yvonne: welcome to daybreak asia. we are coming down to the major market opens. >> headwinds for asia after

selloff in banks. paul: the former u.s. president donald trump pleads not guilty to 34 counts as he is arraigned in a courtroom. australian pmi, and in a little bit stronger than expect did the -- coming in a little bit stronger than expected. a stronger read than we saw in february. signs that the economy continues to perform reasonably well

despite tightening that we have seen since last may. we saw the aussie dollar weekend ever so slightly after the bank of australia decided to pause rates on tuesday and we will be hearing from the rbnz today as well. the aussie dollar 6754 is the current going rate. meanwhile, we have futures pointing to a slightly softer open. not a lot of action in new zealand, prices are pretty much flat. make a similar story. -- nikkei futures a similar story. yvonne: we saw a sellout in banks with bond yields plunging

on softer jobs data. jamie dimon warning the u.s. banking crisis will be felt for years. we continue to watch treasury yields and how they will open in about an hour. we had repricing of fed swaps given the softer jobs numbers. we will get a fuller picture once we get payroll numbers. crude oil at $80 per barrel. we are watching the reserve bank of new zealand today, expected to downshift the right depth hikes later. kathleen hays is here with the preview. inflation is still high. >> concerns about the economy

domestic and overseas. rbnz expected to hike its key rate for the love of in a row. -- 11th time in a row. they have signaled that basing the peak rate at 5.5%. expecting a 25 basis point rate hike. at the same time inflation running quite high. the latest number seven point 2% year-over-year and lovingly out -- 7.2% and leveling out. with the domestic economy already having shown a small contraction of 0.6%, not a recession but a sign of a write up vectors are taking hold.

-- a number of factors taking hold. yvonne: we are hearing from the cleveland fed president loretta mester speaking in new york. she talked about how rates should rise about 5% and stayed there for some time. when it comes to that u.s. jobs numbers, they seemed a little bit softer. >> when you are softening from a high level, it is not enough to change the fed's mind. she also said her plan is to remain diligent, to bring inflation down. inflation remains too high. it will depend on how much inflation expectations fall. job openings and labor turnover survey showed it is not getting

higher in terms of what is going on because the vacancies, the number of jumps not build, went down to 9.9 million. it is still very high though. the vacancy to unemployment ratio fell. but again, there are still two job openings to every job seeker. this is something which will feed into the jobs report on friday. that is the ultimate indicator everyone is waiting to see. the payrolls number is expected to get a little bit weaker.

unemployment still near 50 year low. the labor market right now very important. inflation still high and we have to see the tightness cool off before the fed decides to change its path even a little. paul: kathleen hays there. the banking stress continues to weigh on markets. jamie dimon warning the ripple effects will be felt for years. we have more on this from garfield reynolds. another colorful annual letter from jamie dimon. the key takeaway this crisis may not be done. >> even at the time, other

voices said the impacts of this will continue to play out for some time to come, including jerome powell. jamie dimon nailed home that point. the air of concern that was still lingering over, especially since the bond market remains certain that yields will not go up, they are more likely to go down. bond investors are looking at indicators like the jobs once, they are looking at the banking stresses and saying the good times for the economy are limited. that means it is worth buying bonds. we have a lot of people saying they are staying on the

sidelines when it comes to equities. jamie dimon acted as a timely reminder that one of those headwinds you need to factor in is the banking sector. it is a shock to any banking system to have many large banks domestically go under so rapidly . that shakes the confidence of investors, depositors, companies. there are a lot of companies not going ahead with some of the business activities they had planned because of all of the concerns about what is going on in the banking sector. do i want to expose myself to the turmoil? yvonne: garfield reynolds with our top market story today.

we are watching president donald trump back in florida where he is expected to speak in the next hour or so. he pleaded not guilty in the new york courtroom to 34 counts of falsifying business records. let's go to simone foxman in new york. we finally have details of these charges against the former president. what are we expecting him to say? >> we are expecting him to reiterate what he said earlier, but he is not guilty. these were 34 counts a false the records. according to the prosecutors, these business records were falsified in furtherance of what they say is an election crime, as well as mischaracterizing tax filings. they said the hush-money payments made to porn star stormy daniels the head of the 2016 election by michael: --

michael cohen was an attempt to try to violate federal and state election laws. proving that will be out of order. it is much easier to bring cases under indictment but it is harder to get a conviction. shirley trump team will argue that, it was not in violation of a law. paul: we are seeing live pictures of mar-a-lago, where we are expecting donald trump to make an address to the faithful there. she did not say anything when he left or arrived at the

courtroom. the judge urging parties to refrain from making public statements that could incite violence. we will be hearing from trump in a few moments. in the meantime, trump is the leading republican candidate for 2024. did we hear anything today that could impact his bid? >> what you mentioned there, that statement from the judge calling for both sides to refrain from making statements that could inflame public unrest or violence, that is going to be the key one we will watch. the concern from many conservative commentators is that there could be some sort of gag order enforced on trump or his team because he has the propensity to make bombastic statements. while back retail some of the

ability he has to talk frankly i had of the 2024 election? this will go on for quite a long time. we are looking at the first hearing scheduled in december. the das office would like to begin the court case in january and back could even be delayed further by trump steam. -- trump's team. paul: simone foxman there in new york. let's get over to vonnie quinn. >> the chairman of credit suisse has apologized for failing to stem the crisis which engulfed the lender. axel lehmann was speaking at the annual shareholder meeting in zurich. she says ultimately the bank could not be saved.

>> one issue after another had already seen trust eroded and with it patients dwindled. at bats, we failed. -- at that, we failed. it is a better reality to see our strategy did not have time to bear fruit. >> housing prices in new zealand fell 2.5%. it is the 12th consecutive month of declines. pakistan central bank raised its rate to a record 21% as the nation teeters on the brink of a default. it is a step toward anchoring inflation expectations.

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. yvonne: still ahead, we look ahead to the rbnz upcoming decision on the rates. but first, marketvector indexes thoughts on inflation. this is bloomberg. ♪

>> i think we have been in stagflation. our report a year ago was early on that call. stubbornly high inflation even though growth will be low. fortunately, the united states and china were able to put together some aspects of growth and have seen some rebound, so that has helped the world. but there needs to be much more production in order to break out of stagflation. yvonne: world bank president david malpass there. our next guest is joy yang from marketvector indexes. good to have you with us.

on top of price pressures, we are seeing the banking turmoil and jamie dimon saying of the impact will linger for years. how do you stay invested? >> we are looking at a multiple number of indexes. we are at gold today, which made the headlines, broke the $2000 mark. we are watching the space because people are using gold as a hedge and this means the markets are uncertain about what will happen. should the fed fix inflation, gold is a good hedge. but should the inflation progress, gold is a good hedge. we are looking at the space. gold is becoming a safe haven. people are turning to gold and the prices going up. for investors who cannot access

physical gold, there were other ways to get exposure to gold. for example, through equity companies that are linked to gold, such as gold miners. yvonne: the price of gold right now already at a 13 month high. >> it could go higher, a has not broken the threshold for all-time high. we are looking at people using it as a hedge. regardless of whether it goes higher, it may be -- it is still an asset class that is a safe haven and an alternative. we have seen dollar weakened today. paul: how much higher do you feel gold could go? it does not pay anything.

are there other safe havens? >> we have seen bitcoin up 17% year to date. investors are looking in that direction because it is decentralized, which means you do not get interference from government. it does not depend on third parties like banks. and your keys, your coins. people cannot take it up -- away from you. it is separating itself from the rest of the digital asset classes. depending on the use case, digital assets have different risk-return profiles.

paul: while we are talking about gold and recording, -- according, -- bitcoin, where do you see the inflation story going next? >> inflation has been stubborn. today we have seen oil prices go up. we have seen the dollar weakened. central banks are taking a pause because they think it is prudent to see what the data is telling us. the economic data we are looking not is on a lag. regardless whether it is strong or weak. real-time data, we have just been through a banking crisis, and it is pretty stressful. without the banking crisis was behind us but it may rear its

head again in a different form, whether it is credit risk or other risk. we are watching the space and trying to see what the market is telling us, so gold is up, bitcoin is up. yvonne: joy yang, good to have you with us. we have more in our top stories. check out dayb for the days top stories. terminal subscribers can also access all of this on mobile in the bloomberg anywhere app. you can customize your settings so you only get the news and the assets you care about. this is bloomberg. ♪

paul: let's get a quick check of the latest business flash headlines. johnson & johnson will pay close to $9 billion to resolve all cancer lawsuits. it is hoping to settle about 60,000 claims. the company has already withdrawn its products. general motors is buying out 5000 salaried staffers globally. it is part of the cost cutting move that will save $1 billion and it starts this year. it covers 6% of their white-collar employees and should allow the automaker to

avoid voluntary dismissals. a group of banks has uploaded the riskiest portion of debt from last year's buyout of citrix. it was priced at a discount of $.79 on the dollar. the bombs were initially $.78. elliott management and carlyle group are among the buyers. yvonne: take a look at how we are setting up for the major market opens. cindy futures down to 10th of 1% after we saw the aussie dollar fall with the rba standing at 3.5%. the government cited the possibility that there would be further hikes. the fact that they paused tells you the concerns over the growth outlook are growing. perhaps that is something about rbnz will consider as well.

kiwi stocks not doing much in today's session. the kiwi dollar is holding steady as we are expecting an 11th straight hike from the rbnz . still to come, we discussed that decision. anc joins us -- anz joins us. that is next. this is bloomberg. ♪

>> let's take a look at how we are doing on currency markets at the moment, it is fairly quiet but we see the yen stronger against the entire basket of currencies at the moment, still

13140 against the dollar -- 131.40 against the dollar. we've got the offshore you on -- yuan against the greenback. we saw a little bit of weakness in the aussie dollar after yesterday's decision from the bank austerlitz to keep cash rates on hold that 3.6%. it was kind of a hawkish pose. the rba indicating it might tighten again of doesn't continue to come down. let's get more on currencies now, new zealand's central-bank, expected to further slow the pace of interest rate increases wednesday, as a we can the economy suggests the end of the tightening cycle is getting closer. economists predicting a 25 basis point hike. let's bring in the fx strategist at a and z. we have seen the kiwi dollar grinding lower against the greenback over the past year or so. but it might be interesting

to watch. >> particularly today, it is fairly good consensus they will hike 25 basis point. when i checked this morning, it will slumping more than 25 basis point. [indiscernible] more likely than none at all. this is a meeting where we won't get any [indiscernible] for press conference either. -- or press conference either. it will be on the words rather than the numbers. we could see a non event when it comes to a reaction. we saw a little bit of that yesterday with the rba. that was a far more reliable call, as to the possible move. >> we are getting more lines from the cleveland fed president at the moment, hearing it is

important to have viable systems with banks of all sizes. that the bank turmoil seems to have stabilized. these comments are coming from an event in new york. we are trying to gauge where we are going in terms of the federal reserve and perhaps what that means for the u.s. dollar as well. john, let's talk a little bit about how the numbers from the payrolls data we are getting on friday could really have an impact or not on these expectations for more rate hikes, especially after what we saw today in terms of the jolts numbers. >> the big story over and it clearly was the february jobs report. we saw of course job openings follow -- fall a bit to a slower point in over two years. it is a report the fed watches and the market watch is a lot as well. that has played through intermarket expectations for fed

pricing. we have seen the probability of a may hike from 70% to 50% overnight. we have also seen expectations of cuts further down towards the end of the year move higher as well. so we had about two cuts pricing for the end of the year, that is now closer to three. when you think about the u.s. dollar, a big source of the strength last year was that red differential story. that is starting to compress. i think that is why we have seen pressure on the dollar over recent sessions. that probably continues, to be honest. we have seen the relative pricing between the fed and the ac be now -- the ecb now in quite a number of years at its lowest level. we get a whole raft of labor market indicators this week. you mentioned the be nfp -- bnfp report at the end of the week and the msa index on wednesday and 80 p as well. lots for the market to digest

and potentially more volatility this week as well. >> what about the dollar's safe haven rule? what are we going to see in terms of japanese yen moves as well? >> i think it's interesting when you think about haven flows and the structure of the dollar. we did a little bit of work recently looking at how the u.s. dollar behaves at the end of a fed tightening cycle. since 1980, we have had actually seen the dollar rise after the less fed hike five out of seven occasions. a big part of that is because we typically see some kind of crisis associated with the end of the cycle. what we are seeing this time and what what -- and what will matter for the dollar and the yen, a big part of the next months will be where the next crisis comes from. >> let's talk a little bit about

the yen side of that equation. this weekend, the bank of japan governor takes over. will this mean a new change for the future of the yield curve control, around japanese monetary policy, and what does billion hit based on that -- does the yen hit based on that? >> about 10% higher versus the dollar, i don't think it will be a straight line, but over the next six months, again we see the markets are to increase speculation that there has to be some shift in policy. it is an inevitability. it is a question of when. the strategy we have been going with recently is kind of selling rallies and dollar-yen up towards that 135 level. >> closer to home, what we saw with the aussie dollar, the rba, kind of a hawkish pause, the aussie dollar, a little bit

weaker after that, joining the bank of canada and a couple of others in terms of tightening the brakes on monetary tightening. what'the past -- what is the path for the aussie now? >> i've become a little bit less optimistic on the aussie over the last couple of months, as a function of the data flow has not been that positive. i think the reality of it is, a big part of where the aussie dollar goes depends on where the u.s. dollar goes. that in currency abuse right the past -- getting currency views right in the past has been about the dollar views. over time, the economic gravity is going to matter. a lot of u.s. dollar pushes aussie higher over the next month. >> let's get over to vonnie quinn with a check of the first word headlines. >> jp morgan's ceo says

the banking sector turmoil's not yet over and its impact will be felt for years to come. in a letter to shareholders, he says svb blunders were encouraged by u.s. regulation, hiding in plain sight until regulators became alarmed. vacancies at u.s. employers dropped in february to the lowest since may of 2021 suggesting a cooling and labor demand in some industries. the number of available positions decreased to 9.9 3 million from 10.6 one million a month earlier. the strength and the job market remains a key hurdle for the fed as it seeks to bring inflation down to its 2% goal. italy is said to be studying ways to curtail the influence of china's sinochen on pirelli, including limiting information sharing on sensitive and strategic technology with

appointed board members. the late a of rising tensions between china and western countries over the control of key technologies. the virginia governor in 10 summit with the president of taiwan when he goes on a trade mission leader last month. the delegation will visit taipei, tokyo, and seoul. a major avalanche slammed in india, killing at least seven people. more than a dozen people have been rescued and sent to the hospital. the incident took place on the outskirts of the capital of the himalayan state that borders china's tibet region. 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'm vonnie quinn. this is bloomberg. ♪ paul? >> thanks, vonnie.

finland has joined nato officially following russia's invasion of ukraine. bloomberg has more from brussels. reporter: now a double celebration in brussels. the 74th anniversary of nato with a new member. the flag you see behind me, white and blue, that is finland. it becomes a new member to what is the world's biggest military alliance. a historic shift for the country, which now abandons neutrality, to join nato. the president himself said the era of nonmilitary alliance had come to an end and a new era begins today. he addressed foreign policy it comes to finland will not change. the country will still pursue and aspire for peace and stability. this is a historic shift in many ways prompted and accelerated by russia's invasion of ukraine. the question is -- how will russia if at all

respond? >> still to come, credit suisse's senior leaders say sorry to the bank's failures as they face shareholders for one final time. our report is next. this is bloomberg. ♪ ♪♪ at morgan stanley, old school hard work meets bold new thinking. ♪♪ at 87 years old, we still see the world with the wonder of new eyes, helping you discover untapped possibilities and relentlessly working with you to make them real. old school grit. new world ideas. morgan stanley.

>> the massive outflows of client funds last october were a major setback. working with the regulators, we withstood this trend thanks to the tremendous efforts our employees -- of our employees. yet the downward spiral of events leading to this fateful week intensified later in that week, swallowing everything. the bank could not be saved. >> this will be our last ordinary general meeting. i am sure i don't need to tell you that i am deeply saddened by this. and it personally affects me a lot. unfortunately, we didn't succeed in the end. we ran out of time. this fills me with sorrow.

>> credit suisse's top executives, speaking at the bank's annual shareholder meeting in zurich, and that will be the last one. ubs, set to hold its own later on wednesday. seeking acquisition of credit suisse. bloomberg was there. reporter: the meeting will be their last. a few held shares -- if you held shares, you have lost 93% of your value. we heard from executives about time being the problem here, they ran out of it, they were wide doubt -- wiped out like an avalanche, they said. it was either this deal or bankruptcy, bankruptcy would've

proved even worse for shareholders, switzerland, and the global economy, management said. the emotions have been obviously fairly intense. there has been sadness and anger. frustration, a bit of shame, the reputational damage done to switzerland has been invoked by shareholders and others felt they were treated, and it was sort of highway robbery -- cheated, that it was sort of highway robbery. also how much had been painted management and given back to shareholders, there was a severe imbalance there. a sad day for swiss banking, not just for the tens of thousands of jobs that will be cut as a result by the end of an institution that has sat at the heart of the source economy for 60 years, building railways and tunnels and much of the infrastructure. ubs, pitching a brand-new business in many respects, to some of the very same shareholders. >> let's get more details from bloomberg's finance

reporter, joining us here in sydney. shareholders got an apology, a sad day, what else to the chairman site? >> for the chairman -- say? >> for the chairman, this is an acknowledgment he was chairman at the helm when the institution went down. he talked about how we came to this, why we came to the situation, where the options were only bankruptcy or this merger. and he explained they tried to do their best but they just couldn't some losses from legacy scandals like archagos and they could not turn the bank around, there was not enough time. obviously this merger is much better than the other option which was bankruptcy. >> what are we expecting for the senior leaders at credit suisse now? >> lehman was narrowly elected as chairman for the last time for credit suisse. but we understand that neither he nor the ceo will be hanging around after the merger is

completed later this year. there's also question marks about other senior executives, including those at the investment bank. remember that ebs has said it will look at -- ubs will look at non-core assets and put a lot of the executive through a culture filter because they don't want to be importing some of the bad cultural aspects of credit suisse. >> there was commentary on the banking turmoil as well, jamie dimon with a warning for investors in his annual letter. what is he saying? >> that the current crisis is not over. and even when it is passed us, the repercussions will be felt for years to come. he has a go at regulators and says management were also to blame. that regulators do need to step up their stress testing for example and stress test for assets that are held in the book like bonds, which is what really brought svb down. but he did urge them to avoid

knee-jerk whack-a-mole or politically motivated responses. >> anything on succession times? >> shery, that is the big question. jamie dimon did say, don't worry, this succession is at the front of our minds. he sent succession is discussed at every single board meeting whether he is there or not there whether it is in front of him or not and that the board feels comfortable with where they are at the moment. >> nabila ahmed there. ubs we have pulled off one of the biggest bank deals ever any number of days but the groundwork had been laid for years. more today on bloomberg's latest bid take. it's just been uploaded on the terminal for subscribers. check it out. of course, we continue to watch the cleveland fed president's comments right now at an event in new york.

she's talking about inflation. and that the fed has more work to do but that they have come a long way. she's also talking about how she was very comfortable with that 25 basis point hike that we saw at the march red meeting -- march federal reserve meeting. we were debating whether or not we were going to see a pause some analysts had expected given of course the banking turmoil that affected not only credit suisse and ubs but also the three bank failures here in the u.s. mester also sing the forecast does not have the fed cutting interest rates as of yet. we continue to watch those comments coming from the cleveland fed president. >> loretta mester did make a few comments on the recent banking turmoil as well, saying the turmoil in the sector does seem to have stabilized. it is also important a viable system with banks of all sizes as well.

kind of a counterpoint to what jamie dimon was saying about how this may not yet be over, blaming authorities for not doing enough and saying they should not overreact with morals coming down the track. some assurance there this turmoil may have stabilized. >> loretta mester, saying the fed will not keep hiking until inflation reaches 2%. bloomberg subscribers can continue watching at live. you will find more entries coming up later this week as well as some events you may have missed. of course, we have now seen how the tightening cycle here in the u.s. has affected business sentiment and how businesses go about really trying to get those loans. globally, too, we have seen

loan sales plummet to the lowest in a decade and -- and banks around the world hiking rates. we are talking about a decrease of 43% in the first quarter of this year to 493 billion dollars, paul. >> we have seen a very slow start to the year as well for investment-grade loans. the slowest start for three years. companies raising $224 billion in the year so far. that is a decline of 16% on year. volumes also down about 70% down to $11.8 billion. that is the week i start to the year. the weakest volume -- -- weakest start to the year. the weakest volume since 2020. a very slow start to the year for the investment-grade loan market.

we have plenty more to come on "daybreak: asia." stay with us. this is bloomberg. ♪

>> let's get a check now of the latest business flash headlines. hillhouse capital's public investment tumbled by a third last year to about $41 billion,

according to u.s. regulatory filings. the firm is known for attracting some of the biggest u.s. endowments and pension funds, partly due to its expertise on china. they oversee more than $100 billion globally. banks founder javice charged over the sale of the company to jp morgan, according to new york prosecutors. she lied about the number of people using her college financial planning site to inflate its value. the charges include transparency, wire fraud, and bank fraud -- conspiracy, wire fraud, and bank fraud, each with a maximum charge of 30 years. this company was at to boost its profile with the first-ever lunch from u.k.'s oil last january, but the mission failed and i got no lifeline from bill and ed richard branson. shares of branson's other space company virgin galactic also fell on tuesday, hitting the lowest level this year.

>> take a look at how markets are setting up for the major market opens across asia. kiwi stocks gaining ground for a second session right now. this of course as we head toward the right decision for an 11th straight hike. this could be the last hike of the cycle, taking rates of 5%. the rba, signaling more to come. it was a tightly called decision. the rba did say the possibility of further hikes being needed, we are now setting up with sitting futures down .2%. we had seen the aussie dollar really the client and bond yields also under pressure after the rba rate decision. we are seeing at hold steady. u.s. futures rebounding after the first decline in about five sessions over here.

>> that's right. futures for australia, looking ever so slightly weaker as we head to the open at the top of the hour. the rba -- we mentioned the rba, we will hear more later today. we might get more information on rate hikes and australia. new zealand's cash trade decision, a couple of hours away -- cash rates decision, a couple of hours away. the market opens next. this is bloomberg. ♪ what if we live to 100. i don't want to outlive our money. i keep eating all these chia seeds. i could live to be 100. we work with empower, even if we do live to 100 we don't have to worry. eh, not worried. take control of your financial future

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>> the says -- this is "daybreak: asia." we are headed towards another

rate decision as we already had the rba holding back. we are watching politics in the u.s. as we are expecting the former president, donald trump, to land in florida, back from new york, where he was arraigned in a manhattan court. paul: that will be an interesting press conference to watch out for. the judge in that case, warning all sides not to engage in any language that might incite violence. stopping short of putting a gag order on the former president. shery: we are watching what is happening in the microeconomic space as well, given that here in the u.s. we had a repricing of fed swaps because of softer economic data especially on the jobs front. what will happen when it comes to repricing in boj expectations? not really a lot happening at the moment as a japanese yen hold steady at the 131 level. a little bit stronger against the u.s. dollar as we have seen the japanese yen weakened because of expectations that

perhaps the boj will have to stay in an easy monetary policy for longer. we have seen the downside pressure already in the nikkei and the topix being felt. we had u.s. stocks declining for the first time in five sessions. we are watching jgb's very closely because they were under pressure after we saw a weak demand for a notes. -- for 10 year notes. the kospi, not doing much at the open. we are seeing the korean won trading at about the 13, 12 level, with strength against the u.s. dollar on what is happening with the greenback on those fed expectations. paul: in australia, a staggered open here. right now the asx, weaker by a quarter of 1%. yesterday was a good day for gold stocks in australia. we might see that happen again, particularly with the gold price now pushing within that $50 of

an all-time high. using off a little. the aussie dollar staging a many recovery after we saw a drop on the back of yesterday's rba decision. the rba, staying on hold. joining the bank of canada, doing nothing after 10 consecutive meetings where it lifted rates. a pause yesterday. we will hear from the governor later today when he gives an address to the national press club. let's take a look at how the oil price is doing. west texas right now, $20.92. the sharp prices we saw at the end of the week -- at the start of the week seem to be behind us. brent, just a tad higher, $85.21 a barrel. the yield on the u.s. 10 year and two year, stabilizing as well. shery: let's bring in our next guest, who remains underweight broader

equities given the potential recession in the u.s. and europe but is overweight on asia and japan. we have the group cio for charter wealth management, is this a china economic recovery story and where would you go, onshore or offshore, to take advantage of this opportunity? >> yes, sure, if we look at the china story, obviously a very different state and the economic cycle relative to the rest of the world. we are expecting a recession in the next 12 months and data reinforces that. from a positioning perspective, we are overweight asia and japan. in terms of onshore versus offshore, we are pretty balanced with a slight preference for onshore equities at the moment. obviously we are overweight encyclicals. from a sector perspective, consumer discretionary, communication services,

industrials are all in the areas that we like at the moment from a china sector perspective. that is the way that we would be playing. shery: you are neutral indian equities. have seen that call recently a lot. what is your reasoning behind that? >> that is a good question. we were overweight indian equities through last year. so we reduced it towards the end of last year, into the beginning of this year. it is largely evaluation story. relative valuations obviously favor chinese equities. the growth story in india is stronger and more sustainable, more importantly. obviously at some point we will be revisiting that. at this moment in time, we do feel the indian market is probably blessed resilient -- less resilient to facing headwinds internationally amidst the reopening that we are seeing

in the chinese economy. paul: this is a compelling world story for both china and india at the moment. more broadly in this environment, how is your risk appetite? >> yea, we are generally down on risk. we are underweight global equities. particularly in the developed markets. i guess if we rewind three months ago, we were saying it was a 75% probability of a u.s. recession. we have upped that to 80% now. i guess the story that now was most of the indicators were pointing to a recession with the labor market was still very strong. we have seen further evidence of it overnight that the labor market strength is starting to come to an end. a more forward-looking indicator suggesting we are going to see higher unemployment going forward. and that heralds a recession. earnings are being revised down. but that still got -- that has still got a long way to go.

markets face significant headwinds and the potential laggard before we see the fed pivot and focus on supporting growth rather than fighting inflation. paul: we also heard from the jp morgan ceo and his annual letter warning that the turmoil in the banking sector is not over yet. do you suspect there might be another shoe to drop here? >> if we look at the impact on the economy first of all, the tightening of lending standards was happening before the regional bank challenges in the u.s. obviously that is going to further tighten standards, as people hoard cash. as we go forward, the question for me is, so far it's been a liquidity crisis, that is obviously easy for central banks to solve. they reacted very swiftly to do so. but the question is, how much is the commercial real estate

weakness particularly in the sector, does it lead us from a liquidity crisis into a more sort of capital or sustainability crisis within the banking sector? it is too early to say that is the case. that is probably the downside risk. it is a solvency issue, the lending standards would be tighten more. shery: thanks getting a bow set expectations a new boj governor will change gears. is anything that market that you might? >> overall, we are neutral japan equities with global equity allocations. there's a higher degree of uncertainty appear would a big difficult to take a really bold call and japan at this stage. we don't really know what the central bank is going to do in terms of its yield curve control policy.

our bias is the yen is likely to depreciate this year so we have a weak dollar view anyway but the yen against the backdrop of the yield curve control discussion as well as a potential risk off scenario, that should support the yen. obviously that then would undermine the export earnings. it is a bit of a catch-22 situation for the japanese market at the moment. we prefer to stand on the sideline and take a neutral weight. paul: steve brice, thanks so much for joining us. let's get over to vonnie quinn with a check of the first word headlines. >> jp morgan's ceo says the banking sector turmoil is not yet over and its impact will be felt for years to come. in a letter to shareholders, he says svb's blunders were encouraged by u.s. regulation, untested by the federal reserve, and were hiding in place in the positives became alarmed. dimon wants authorities to

address the issues but cautioned them against overreacting with more rules. the chairman of credit suisse has apologized for failing to stem the crisis which engulfed the lender. lehman, speaking at the shareholder meeting following the $3.3 billion ubs takeover agreement. the deal will be sealed without the approval of shareholders but ultimately they say the bank could not be saved. >> one legacy issue after another and already we have seen trust eroded. and with it patience dwindled. and at that we failed. it is a bitter reality to see our strategy did not have time to bear fruit. >> new zealand posted a record fall in house prices in the year through march as soaring interest rates and slowing economic growth pushed buyers to the sidelines. prices fell 10.5%. the biggest annual drop since 2003.

the 12th consecutive month of declines. pakistan's central bank raised their right to a record 21% as the nation teeters on the brink of it default -- of a default. it also says significant progress has been made to were reviving the $6.5 billion loan program. 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. 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'm vonnie quinn. this is bloomberg. ♪ shery: still ahead -- we take a look at the rebound in asia's leisure travel demand with the president and ceo of silver sequences -- silversea cruises. and, a preview of the rbnz policy decision, next.

this is bloomberg. ♪

>> i plan to remain diligent in setting monetary policy to return the economy for stability in a timely way and be judicious in balancing the risks to minimize the pain of that journey. shery: the cleveland fed president, speaking after the u.s. labor market report showed a cooling-off that could bolster the case for less hawkish fed policy paths. policy editor kathleen is back with not only what loretta mester said but more as well. >> we were talking about this earlier. what struck me about the jobs report today was as much as bond yields fell a bit, when you look at the report, it may be cooling

from a hot level but it's not really cold and not even close yet. we are talking about job openings and labor turnover, a survey the fed does. it showed the vacancies which have been closely watched since the pandemic when we came out of the pandemic it peaked at 12 million vacancies, people just didn't want to get back to work. before the pandemic, you could see it was averaging around 7000, 8000 in a normal and healthy labor market. now it is only down to $9.9 -- down to 9.9 million. may be a little cooling but it could be a trend. that is why optimists who want to see the fed slowing down are looking for it. the unemployment ratio went from 2 at the peak, now 1.7 to 1. the >> rates rose to 2.6%. you don't quit a job unless you know that you are going to get another one quickly.

that is a sign of a tightening labor market. loretta mester said what seemed obvious, that for the fed, anybody who thinks they have to get inflation down and they have not gone far enough, that they have a lot more to do. in fact, she did say in her prepared remarks that a more restrictive policy is needed, that the fed needs to push the fed funds rate above 5% and keep it there. that does not sound like pausing and coming back down, it supports what fed officials have said that they don't expect any rate cuts probably until 2024. i guess reassuring people, the fed will not keep hiking until inflation reaches 2%. someone is wondering, gee, will you keep hiking like this until all the way to 2%? that remains to be seen. in the past they have set, once we get the funds rate above the inflation rate, which could happen by the end of this year, then we will no longer have a stimulative policy and we will have a more restrictive policy. i think that is another thing

she said, not only reassuring people but also explaining this is what has to be done. paul: kathleen, we do have another rate decision today, a little under two hours' time, the rbnz expected to downshift us rate hike path. inflation still very elevated in new zealand. what's driving the logic? >> we were talking about the last time the rbnz governor spoke. he made it clear that they expect the rbnz ocr to peak around 5.5%. that they've done a lot of rate hiking. they were early to hike. this would be the 11th meeting in a role where there have made -- where they have made the ocr move higher. 75 basis point in november. 50 basis point in february. 25 basis point in april expected. they've been on an aggressive path. the inflation rate is still very high. 7.2% is not anywhere near the

target yet. the idea is with all these forces, lags in monetary policy, that has leveled off and it will get there. an unexpected contraction in the first quarter. 0.6%, that doesn't mean a recession until you get another quarter. not there yet. but there were the floods, cyclones, people are looking for damage from those to show up in the numbers. maybe you got something else that is weak or negative. with inflation still high, they are expected to go ahead and downshift. this is a monetary policy review meeting, not a monetary policy statement meeting. the statement meeting has a press conference. the review meeting doesn't. they can still move the rate but we will not get the explanation we would be getting if it was at other kind of meeting and getting a little more of that fine tuning that we -- that they do so well. the policy statement and the move itself will send a strong message. shery: kathleen hays,

here with the latest top stories when it comes to monetary policy. one of the things kathleen was talking about is the risks globally have included what's happening with the banking turmoil. we are now getting the views from jamie dimon of jp morgan in his annual letter to shareholders saying that the crisis from the u.s. banking system will be felt for years to come. he is saying that silicon valley bank's blunders were encouraged by u.s. regulation, they went untested by the fed and were hiding in plain sight until wall street and depositors actually grew alarmed. he predicts this episode will not yet be over and will be felt for years. it is said that u.s. authorities should not -- and he said that u.s. authorities should not overreact with more rules. dimon also describing his firm's aspirations for using artificial intelligence and chatgpt. this of course was a wide

ranging annual letter he sent to shareholders. he also provided updates on jp morgan's activities, as well. paul: in terms of jamie dimon's views on the turmoil in the banking sector, that is one shared by pimco's aaron brown, saying this turmoil is not in the rearview mirror just yet and makes an interesting observation about the bond market and equity market. we've got both rally in right now. she says only one of them is going to turn out to be right. particularly in terms of equities. erin, saying there are rich valuations. expecting more growth and expansion. if the fed does end up cutting rates, why is it cutting them? probably because we are heading into a recession. that does not bode well for equities at all. those are some of the observations of pimco's erin brown. you can read about those observations and other stories

you need to know to get your day going in today's edition of "daybreak," at dayb on your terminal. when you are there are, you can customize your settings so you are only getting news on the industries and assets that you care about. this is bloomberg. ♪

shery: we are live at mar-a-lago right now. you are watching former president donald trump walk in for his news conference. he is back from new york. he was arraigned in manhattan on tuesday afternoon following his indictment. we are expecting to hear from

him. of course, he has already plead not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. this is the alleged criminal scheme to manipulate the 2016 election. we will be watching for what he says to the public. of course he has denied any wrongdoing so far, and he has repeatedly assailed the investigation. you are watching live pictures from mar-a-lago as he has to the podium for a news conference. he is just back from new york, facing 34 felony counts. which interestingly, ordinarily, they would be seen as misdemeanors under new york law, but are charged as felonies in this case because they were allegedly committed in the service of another crime, in this case promoting trump's candidacy by unlawful means. paul: many respects -- many

expectations this would not go anywhere and there are other criminal probes into former president trump ongoing as well. all of these can intersect at a rather exciting moment sometime in 2024, when the republican primaries get underway. it was also interesting today, the judge, urging all parties to refrain from making public statements that could incite violence. so a warning there. one of the members in this case has a bit of a track record when it comes to that. no gag order on former president trump, though, as evidenced by the fact he is about to get up there and say something. it will be interesting to hear what his words are like, considering he is not afraid of saying what he thinks, is he? shery: we are now seeing former president trump get on stage. we are expecting him to speak in a news conference after he came back from new york, arraigned in a court hearing. let's listen in.

>> usa, usa, usa, usa, usa, usa, usa, usa! former president trump: thank you everybody. god bless you all. god bless you all. [applause] and i never thought anything like this could happen in america. never thought it could happen. the on crime that i have committed is to to fearlessly defend our nation from those who seek to destroy it. [cheering and applause] from the beginning, the democrats spied on my campaign, remember that? they attacked me with an onslaught of fraudulent investigations, russia, russia, russia, ukraine, ukraine, ukraine, impeachment hoax number one, impeachment hoax

number two, the illegal and unconstitutional raid on mar-a-lago, right here. lying to the pfizer courts, the fbi and doj, relentlessly pursuing republicans. the unconstitutional changes to election laws by not getting approvals from state legislators. the millions of votes illegally stuffed into ballot boxes, recorded on government cameras. just recently the fbi and doj in collusion with twitter and facebook, in order not to say anything bad about the hunter biden laptop from hell, which exposes the biden family as criminals and according to the posters would've made a 17 point difference and the results, and we needed less and that, we needed like 16.9.

shery: you have been hearing former president donald trump back from new york as he was arraigned in a court. you can talk about him talk about vista being part of a larger hoax, using words such as collusion, you can find more on the bloomberg to continue watching his remarks. for now, take a look at how u.s. futures are trading at the moment. we have seen a little bit of upside after stocks fell in the new york session for the first time in five sessions. we are also watching the treasury markets very closely. as we got i screwed up. mhm. i got us t-mobile home internet. now cell phone users have priority over us. and your marriage survived that? you can almost feel the drag when people walk by with their phones. oh i can't hear you... you're froze-- ladies, please! you put it on airplane mode when you pass our house. i was trying to work. we're workin' it too. yeah! work it girl! woo! i want to hear you say it out loud. well, i could switch us to xfinity. those smiles.

that's why i do what i do. (jennifer) the reason why golo customers have such long term success that and the paycheck. is because we focus on real foods in the right balance so you get the results you want. when i tell people how easy it was for me to lose weight on golo, they don't believe me. they don't believe i can eat real food and lose this much weight. the release supplement makes losing weight easy. release sets you up for successful weight loss because it supports your blood sugar levels between meals so you aren't hungry or fatigued. after i started taking release, the weight just started falling off. since starting golo and taking release, i've gone from a size 12 to a 4. before golo, i was hungry all the time and constantly thinking about food. after taking release, that stopped. with release, i didn't feel that hunger that comes with dieting. which made the golo plan really easy to stick to. since starting golo and release, i have dropped seven pant sizes and i've kept it off. golo is real, our customers are real,

and our success stories are real. why not give it a try? shery: we are getting the bank services and composite numbers for the final march data, upgraded to 52.9 in expansion territory for three

months already for the pmi composite. services, not surprising, already very strong. still upgraded to 55 given of course the strong services sector after japan's reopening. we will see of this is maintained given the survey this week coming in pretty weak. paul: let's have a look at how we are tracking and japan at the moment. a little bit of weakness for the nikkei right now. up by about .8%. energy the worst performer sector and japan. . off by 2.5%. we are in positive territory now. the best-performing stocks surprise surprise are gold miners after we saw the gold price break through $2000 an ounce. back to an all-time high. watching new zealand as well. some positive territory. we are watching it because of course in just under 90 minute'' time, we will get a decision from the reserve bank of new zealand on the cash rate.

19 out of 21 economists say another 25 basis point rise the site -- despite persistent inflation in new zealand. for now, let's get to vonnie quinn with a check of the first word headlines. >> vacancies at u.s. employers dropped in february to the lowest since may of 2021 suggesting a cooling and labor demand in. the number of available positions decreased from -- to -- 9.9 million from 10.6 million a month earlier. italy a set to be studying ways to curtail the influence of china's sinochem on the maker pirelli. some of the options include limiting information sharing on sensitive and strategic technology with appointed board members. the discussions are the latest signs of rising tensions between china and western countries over the control of key technology's. -- technologies. glenn youngkin attempts to meet

with the president of taiwan when he leads a treatment should -- a trade mission later this month. the delegation will visit taipei, tokyo, and seoul. the announcement of the trip comes ahead of a meeting between lawmakers led by republican house speaker kevin mccarthy. a major avalanche slammed india, killing at least seven people. the indian army says search-and-rescue a temps are ongoing and adds more than a dozen people have been rescued and sent to the hospital. the incident took place on the outskirts of the capital of the himalayan state that borders china's tibet region. 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'm vonnie quinn. this is bloomberg. ♪ shery? shery: ubs is set to hold it's focus on the return of mori as ceo, following the shareholder meeting for credit

suisse. senior management apologize for being unable to prevent its demise. bloomberg was there. reporter: the credit suisse annual meeting attended by more than 1700 shareholders here will be there last -- their last. if you held shares, you've lost 93% of your value. we heard from the ceo and the chairman, really a note of contrition and apology for not being able to turn this bank around in time. time being the problem here, they ran out of it. that they were wiped out in that faithful we can march like an avalanche they said. the options were either this deal or bankruptcy. bankruptcy would've proved even worse for shareholders, even worse for switzerland and the global economy, management said. in terms of shareholders, emotions have been fairly intense, there has been sadness and anger and frustration, a bit of shame. the reputational damage done to switzerland has been invoked by some of the shareholders.

others really feel they were cheated and it was sort of highway robbery. the chairman, acknowledging on the balance of profits over the last 10-15 years, how much had been paid to management and going back to shareholders. there was a severe imbalance there. a sad day for swiss banking not just for the tens of thousands of jobs that will likely be cut as a result of this but the end of an institution that has sat of the heart -- at the heart of this was economy for over 160 years, building the railways and tunnels and much of the infrastructure. the focus turns to ubs, pitching a brand-new business in many respects to some of the very same shareholders. paul: let's get more details from bloomberg's finance reported joining us in sydney. shareholders, getting an apology. what else did the chairman have to say? >> he tried to explain how we got here, why this institution is now on its knees and had to

be sold. he said they just failed to stem losses from legacy problems, legacy scandals like investment in archagos, must billions of dollars -- lost billions of dollars a couple of years ago. they failed to turn negative headlines with positive facts. in the end, the solution was bankruptcy or this merger. and obviously they wanted to avoid bankruptcy. shery: what happens to the senior leadership now? >> we are expecting the chairman and ceo will not be sticking around postmerger. we know the deal will take about the end of the year -- until about the end of the year to close. other senior managers are also on ubs' sites. investment banking is one area where they would shrink the business. we are talking about thousands of job cuts here. senior management would be the first ago. paul: this deal though was just done in a weekend. but bloomberg's learned

it was on the shelf for quite a while before the. >> that's right, bloomberg reporting uncovered a top-secret project that ubs had been working on for a while, so the person who took over as chairman last year, when he came in, he inherited some visibility studies that his predecessor had done about ubs taking over credit suisse and how that would look. as soon as they credit suisse run started to happen and clients started to pull money earlier this year, they reached out to their advisors at morgan stanley and jp morgan about putting this deal together. so it just shows even though this deal was negotiated just over that weekend with the government, it had been in the works for a while. ubs had already done a lot of the due diligence necessary. shery: nabila ahmed there. coming up next -- our exclusive conversation with the president and ceo of

silversea cruises. barbara muckermann. this is bloomberg. ♪

shery: we are seeing a bit of a mixed picture across asia right now. most markets are gaining ground. we are talking about kiwi stocks

gaining for a second session, australian stocks up again. the kospi, also up. the japanese market is down right now. we are seeing industrials, materials and consumer discretionary really weighing heavily on the msci asia-pacific index. health care is actually gaining ground -- health care is the only sector actually gaining ground. we continue to watch u.s. futures. they seem to be rebounding a little bit right now. paul: our next guest runs a luxury cruise line, silversea cruises. with five luxury ships and six classic vessels in their fleet. joining us now is president and ceo barbara muckermann.

i'm going to start with china, the reopening, helping prepare -- helping propel the number of businesses forward, but how is demand out of china looking? >> at is starting to awaken again which is amazing news for the industry because we have seen would love the polar region, the arctic, so we are seeing pent-up demand. it was an incredible, emotional moment for the whole city in january. paul: you run much smaller ships then customers would expect. it is a premium luxury service. how is that high-end of the market performing at the moment? >> very resilient. our baby boomers retired and have quite some time and some wealth. our ships are starting with 51 suites, all with butlers. paul: we often have a

large ship behind us. your ships are significantly smaller than that. you mentioned china. is at the area where we are seeing the greatest growth? >> asia-pacific in general is where most of the strategic investments are happening. we are expecting it to overtake the second largest market in the world, great britain, hopefully next year. shery: how does your business compared to pre-pandemic levels? >> it is way up, compared to pre-pandemic levels, also because we have been taking more capacity and the pandemic brought a lot of customers reflection about the value of experiences, particularly boomers. have spent money on goods and fashion and now it is all about the experience economy and this is a trend that really just started. shery: what about how you operate your business? of course we continue to see coronavirus infections. people continue to be worried

about being in closed spaces. how have you changed your mode of operation? >> i would say in most of the world, that coronavirus is not in the news anymore. we are still testing and asia. in general today all of the protocols are back to normal. visitors are allowed back in the ships. it is really not the news of the day. we are absolutely not seeing any influence of coronavirus over demand at all. paul: i want to talk about how the ships run. the cruise industry often gets a bad rap for the amount of pollution it generates, the burning of oil, etc. you are experimenting now with hybrid ships. can you tell me how many of these you have in your fleet? whether you are planning to add more? >> silver nova is going to join our fleet this summer and she is the first multi-hybrid ship going both on oil and lng, on

top of that battery and fuel cells. she will basically produce less greenhouse emissions than the previous class of ships. paul: how does the built -- build of hybrid ships compared to a conventionally powered ship? >> they are significantly more expensive but the sustainability is one of the pillars of our strategy and we have committed to the first mentorship by 2025 so we are very lucky has a small brand to be able to allow experimental ground for this incredible technology. shery: right now you are seeing a reopening of economies especially china, but how are you preparing for the macro economic challenges we could be facing including perhaps recessions in several economies? >> well, i have to say that the luxury consumer's mostly resilient. particularly being more mature. they are not giving up the spend on experiences. they really want to travel the world. we are seeing the trend for long and exotic voyages

as strong as ever in the industry of luxury cruising. shery: but to have you with us -- good to have you with us, barbara muckermann. president and chief executive officer at silversea cruises. smiths group has boasted expectations after reporting growth across all divisions and regions in the first half of the year. its cfo told us more about how the current macro challenges could affect business. >> we had a strong set of first-half results, and we also raised our guidance for the full year for organic growth again, the second time in two months. for the first half, we reported organic revenue growth of 13 point 5% operating profit growth of 27%, an eps growth of more than 50%. and it is the strong momentum that we are seeing in our current trading as well as having record books in two of

our businesses that gave us a conviction to raise our guidance for the full year to at least 8% growth for the full year. and the record order books that we have are in the parts of our business which are exposed to energy transition and security. >> i was going to ask where the demand was coming from, is there a particular group of clients you think will do better than others, that are now asking some of your products to be increased? >> yes, our growth was broad-based. we had growth across every division, every geography, and every and market that we serve. but where we saw particular order book buildup was an energy transition security, so from an energy transition perspective, the pipeline of opportunities that we were looking at for hydrogen and carbon capture doubled over the course of the last year. and from a security perspective, in airports, ports and borders, other urban settings, clients are looking to increase the technology so that they have the

latest screening capabilities. >> are you confident that you will be able to raise prices further? >> yes, so far, we have been able to offset the persistent and widespread inflation that we are seeing through price increases. but of course in order to continue to do that, we need to be delivering for customers in a way that really addresses the most difficult problems. one other point that is noteworthy about first results is we increased r&d by 14%. and putting that effort against ensuring that we are always innovating for our customers. so, so far, we had been able to offset all of the inflationary pressures that we are seeing and we hope to be able to continue to do that. >> of course a lot of your orders are longer-term. but do you see an immediate effect to the economy even because of the credit crash and the banking crisis and does that affect 2024 orders? >> we are not directly

impacted by the takeover of credit suisse or the stress which has gone through the regional banking system in the u.s., fortunately. we have a very strong balance sheet with any bits of only .8 times, and that is what gives us the strength to invest in r&d and gives us the optionality to think about accretive m&a. we have returned $241 million in the have to shareholders or $900 million to the shareholders over the past 18 months. so it is a good time to have a strong balance sheet, as we have a -- as we navigate as you mentioned the uncertain geopolitical and micro-uncertainty. we factored that macro uncertainty into our revised guiding -- revised guidance when we gave it. paul: the smiths group cfo, speaking to bloomberg's francine lacqua. we have plenty more to come on "daybreak: asia." this is bloomberg. ♪

paul: let's get a check of the latest business flash headlines. johnson & johnson has agreed to pay close to $9 billion to resolve all cancel lawsuits tied to their talc based powders, settling about 60,000 claims. a trust has been set up in the bankruptcy court in new jersey that will cover future liabilities. the company's already withdrawn

products from the market. general motors is buying out 5000 salary staffers globally. the cfo says it is part of a cost-cutting move that will save a billion dollars annually starting this year. the voluntary buyouts cover 6% of gm's 81,000 white-collar employees. it should allow the detroit automaker to avoid involuntary dismissals. the assets of hillhouse capital's public investment dropped by one third to about 41 billion dollars according to u.s. regulatory filings. the firm is known for attracting some of the biggest u.s. endowment and pension funds partly due to the expertise on china -- there expertise on china. they handle more than $100 billion globally. filing for cash up -- filing for bankruptcy after a cash dry up. they got no lifeline from berliner richard branson --

bill enyart richard branson -- bill enyart richard branson. shery: time could be right for investors to snap up dividend stocks in asia thanks to the better growth prospects and the recent slide in u.s. bond yields. for more, let's bring our senior asia south reporter in tokyo. how have high dividend stocks been performing so far? >> hi, shery, when you look at the msci high dividend index for the region, the performance of the january-march quarter is almost in line with the market. but if you look more closely, they underperformed in january, the first half of the quarter. after that, they have been catching up. in the case of dividend stocks, it seems to be building, given the u.s. bond yields have fallen quite sharply over the past couple of weeks.

so many investors seem to be focusing on dividend stocks again. paul: what kind of opportunities are there in asia right now? >> yeah. first of all, asia is home to high dividend stocks. according to jeffries, about a quarter of stocks in asia have dividend yields of 5% or more. and that is higher than other regions. that is one thing. another thing to keep in mind is that asia seems to be in a different economic cycle, compared to the u.s. at the moment. so many people are looking at a slow down in the u.s. and europe while asia's economy seems to be improving, thanks to the reopening and china. that could have implications -- in china. that could have implications on

investment strategies here. some think even when you invest on high dividend stocks, rather than looking for stocks that have the highest dividend yields, you might better focus on companies that have better dividend, companies that have a steadily increased evident payment over years. paul: bloomberg's asia senior stocks report. let's take a look at how markets are tracking a japan right now. we have the nikkei weaker by about .9%. that is a worst-performing index in the region right now. energy stocks getting particularly beaten up today in japan. here in australia, we are modestly in positive territory at the moment. the best-performing stocks, gold miners, no surprise, as we see the gold price breakthrough $2000 an ounce, now about $50 short of an all-time record. keeping an eye on new zealand as

well. it is a big day. in about an hour's time, we will get the cash rate decision from the reserve bank of new zealand. 19 out of 21 economists see them lifting rates one more time by 25 basis points. that would take the cash rate to 5%. shery: one more time would be the 11th straight meeting where we are seeing a rate hike coming from the rbnz. it is only by 25 basis points after that 50 basis point increase we saw in february. and that jump of 75 basis points at the end of last year. not a lot of movement but still a little bit of upside after stocks actually declined in the new york session for the first time in five sessions. industrials and energy led declines. we also had a selloff in banks. we have been watching treasuries very closely. a selloff in banks with bond yields falling. also because of that softer jobs data. we have the two year yield at the lowest and more than a week. the 10 year yield, also at the

lowest since september. cash trading a japan, a little bit of a bounce back when it comes to those yield levels. this of course after that repricing of fed swaps. and we are expecting those payrolls numbers later on friday. not to mention the adp's gauge of private-sector payroll growth also to come in for a fuller picture of the labor market. now, we do have a few markets closed. they are the big ones, china, hong kong, and taiwan. but stick around. more bloomberg markets to come. this is bloomberg. ♪

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david: 9:00 a.m. in hong kong and shanghai. welcome.