>> good morning and welcome to "daybreak: australia." we are counting down to asia's major market open. shery: good morning from new york. haidi: india's prime minister continues to resist pressure to lockdown the country. australia facing a backlash for barring citizens from returning

home from the south asian nation. jerome powell says the u.s. economy is making progress but the recovery has been uneven. traders getting more data as an placement -- inflation is at the forefront of debate. and worn bait -- warren buffett names a successor. shery: u.s. futures study at the open after stoxx finished the session mixed. we have the s&p 500 rising with commodity and industrial shares gaining ground. tech and retail weight on the index and we have the nasdaq 100 underperforming. the 10 year yield fell following a support showing u.s. factory growth easing in april. fed chair powell so the economic recovery is making real progress but gains have been uneven. we have the u.s. treasury now saying they will more than quadruple their estimates through june as the government spends its way out of the

downturn. we have the dollar lagging. yields slipping. wti at the moment gaining a little bit of ground after rising in the regular session with broader markets rising in the dollar falling. haidi: our top story, asian investors will continue to watch closely, pressure continuing to mount on india's prime minister to impose a nationwide lockdown as virus deaths rise. business leaders have joined health experts in calling for stronger steps to contain the spread of the virus. let's get it over to jodi schneider, covering the story. a couple of weeks ago, no hinder modi saying lockdowns would be the last resort, even as the case rates and deaths are surging, he is still resisting. jodi: he really has been resisting. that last resort remark is getting a lot of attention now.

he had said he wasn't going to do this because it would be devastating to poor people, and frankly it is a reminder of last year, when without warning, the country went into lockdown and caused a huge migration of people back to rural areas from the cities. that has hurt him politically and he does not want to see that political damage done again. the same time, the rate of infections continue to increase. it's hard to see they're not being some sort of lockdown. we saw almost 3500 deaths yesterday and the number of cases is about 350,000 per day. shery: it is interesting, usually we see business leaders opposed to lockdowns, given the economic fallout from them. it seems sentiment is shifting in india, given how big this

crisis is. jodi: that's right, we are seeing a lot of pressure from different places to have some sort of lockdown. we are seeing it from the business community, from some of prime minister modi's own political allies are saying this should happen, and we are seeing it from foreign governments who are very concerned. also the pace of vaccination is very low in india, less than 5%. this is not something that will get better anytime soon without some kind of drastic measure, that's the message prime minister modi is getting from almost all corners of indian leadership. haidi: meantime, what is the latest when it comes to pfizer's plan for exporting doses of their vaccine? is the white house backing the move? jodi: the white house is backing the move. after having not wanted to see the vaccines go overseas, president biden had said he thought they should be reserved

first to get the u.s. vaccinated, but with the state of a vaccination in the u.s. going along very well and is starting to plateau, the number of people who want vaccine, and there are millions of doses available, there has been a lot of pressure on the administration to support such a move. pfizer is saying it wants to send these vaccines to mexico and canada. this would be the first time we would see american-made vaccines being exported in this way. the biden administration today said they would support the move. the coordinator, covert response coordinator for president biden, coming out and saying he thought it was a good idea and they would be glad to see this. this will presumably be happening the next couple of weeks, when we hear from canada and mexico that they expect to get pfizer doses from the u.s. shery: we may have more clarity when it comes to vaccinating children? jodi: yes, the new york times is reporting from unidentified

officials that pfizer is looking at vaccination authorizations for them, and the emergency use authorization, seeking that after trials have shown they did well in that. parents everywhere want this to happen. there is a lot of concern also in the u.s. that without really vaccinating children and young teenagers, we will not get the virus totally under control without them being vaccinated as well as their parents. haidi: jodi schneider with the latest on the virus. meantime, in australia, the chief medical officer has warned australians could die overseas as a result of the government's temporary ban on arrivals from india. speaking of that clash, we are seeing intensifying backlash to australia's travel ban on india.

what is the chief medical officer saying and how does it compare to what we are hearing from the rest of government? paul: the chief medical officer recommended the ban, and the letter has just become public. he said the quarantine system was getting overwhelmed with arrivals from india and more than half of the positive cases in the past two weeks in quarantine were from india. paul kelly acknowledged that putting the ban in place would set a president -- precedent and in the worst case, lead to death. of course we know the government not only took the advice but doubled down on it, and returning illegally from india now carries a $66,000 fine or up to five years in jail or both. as you say, the backlash has been profound from a broad cross-section of society. most recently from a former australian cricket commentator,

michael slager, in india for the premier league. he managed to get out last week and is serving quarantine in the maldives, but he saying the dutch saying paul kelly has -- saying paul kelly has blood on his hands. shery: is refusing to allow citizens to return to australia illegal? paul: there is vigorous debate about that. it is done over a section of the bias security act which the health minister can determine an emergency requirement during a situation like this, which would prevent a list of diseases from getting into australia. there is a list of requirements that have to be satisfied for him to do that. the legal action could be taken to challenge whether or not those have been met. another part would be to argue it is unconstitutional to prevent citizens from returning home. the government said it took legal advice, and the health minister says the government has

a strong, clear and absolute leave the ban is legal. despite that, we are hearing a number of law firms are exploring legal action against the ban. shery: paul allen in sydney. plenty more head on the impact of india's virus crisis. former rbi governor and a professor gives us his thoughts in about two hours. we will also speak with the newly appointed member of the world health organization science council and the next hour. for now, let's get over to vonnie quinn with the first word headlines. vonnie: the world's largest vaccine maker is promising to deliver 220 million shots to vaccine starved india over the next few months. that is enough to cover 8% of the country's population. it is said that the government will receive 110 million doses of covid shield, while state

governments and hospitals will get the rest. india has been struggling to curb its covid crisis. confirmed coronavirus cases in the united states rose at the slowest pace since the start of the pandemic. data from johns hopkins and bloomberg show a 1.07 percent gain for the we it just ended, below the previous low of 1.25% set in march. new infections increased by about 344,000 last week. the european commission is proposing easing restrictions on business and leisure travels from countries with relatively low infection rates, as well as those fully vaccinated. in a tweet, the commission president said it is time to revise the eu tourism industry. proposals require approval from the majority of the eu block, but could be adopted as soon the end of may. president biden has announced he

is raising the caps on refugees that can enter the u.s. this year to 62,500. this after he faced bipartisan blowback in his delay of lifting president trump's limit of 15,000. only about 2000 refugees have been processed. global news 24 hours a day on air and on bloomberg quicktake, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. i am vonnie quinn. this is bloomberg. shery: breaking news on the bloomberg. we are hearing that kkr has amassed about $18.5 billion for their latest flagship north america private equity fund. that will be raising their biggest ever fund in less than five months. they are citing people familiar with the matter. this is quickly by industry standards and underscores investor demand for private equity funds that promise to

outperform the booming stock market. kkr raised about $17 million for kkr north america fund 13 from investors, including sovereign wealth funds. let's turn to the markets with sophie kamaruddin in hong kong. sophie: heads up this tuesday, japan off-line for the golden week break, and chinese markets closed along with thailand this tuesday. ahead of the rba policy decision, no change expected, the aussie dollar holding steady, the forecast along with inflation, it will be washed when it comes to the rba update. we will also be watching for korean inflation data, likely to see a pickup in consumer prices. keeping and i on korean stocks, led lower by health care names on monday. overall, we are seeing futures looking next as asian stocks have been lagging global peers for six straight weeks. on monday, we saw the regional index fall to a one-month low as

we see varying virus surges across the region. pulling up the chart on the terminal, we see manufacturing activity hold up through april across the region. we are seeing some signs of a slowdown in those figures as we are facing a lockdown in places like india. even in the face of the virus situation there, we have a manufacturing activity holding up fairly well in april, although we are seeing orders slow down in india and manufacturing also take a hit. haidi: it is rba day, the central deck potential he eying a change to its bond target. -- the central bank potentially eying a change to its bond target. also, scott collier tells us what he is sticking to the reopening trade. this is bloomberg. ♪

shery: fed chair jay powell touting and improving but uneven economic picture in the u.s. in his remarks today. our next guest reopening stocks will do well. scott collier is the cio at advisors asset management. right to have you with us. we have great eco-numbers, the fed chair also had take into account, we are showing u.s. factory growth, settling back a little bit. supply chain snags lingering. could some reopening trades be hurt by the supply chain issues we continue to see, especially when it comes to chips? scott: i think everybody is acutely aware of the chip issues, but we have supply issues elsewhere. we have several of the materials markets where it is very

difficult to get lumber, very difficult to get steel. if you get it, you will pay for it. those disruptions we think will continue for quite some time. generally when you have dislocations like this, you will see higher prices. sometimes it's not a little higher, sometimes it is a lot higher. that is kind of what we are hearing in the earnings reports. we are hearing companies's input prices are going up. for most industries, they are able to pass them through at this point. we don't see too many companies getting squeezed in the middle. maybe consumer staples companies -- toothpaste, foodstuffs, things like that. they might get pinched a little bit. we see constraints across the board and dislocations and it will just take time to work through those. shery: if they are transferring

the cost, does that mean inflation could last longer than what the fed has been saying is transitory? scott: i think dislocation inflation, so to speak probably is transitory, but it will leave a mark. i think there is a fear out there and i would suggest that i would share it that once you start inflation, the idea of central banks is it is easy, we will raise rates and slow things down and that will take care of inflation, but really the fed has been very unsuccessful in regulating inflation without these bursts of disinflation and even d inflation. that scares the fed more than inflation, frankly at this point in time, they have thrown out the old rulebook, they have said clearly that they will tolerate

inflation significantly above their target range for an elongated period. they have basically said we will not do anything until we see full employment. their line of this is transitory , it might be transitory but it might last a long time. it has taken them arguably 13 years since the great financial crisis to get to this point. we have had near zero interest rates all that time period, and i think this is there one effort to say let's see if we can into this --end this. haidi: we are looking at a decade-long underperformance by growth stocks because of the lost valuations we have had. is this like an elongated version? how long does it take for companies to grow into expectations? scott: first of all, which companies are we talking about? if you look at growth stocks, they've had a huge run and

benefited tremendously, generally speaking, from being locked down and having the economy shut down. the pandemic has benefited a number of companies. i would liken it to a two-year-old wearing a six-year-old's clothing. what we saw last year was a huge spike in valuation ratios. this year we will see earnings come through very nicely, but it will take a while for those growth stocks to grow into those valuations. quite frankly, i think people should expect that. after a long time period, a decade, of outperformance, i think you will see some of the more cyclical names, you can call them reopening names, but they will sit -- they are cyclical names that will catch up. i think for the next few years, cyclical stocks will be the growth stocks. they will be growing their earnings and market values.

for our money, that is our favorite area at this point. haidi: a final word on speculative investing as we continue to see gains in the crypto space, either -- ether up 350% year-to-date. how much does that pullback once we get closer to the normalization of policy conditions? scott: you tend to see these types of speculative bubbles when you are moving toward the end of the cycle and we don't think we are anywhere close to the end of the bull market. things like that and things like the means stocks and excessive use of margin with the robinhood traders, those tend to mark the tops of markets. quite think we, we think a healthy pullback would be expected and we think everybody should be prepared for.

in fact, a lot of the larger investment banks like morgan stanley and bank of america, they are morning their people, saying you should expect a pullback and it probably will be something that makes people pay attention. once again, we are not suggesting you try to time the market, that tends to not work overtime periods, that -- but we are seeing cryptocurrency bubbles. dogecoin is more worrisome than ethereum or bitcoin. that is what we are seeing now, and for those of us around in 1999, it is kind of like deja vu all over again. haidi: still to come, replacing the irreplaceable. we take a look at warren

buffett'a probable -- warren buffett's probable successor. this is bloomberg. ♪

haidi: warren buffett has named berkshires vice chair frank abel as his probable successor if you were to step down. let's get more on the business. did this come as much of a surprise? sally: in short, no. succession has long been a question for warren buffett, who is 90, and his longtime business partner is 97. we knew a succession plan have been drawn up by the board, although the actual air to the

throne had been kept secret. it has been one of the weakest topics of discussion as the two progressed further into their 90's. on saturday, one had let slip that abel will keep the culture, in a point by buffett to managing the conglomerate. it seemed like after that if it felt he needed to confirm that abel would take over. abel overseas berkshire's investments. he had been seen as a potential candidate. shery: what kind of leadership management style should we expect from him? we've had a glimpse. he has been at the past two annual meetings and on saturday he had a higher profile than before. he gave a presentation on energy businesses, climate does -- climate disclosures and set up climate goals. he is more of a formal person,

he doesn't use the kind of wit and banter in the public foreman -- public forum the others tend to. but he has worked there for two decades, overseeing the noninsurance businesses, including bnsf and dairy queen. he is on the board of kraft heinz. he is thought of as a very competent executive, and analysts have noted his information sharing and transparency. he is seen as a good fit, i think. shery: sally bakewell there. next, it is rba day, with the central bank potentially eyeing a change to its bond target. we previewed the decision with joe masters. this is bloomberg. ♪

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haidi: the rba is unlikely to tweak monetary policy at its may 4 meeting. the economy's recover -- recovery continues to proceed. however, an early shift in the bond target remains a live risk. let's bring in our chief economist at oceana. is there consistency for

policymaking going forward? >> i think the issue is the economy is recovering faster than expected, and of course that is very welcome, but alongside that, we are seeing financial markets but up against the rba's message that monetary policy is on hold at least until 2024. there is a disconnect happening. even when they introduce an updated forecast on friday, we are expecting a significant downward revision to the forecast for unemployment but not too much revision for wages and inflation. haidi: as you say, wage and inflation growth continue to lag close to record lows. what is the main impediment to get those mandated targets higher? jo: as we know, the economy is recovering very strongly and we will see some really big gdp

growth numbers this year. but we have to remember the economy has still suffered a significant economic shock and we have spare capacity. we had a capacity going into covid. that's not just the unemployment rate, which is still well above employment. we now think that is down in the mid to low fours. underemployment is still elevated. also capacity in the business sector. to drive economy wide wage growth, you need to dig into that space, get the unemployment rate below five and underemployment rate lower as well. you need to get total underutilization in the labor market below 12% to generate wage growth and we are currently at 13.5%. shery: what are we going to see later in the week in the quarterly monetary update? jo: we will see some quite

significant forecast revisions and that is likely to be noted in today's statement. we are expecting a downgrade to the on a plummet forecast, -- unemployment forecast, or a lowering. they could start with a four. were also looking at a tweak for near-term gdp and headline inflation, but not too much change for july inflation, which is the most important thing. shery: we do have the federal budget next week. are you expecting any bold reforms? jo: no, i think the messaging from the government has been very clear about bold reform. we heard the prime minister talk to the press club a couple of weeks ago and it was a pretty clear message, do not expect big, bold reforms. we will see a better starting point for the deficit than even

from back in december. the economy is going well, labor market is wrong and iron ore prices are high. we expect announcements around spending on energy and climate and childcare. we are expecting additional spending on age care. the parts of the economy where we have had a need for more spending for some time for an aging population. and there are parts of the economy directly impacted by closed international borders. terrorism, education, -- touris m, education, migrant labor. they want to run the economy as fast as i can. shery: do you factor into your calculations potential china, australia escalation of tensions? you mentioned iron ore prices

and it makes me wonder if that is the next target. jo: obviously that is a difficult thing to put into a model, but it is an absolute risk for australia. our relationship with our largest trading partner was already deteriorating prior to covid, and clearly now we are seeing tariffs on australian exports. to be honest, it is a special case, there aren't too many suppliers of high quality iron ore. we are encouraged that anecdotally, relationships on the business level are still stronger than the government level. but it is a risk and anytime you slow trade with your largest partner, it will have an economic knock on. haidi: given the decision of the us trillion government to ban australians arriving back

from india, what does this tell you about the reopening of borders and does the approach, the potential i guess conservative approach when it comes to reopening borders delay the next leg of recovery? jo: those decisions are of course foremost health decisions , and that has been the case right through the covid pandemic. what we do know is when we close out international borders, it has an economic impact. we also expect that as we rollout, it will have a positive impact. the timing is really tricky. as you said, there is a lot of uncertainty about exactly what the strategy is around opening international borders. we do need to start to work on that. we don't want to become fortress australia. we are a small, open economy that has benefited from

immigration and globalization more broadly. so it is a health decision at the heart, but for the economy, as we rollout vaccine and look to open borders, we would expect a positive economic evident from that. -- economic dividend from that. shery: always great having you with us. we have sophie kamaruddin in hong kong. what are analysts saying about how you can trade what is happening in australia? sophie: i want to highlight the recommendation of goldman, they are saying stay rba rate hike pricing with the front end of aussie swaps fully discounting 15 basis points of tightening by the middle of next year. goldman says it looks extreme relative to the central bank's guidance. the aria expected to an inch rate expectations lower over time and underscores that there is a long way to go for reaching job and inflation targets. goldman reckoning that a ramp-up

in the size of the qe program should also further pushback rate hike pricing. haidi: iron ore, futures are still heating up near 190 in singapore. what is the outlook when it comes to what sydney is saying? sophie: they see the price outlook going higher, anticipating new highs of $200 per ton for iron ore in the coming weeks. this will see an extended deficit in the markets, and rising global steel prices should keep iron ore prices from sinking back to producer cost levels of below $100 per ton we could see further gains from here. haidi: musket the first word news with vonnie quinn. vonnie: sources tell bloomberg president joe biden is open to various possibilities on the way forward of passing his for trillion dollar vision for a better america. bloomberg has learned that includes breaking his proposals into multiple bills.

republicans are not on board with the american families plan. that calls for tax increases on the wealthy. there is some support for parts of his infrastructure focused jobs plan. biden says he needs -- he wants bipartisan support but corporations need to do their part. >> it is about time they start paying their fair share. it is about making a choice. we have out there this year, 50 corporations making over $40 billion that did not pay a single penny and taxes. i don't want to punish anybody but everybody should chip in. vonnie: diplomats from the u.s. and u.k. have pushback against what they call chinese and russian violations of the global order. those include a crackdown on leaders in china and the poisoning of alexei navalny in russia. u.s. secretary of state anthony blinken and the u.s. foreign secretary both pledged against

autocracies. they are expected to speak during the g7 meeting. >> what we are trying to do is to uphold the international rules-based order that our countries have invested so much and. i think the challenge for us is to demonstrate in very concrete ways that we can deliver for our citizens. vonnie: columbia's finance minister has quit after the peso plummeted on local media reports that he and his entire economic team may resign. his resignation as to growing chaos over his proposed tax hikes. the bill wasn't tooted to raise revenue and address a surge in poverty -- the bill was intended to raise revenue and address a surge in poverty. global news 24 hours a day on air and on bloomberg quicktake, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. i am vonnie quinn. this is bloomberg. shery: we have breaking news on

that very story, the colombian trade minister has been named the finance chief by the president. remember, demonstrators and police have been clashing daily in cities. truckers and taxi drivers blocking roads and labor organizations are's -- organizations asking for a raise to rates. haidi: next, apple and epic games of a self in court over the antitrust -- epic games face off in court over there antitrust suit. this is bloomberg. ♪

shery: apple's high-stakes battle with the -- maker of fortnite is now in court. the app store takes commissions from developers of up to 30%. let's get more from our reporter in san francisco. give us the highlights from the first day. >> quite an interesting day today. both sides came forward with opening statements where they set the stage with explanations of their broad arguments. they started with whether the

app store is anti-competitive or not. and epic games started talking about how it is a monopoly and consumers and developers are trapped inside what they called a walled garden. apple on the other hand came out and said it needed to control the app store to provide better privacy and security for users to ensure that malware and other bad stuff doesn't get onto ios devices. then we had the epic games ceo, he took the stand as the first witness in the trial, and he was drilled by apple attorneys who asked him why the 30% was an issue because according to them, it is standard practice in the industry come and they gave examples of sunny playstation and other -- sony playstation

and other formats that take a cut. tomorrow we will likely see more executives come forward with testimony. it should be interesting as we get into the deeper questions in this case. haidi: in terms of deeper questions, we got a little of that from tim sweeney, he sought to distinguish the idea that he sued to boost sales. he said it was a bigger issue that motivated him? malathi: yes, according to tim sweeney, apple came forward with its claim saying epic games started this strategy to make apple look like a bad guy and it was done because epic wanted to boost sales of fortnite, to stir up interest around fortnite. but tim sweeney said his main issue was apple's business

practices, and at the end of the day, he is fighting this fight not just for epic but other developers as well. haidi: our legal reporter in san francisco. ether is challenging bitcoins dominance in the crypto market, passing $3000 on monday, up over 300% in 2021 so far. bitcoin has been on a volatile run. we were told that it is less volatile than other assets like apple or tesla stock. >> cryptocurrencies, blockchain, you learn about the coin first. after that, they say there is blockchain and it is not just bitcoin. there is a lot more you can do, and transfer and value. you can do smart contracts and other things, nft's. they are all of these use cases

and people need the other coins to do new transactions. that is probably why it is going up. >> my concern is, and you have been tweeting about this, a lot of people rip on bitcoin and they don't know what a public key is and you have people investing in a b&b and they are just jumping in because the prices rising. if you have too many people like that, that is fraud in the system. it doesn't provide a solid base for prices. that's why we get even more volatility. how do you look at volatility and people that are serious investors in crypto? >> i think it's the same proportion of people who are in the traditional stock markets or any markets actively traded. there are always guys who do fundamental research and understand the underlying assets, some people understand dnd more than i do. there are people who just follow

other people. there are always a large number of people having a herd mentality than do serious research. that's just how our civilization is right now, which is everywhere. it is not unique to crypto. the herd followers are less committed, and when there is negative news, they run away, and on positive news, they rush in. the diehard fans understand and love the projects. it is the same thing as stock markets, it is nothing new for crypto. volatility is everywhere. bitcoin is probably less volatile than a similar sized asset like apple or tesla. matthew: i wonder about finance -- binance, they don't have plans to go public, you have

said you don't plan to go public. why not access the public markets, especially when the momentum is there? >> sure. we have a very good example of a private company that has done really well, and that is a bloomberg. bloomberg never went public. going public is a good option for many companies, a good way to raise money, good weight for early investors and even founders to exit partially or completely later on. and to have competitive pricing on the trading market your but -- market. but many organizations are sufficiently well-funded and have sufficiently good businesses good they don't have -- sufficiently stocked businesses good they don't need the money. there are other ways to access

the business if you want to. it's only a tiny percentage of is a says, even the profitable long-term businesses go public. public is an option for many but it is not a mandatory thing for every business. haidi: -- shery: coming up, bill and melinda gates are getting a divorce after three decades of marriage. it splits up to of the most influence will -- influential philanthropists in the world. that is coming up. this is bloomberg. ♪

shery: -- haidi: robinhood has struck back at warren buffett after he said the brokerage paid -- played a significant park in the casino aspect of the markets. they said their platform and others have opened trader to everyday people. fidelity investments have cut a projections fornt group by half. -- for ant group by half.

ant will now effectively be supervised like a bank, bowing to demands from beijing as it rains in -- reins in the tech giant. a spac group is said to be weighing proposals for u.s. listing. the deal could raise up to $500 billion. they are also considering a conventional listing, including on the asx or nasdaq. shery: bill and melinda gates are divorcing after 20 years of marriage. in a statement posted on twitter, the couple has said they will continue to work together at the philanthropic foundation they started. sophie alexander has more on this. given how significant this is, will it have an impact on the foundation? sophie: right now, the line is

it will not impact the foundation. we have been told they will remain cochairs and trustees, there will be no changes to their roles or the organization, and they will continue to work together, which is also what they said in their statement. however, working alongside your ex-spouse might prove to be difficult, so who knows if there will eventually be changes. it is not uncommon, we have been told, for wealthy people to end up splitting the foundation in two when something like this happens. haidi: just to talk about the stake here, 100 early $5.8 billion in terms of the fortune and the sprawling philanthropy organization as well. how does this work out? sophie: they live in washington state, a community property state, which means anything they acquired while they were married is equitable.

it is both bill's and melinda's, and they could split it 50-50. what we saw with mckenzie scott and jeff bezos's divorce in washington state, jeff ended up getting 75% of the amazon steak and mckenzie got 25%. right now we are not sure what will happen with the fortune and how it will be split, and we are also not sure how long it will take. it depends whether they have already filed, there is a 90 day holding period until they can dissolve the marriage. we don't know where they are in that process. shery: any idea what happened here? sophie: no, no. i have no clue. [laughter] haidi: of course we have talked about the inevitable comparisons to the other big tech billionaire split, mckenzie and

jeff bezos, mckenzie scott i should say, and 2019. how does this compare to the complexity and whether that could give us an indication of what happens here? sophie: there are a lot of similarities and a lot of differences between the two couples. obviously they are both tech billionaires who live in washington. but the amazon fortune held by jeff and mckenzie was more straightforward, most of his wealth was held and amazon, they had a 60% -- 16% stake and it was pretty straightforward. the gates's fortune is not so straightforward. there is the microsoft holdings, about $26 billion of the total 146 billion dollars, and it is

split up among a bunch of other things. how that will be split up, it could be complicated. haidi: sophie alexander covering the latest shocking news this morning. over the next hour, we will discuss currency volatility and the impact on earnings. ♪

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>> a very good morning. we are counting down to asia's major market open. >> our top story this hour, asian stocks are set open mostly higher after a muted session on wall street. the dollar dropped along with treasury yields. jerome powell says the u.s. economy is making real progress.