grown-ups. extended it has very little effect compared to if it happened -- compared to if it had not been extended. people are using good sense regarding social distancing while they continue to do their jobs. i would've thought that leaves japan in a pretty decent situation. not doing draconian lockdowns or in not getting -- and not getting the economic hit.

shery: that was nicholas smith joining us. bank of japan meeting today. we will get more perspective on the boj data. next, we will be taking a look at the impact this pandemic is having with dr. stephen schwartz, fitch ratings, head of apac coming up next. this is bloomberg. ♪

>> the credit impasse of the coronavirus pandemic has increased in its depth and duration. but many economies may be mitigated by financial buffers. joining us now is stephen schwarzman great to have you with us. who is most vulnerable out of the markets that you look at? dr. schwartz: good to be with you. we have been cutting our growth region asround the the depths and severity of the virus outbreak continues. mostn terms of who is vulnerable, it is really a economies that went into the crisis with very high debt burdens and therefor little

space when it comes to proactive expansionary fiscal and monetary policies. those tend to be the credit in asia-pacific at the lower ratings scale particularly some of our frontier markets such as sri lanka which we just downgraded on friday. done 18 downgrades of e.m. sovereigns in 2020, the highest annual total in less than four months. are there expectations that things will be getting much worse? dr. schwartz: i don't think we are done quite yet with negative rating actions. certainly not globally and possibly around our neck of the woods here in asia-pacific. we do think that the second quarter of the year in terms of growth out turns will be very severe and we're looking now at

an economic downturn twice as severe as the 2000 nine financial crisis. it is something that is really unprecedented that we have not seen in a long time. as i mentioned come it is economies with a high debt burdens we will be watching most closely. the likes of malaysia went into the crisis with a high debt load. you are just speaking about japan which has the highest public debt burden of any sovereign rate. india is another large emerging market economy with a large public debt. other than malaysia which we have a negative outlook on, the areng for india and japan stable at the moment but we will be watching given the fiscal responses and upward pressure that will put on public debt burden. plungingch is the quality prices amplifying the negative affect on these emerging economies?

areman sachs says they poised for a substantial selloff and when it comes to global oil, theirstability -- storage ability will be tested. dr. schwartz: globally, emerging markets tend to rely heavily on commodities. the plunge in oil prices and commodity prices for exporters of those products is putting pressure on their economies. and on their ratings. and u.s. dollar strength is also putting pressure on economies' abilities to foot the bill for their debt in u.s. dollar terms. around the asia-pacific region, a eventually, the low energy prices will help boost economies when demand picks up. we have just a handful of commodity exporters. malaysia which is a big oil and

gas exporter. indonesia, a big commodity exporter. and mongolia. in those three a economies in particular, the low commodity prices are weighing on exports and fiscal revenues. economiesout those that already had a negative outlook coming into this year before the pandemic like hong kong and macau? how is this added pressure on their economy boating for their outlook? dr. schwartz: we did have negative outlooks going into this crisis already for hong kong, macau, and sri lanka. for sri lanka this last friday b-.id downgrade to hong kong, just over a week ago, we followed through on the negative outlook with a downgrade to aa-.

still a very high rating but two notches lower than we were last september. hong kong is dealing with multiple pressure points -- the social unrest, the legacy of that from last year, the hit to tourism from the virus, and the expectation that we will continue to see social unrest which really has not been resolved. and the ongoing integration of hong kong and china and the implications for governance in hong kong. macau we have left on a negative moment at aa for the what those are all still at play as this crisis evolves. robust can a chinese recovery be in isolation when we are expecting significant weakness of across the rest of the world and its trading partners? dr. schwartz: we are seeing

china beginning to normalize. capacity levels are well below full capacity. we are penciling in continued positive quarterly growth momentum in china through the rest of the year. we think full-year growth in china will be below 1% but expectedh that is the prasm shin of positive growth through the year and a much stronger rebound to above 7% in 2021. that is going to help the region without other global economies particularly in the eurozone and the u.s. picking up steam, the external sector will continue to weigh on growth around the region. region expecting positive growth momentum to resume gradually in the second half of the gear and stronger rebounds in 2021. that is good news for the region but even with those pickups, we

gdp levelsn g -- see recovering to precrisis levels until late 2021 or even into 2022. >> stephen schwartz, thank you so much for the that. still ahead, we will have more on china. we will get you a preview of the march industrial products. how have they been impacted by the pandemic? this is bloomberg. ♪

>> a quick check of the latest business flash headlines. an online shopping portal. has gone liveit in three neighborhoods around mumbai. reliance access to 3 million users in india. tictoc has been asked to suspend downloads. facebook and twitter. downdministration told by to take down its office tool for about a month. it gained huge popularity during china's lockdown. theas expected to spearhead

four -- foray into it china software markets. workers can ride elevators to their offices but social distancing will remain in place. citigroup operates in more countries than most. they caution a slow and gradual return and many may be forced to work from home for the rest of the year. >> let us get a quick check up on the markets. nikkei havingthe its best day in over a week as the boj holds its one-day policy meeting. we are expecting the boj to step up its asset purchasers as the yen hold steady. take a look at the kospi, it gaining 0.7%. we hearing from local media that there could he a third extra budget in south korea which trillionworth 30

yuan. equity outflow is putting a lot of pressure on the korean wan. we are seeing financials leading the declines. as we are now reporting first-half profits down more than 50%. we are counting you down to the opening in china and hong kong. let us bring in sophie come . >> we are going to get a pulse china's industrial sector performed in march. after industrial profits slumped 40% in the first two months of a droploomberg expects of 10% given the pickup in industrial production. april pmi numbers due later this week may demonstrate continued improvement after manufacturing

pmi jumped. there are early indicators that china's rebound is already losing steam with consumers and as theses still downbeat economy shrank in the first quarter. we have to look at supply chains versus the man's. clients are holding back from making orders. commodity prices are also a drag . and factory inflation will add to pressure on profit and therefor investment as well. -- chinese and hong kong companies are holding onto cash. pickup in equities sales given the uncertainty of how soon the chinese economy can return to normal. let us get you a look of how we are setting up for the rest of the trading day here in asia. downside and weakness when it comes to u.s. futures despite

consideration as to whether we may see the roadmap to certain parts of the u.s. begin closer to reopening. the rc in taiwan futures looking like this as reports come through that it is another country that could be relaxing social distancing restrictions. going into the start of trading in the next hour. across the rest of the region, we are seeing selective outperformance when it comes to japanese markets going into the bank of japan meeting day. weakness when it comes to trading here in australia. , we will haveup plenty of big guests on bloomberg markets. ceo and alazada's representative from ihh health care. standby for bloomberg markets: china open. this is bloomberg.

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tom: it is 9:00 a.m. in beijing. welcome to "bloomberg markets: china open." i'm tom mackenzie. david: we are counting down to the open of trade. here on the chinese mainland and hong kong. top stories. asian stocks edging higher but futures down as investors weigh the latest in the coronavirus fight. tom: