particularly if gordhan is removed. is definitely a lot of more price action to come in the rand. you will see volatility in the rand and other assets in south africa. removed, you not have raised the risk premium around south african assets and that she changed some of the pricing. that would be choppy and not one way. we need to watch what happens with gordhan and if he is removed, definitely. mark: how would the south african central bank react? you have seen the story in the market as picking that up, but now it is beginning to reverse that trade. if you are the central bank and trying to manage this story, you thea sharp spike, maybe central bank doesn't like? mark: a good question because they are meeting this thursday. one thing i don't expect is to change rates. one of the dynamics of the currency was that core inflation has dropped so rapidly. most recent print was at 5.2%, but it seemed inflation was under control. there is a worried about the currency may be they might air on being two dovish this thursday. t

he put gordhan on with the mandate not to get downgraded. moody's downgrade would have been tangental, they would have still be an investment downgrade, but still a do downgrade, he could have blamed gordhan for doing that and then fire him, but he lost that opportunity. i think they were going to go to stag stable, would be my guess, now they may go negative. s&p has an itchy finger focussed on politics, now the likelihood that they're downgraded is more so. it was very unlikely that we were going to see forced selling of south africa because of a move to junk this year. now it's highly probable. fitch focused on politics a lot. they had more patience and would have seen this through. if it's based on what zuma has done, the move to junk, you have to treat it as a likelihood at this stage. about. >> 20 seconds left. turkey. do we think that the referendum that erdogan is pushing, is he going to get his way? will he get more constitutional power? if he doesn't, the country will lack the political equilibrium it's lacked for a long time. this

and pravin gordhan had been viewed as a steward of the nations economy, observers saying that this willmine the president's ability to govern. the president has faced corruption allegations and other scandals during his pregnancy -- during his presidency. so far, he has survived all attempts to oust him from office. brent: here are some other stories making headlines. in pakistan, at least 20 people have been killed after an explosion near a minority shiite mosque. the blast in a remote area bordering afghanistan is thought to have targeted worshipers as they gathered for friday prayers. the leaderer of an insurgency hs vowed to continue the fight against the military crackdown. he has called on the country's leader to protect the muslim minority. a u.n. report has claimed that the security forces committed a mass killings and gang rapes. ok, time for business news. what is on tap for this friday? >> talking about the u.s. president, who says he has just set the stage for a revival in american manufacturing. his remarks came as he is -- as unveiled executive orders looking at trade and

gordhan deputy were replaced.here is an overriding concern that one of the key things to focus on is corruption investigations against the zuma regime. some of the investigations are ongoing. investigations may not be halted with the replacement and the new staff. it is credibility. the we look at the next 2, 4, 6 weeks or months, which could bring turbulence to south africa asset prices ratings, or is it the beginning of the end for the amc having a stranglehold on south african politics? tom: very smart, very beneficial on south africa. david herro of hariss associates , a spectacular track record on international investment. glencore link you to trading, francine can do that, but the value commodities. a general statement that a guy like you wants to own brazilian commodity stuff? it depends on price. we were out of commodities and any company related to them in 2007, 2008, when the bubble happened. you have to look at price. one of the important aspects to analyzing commodities is understanding the cost curve.

mr gordhan will be replaced by malusi gigaba.as standing up to president zuma in cabinet and has warned against corruption becoming rampant. hsbc is to let customers choose more non—gender specific titles for their retail bank accounts. instead of mr, mrs, ms or the gender neutral mx, customers can choose from nine titles including "m" and "misc". the prefixes are designed to give non—binary people more choices if they don't want to be identified by gender. dutch prosecutors have announced they've launched an international hunt for people seeking to hide assets and evade taxes after receiving a tip—off about undisclosed accounts at a swiss bank. coordinated raids began on thursday across europe. millions of euros worth of paintings, gold bars, cash and other assets had been seized from holders of several of the 3800 accounts at the swiss bank, which she would not name. to asia now, where there's more evidence china's economy is bouncing back. mariko oi is in singapore. hgppy happy friday! this is interesting, because the several

gordhan believes the reform program as it stands is on the way out.itable that the credit rating agencies come up with a downgrade? is that inevitable that they want to see who it will be? >> it is not inevitable. it is not a question of personality, it is a question of policies. see whold want to the new finance minister would be and what policies they would put in place and whether there would be a continuation of structured reform. the rand is already overvalued, in our view. we do not expect it to fall quite so sharply in such a short amount of time. it is underweight also insult african equities. debt what happens on the rating, we will not predict that, for sure. when you look at the policies and the reform program the new finance minister will indulge. jonathan: the big picture for e.m. has been this blanket, big fx trade where a.m. has outperformed relative to the dollar. looked at as overvalued as an asset class? fxwe say only parts is generally overvalued. the rand has held up better than we anticipated. but in this world where we anticipate

the president zuma is ready to fire finance minister gordhan.spoke to south african timeliness. -- communists. he was told to return home from a road trip he set up, came to the u.k. yesterday and has had to return home. they have been occurring for at least six months. the dollar stabilizing today. little changed after falling nine out of 10 days. below where it started out the day after the donald trump election victory. yesterday, the dollar fell, it was -- analyst beginning to pare back their forecasts. that is the white line. yen for the15 dollar. this is a great chart showing the correlation of how these commodities moved. there is a convergence right now between gold and copper, gold falling while copper rising yesterday. the inverse was happening yesterday. copper intraday yesterday falling to the lowest level since january and gold rebounded 11% since falling to the 11 .onth low in december copper has fallen 5.5% since rising to an almost two-year high in february. gold is falling and copper is rising. francine: we continue in the next

despite many senior officials opposing mr gordhan's removal, he's been replaced with the man who wasowing criticism of venezuela's president maduro after he allowed the supreme court to take over responsibility for law—making from the opposition—controlled national assembly on wednesday. the head of the organisation of american states said the decision had dealt the final blow to democracy in the country. part of a motorway in atlanta has collapsed after a major fire underneath an overpass.local reports say police believe it was caused by an electrical wire. so far, there are no reports of casualties. people are being advised to avoid the area. a ferry that was raised from the bottom of the sea ok, so, what do you do when the president of the united states calls up to play golf? greg norman is among those who have had to answer the question and it's not as easy as you may think. recently he spoke to the bbc and started by giving his assessment of president trump's form on the course. his flexibility for a 70—year—old guy is pretty darn good. he hits the ball out there are a fairly lo

concerns there may be a cabinet reshuffle, which analysts say has unnerved investors, who see pravin gordhanbrazil needs to restore trust in its meat exports after being hit by a scandal over rotten produce. a number of countries have slapped restrictions on brazilian imports. the country has seen its daily meat exports plunge by 19%. the company that built a controversial pipeline under native american tribal land says it is now full of oil and will be in operation soon. construction of the stretch of pipeline in north dakota was delayed by protests and legal action. it was completed after president trump signed an executive order within days of taking office in january. the uk's brexit minister has downplayed suggestions the country will pay an bill of around $60 billion dollars for leaving the eu. david davis says while britain will meet its international obligations, he doesn't think that sort of money will change hands. the cost of the divorce! that's not the last we will hear about that. in fa ct we the last we will hear about that. in fact we will talk about that in the paper review i

anna: what do we know about the guy coming in to take gordhan' s place? what is that going to have for the credit rating agency. munis could issue a rating next week. could we expect a downgrade? finance minister is a former home affairs minister and also a former public enterprise a minister -- administrator. he was in charge of the state owned entities. we have a family that is politically connected as well, that has a case against the e minister.o ody's said to come out with their rating. there is a likelihood they will say it doesn't matter who is finance minister but more importantly, if policies remain the same. anna: thank you very much. joining us there with the latest on what is happening in south africa. a very developing story korea getting comments coming through at the top of the hour from gordhan, saying a range of characters are troubling the treasury, but same he treasury has a strong team of professionals. let's bring into the conversation david. , a very south african story. there might be some read across to other emerging markets becau

there was a rumor jacob zuma was , and to be firing gordhan the rampant price that in.s this a one-way street for the rand now? street. not a one-way i think the important thing is, the global environment is very positive for emerging markets. the dollar has been weakening in the last couple of months. yields up-and-coming lower. that has provided a tailwind for emerging markets, particularly high yield like south africa. people will look to buy them at some point. however, i do think there is a lot more weakness to come. has beendhan dismissed, and that was the really big danger -- we speculated about it all week but were not sure whether it would happen. he has done a major cabinet reshuffle. 20 ministers or deputy ministers have been removed. i think the market will be shocked when they look into this and realize what a brave step -- grave in terms of -- a vicious in terms better word, of turning the cabinet to loyalists. it is negative for south africa and institutional integrity, and that makes it vulnerable to credit downgrades. guy: let's explore this a little bi

south africa's finance minister, pravin gordhan, has been sacked by president zuma.any senior officials opposing mr gordhan‘s removal and jitters in the country's financial markets, he's been replaced with the man who was home affairs minister. part of a motorway in atlanta has collapsed after a major fire underneath an overpass. local reports say police believe it was caused by an electrical wire. no reports of casualties but all lanes were closed. south korea's ousted president, park geun—hye, is being held in a police cell following her arrest on corruption charges. she is accused of allowing a close friend to extort money from companies in return for political favours, charges she has always denied. stephen evans has more from the capital, seoul. it was a rough night for the former president. at 3am she was told she would be going to jail. she was driven there accompanied by law enforcement officers. i7 accompanied by law enforcement officers. 17 hours earlier she had arrived in court to plead for her freedom. thejudges ruled against, saying she might destroy evi

the new plan and called south africa's president jacob zuma has sacked his finance minister, pravin gordhanhe country's financial markets. despite many senior officials opposing mr gordhan‘s removal, he's been replaced with the man who was home affairs minister, malusi gigaba. there's been growing criticism of venezuela's president maduro after he allowed the supreme court to take over responsibility for law—making from the opposition—controlled national assembly on wednesday. the head of the organisation of american states said the decision had dealt the final blow to democracy in the country. part of a motorway in atlanta has collapsed after a major fire underneath an overpass. local reports say police believe it was caused by an electrical wire. so far, there are no reports of casualties. people are being advised to avoid the area. a ferry that was raised from the bottom of the sea in south korea last week is being towed to port, where it will be searched for the remains of missing passengers. more than 300 people died when the sewol sank in 2014 but the bodies of nine people have never

the removal of pravin gordhan after days of speculation sent south africa's currency, the rand, lowernse. direct line was the biggest riser in the ftse100, climbing 3%, that's all the business news. see you later, thank you. china is closing almost half of its official ivory carving factories and shops today, with the rest due to close by the end of the next year. the news has been welcomed by conservationists in their battle against the illegal trade in ivory. despite a global ban on international sales, a surge in demand has resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of african elephants in recent years. my my colleague has been talking to someone my colleague has been talking to someone from convention on international trade in endangered species in beijing and associate director of the born free foundation. they explained why today so important. yes, it was a very big day. the government of china made this announcement back in december and they are working very, very fast to implement that decision. over a third closed today, i visited some that were closed today. by the end of t

mark: given that the rand has on the goings on, how might south africa's currency respond is gordhan go? anything to gois by, the rand will plummet further. if the finance minister is fired abruptly, such as the finance before was replaced 20 by a little-known lawmaker. the south african economy through the 2008 crisis, he was brought back when the markets reacted badly. he is someone who led the labor sector to a credit ratings downgrade and try to restore the sentiment for the country. having him let go and have a great impact on the markets. mark: thank you we will be back to you if something happens. julie? house speaker paul ryan and other gop leaders are speaking at a news conference in washington. you can watch their full remarks .thereomberg at tv go speaking about their agenda, mark . ♪ mark: -- mark: 30 minutes left in the trading day today. from london, i am mark barton. julie: in new york, i'm julie hyman. this is the european close on "bloomberg markets." ♪ we're going to take you from new york to london in the next hour. plus, we are covering stories in hong kong, new o

africa's currency the rand fell after the country's president jacob zuma sacked finance minister pravin gordhanrst performers as a result of its high exposure to trade in south africa. its shares were down 7.6% shortly after the open and remained low through the afternoon. figures out today suggest that over the last year the cost of a home in the uk is still growing but not as fast as it was. there are a number of different house price indexes which release figures, one of them is the nationwide's which uses numbers from its own mortgage lending. today they show the average house price across the uk actual fell by 0.3% in the month of march, the first fall since june 2015. now, monthly figures can be very volatile, but this is the largest such fall for nearly five years. the hospitality sector has warned it faces a shortfall of 60,000 workers a year if immigration from the european union is too tightly controlled. staff from the eu make up nearly a quarter of all jobs in the sector. the british hospitality association said that thousands of businesses are facing having to drastically reduce th

as i said before, they will definitely be keeping a very close eye on the ramifications f gordhan beingired. nejra: we have seen quite a different reaction across the markets. >> we have seen a signature reaction indeed. we know that the rand has reverse gains and at the start of this year and at the start of this week, in fact, it was among the top three emerging market currencies. it's reversed those gains which has seen the yield on government benchmark bonds also soaring. back banking stocks have tumbled. we have seen markets not reacting very positively to the uncertainty that comes from the -- the intment of markets will be watching very closely. >> thank you. now, for more on the political turmoil in south africa and what it means for the country's financial market and credit rating, we're joined by the head of the economic markets, peter. great to have you. these latest lines coming out from fetch and other ratings agencies, no surprise to you. you said that what's happened could lead to significant downgrade. >> exactly. i think we need to understand why that will be the case.

gordhan has tried to keep spending in check. hours a day, powered by more than 2600 journalists in more than 120 countries. i am mark crumpton. this is bloomberg. scarlet: let's get a recap of today's market action. stocks rising with this only being the second gain in nine sessions. recovering from a six week low. we also sell oil strengthen. a risk on day as consumer confidence jumped to much more than expected. joe: "what'd you miss?" greece is preparing a second bailout review. joining us now is vice president greece new democracy party. about the current bailout process. how confident are you in the existing government that they will be able to get through this and have the next trench of money released? , they areeems now close. there is no doubt about it, greece will stay in the eurozone . we will stay in the eurozone. we made tremendous sacrifices to stay in the eurozone. now, if you see our economy from a distance, you will see we have an economy with a surplus budget. balanced economy's future is bright. will much tire

the removal of pravin gordhan after days of speculation sent south africa‘s currency, the rand, lowerather certainly for the second half of our weekend, and indeed into the easter holidays for some who have broken up today, started a rather damp note in the north, north yorkshire, some sunshine, still remnants of cloud across scotland, and we have rain around, if! across scotland, and we have rain around, if i show you here, you conceive yourself, rain beginning to clear northern ireland, a future was coming into the west, sunshine breaking through in the east. as we follow through the rest of the afternoon and evening, losing the rain from the far north, showers following in behind, those will be dominant through the night, particularly in western areas, in eastern areas, lengthier clear spells, fresher area, relatively mild, nine or10 spells, fresher area, relatively mild, nine or 10 degrees. on saturday, fairly bright note in eastern areas, already we have showers with us, showers, fairly unusual, for the weather to be doing what it should be doing, talking about those showers, goo

the removal of pravin gordhan after days of speculation sent south africa's currency, the rand, lowerstock. that is it from me, i will be back in one hour's time with business news. a little more business news concerning bmw, the car giant, workers have voted overwhelmingly to go on strike in a dispute over final salary pensions, unite union members backed walk—outs by 93% of the workforce, unite general secretary len mccluskey says that bmw needs to reflect on this, the real possibility here that bmw's british workforce will strike for the first time under its ownership in the coming weeks. that is the latest from bmw. unite representatives from the group cited, cowley, goodwood and swindon meeting in the coming days to discuss dates for the strike action. the flying scotsman was back on one of the uk's most scenic routes today, as it marked the re—opening of the settle—to—carlisle rail line. the world —famous train took the scenic route through the yorkshire dales and the eden valley, a year after a major landslip closed it. danny savage reports from appleby. one of the most charmin

is -- gordhan has been replaced.icola sturgeon has signed a request to the u.k. government for a second goddess referendum. new impotenceen to scott's seeking splits from the eu and has shaken the speed settlement in northern island. spacex has reached a significant milestone. read firing a rocket that had already been into space for the first time ever. off fromt blasted florida with a communications satellite onboard and landed on a floating barge in the atlantic. move forimportant spacex and elon musk who wants to bring the cost of spaceflight to down. global news 24 hours a day powered by over 2600 journalists and analysts in over 120 countries. this is bloomberg. betty: thank you so much. staying with a elon musk, is at the tesla market in hong kong about to be unplugged? the end of a tax exemption has of the electric carmaker predicting the city will move backwards as a result. straight ahead. of next week will continue our look at the end of the first order, turning our focus to japan. who won and lost at the