The pound is trading up i about 0. 2 . Ultimately what the extra supply is going to do to the shape of the curve, but certainly, this is what many people have been anticipating would be delivered. Italy also announcing it is going to increase its fiscal stimulus to help the economy out , an economy that continues to remain largely in lockdown, along with the population. Lets get more on how Insurance Companies are dealing with what we are seeing at the moment. The u. K. s prudential is a Health Insurer and asset manager as well. Joining us now is mike wells, ceo of prudential plc. Good afternoon. How is the company being affected by what is happening . Todaywe Just Announced 2019 results, were you had a number of convergences occur. Earnings were up 20 . The majority of our markets in x hong kong come very strong and resilient. It is an indication of what youre seeing now, which is market by market, we still see doubledigit growth in Southeast Asian markets, and as we are sitting here now, the effect of the virus is minimal. And hong kong, you will see in politicale impact on and health in china, that looks different. Guy that is in a rearview to a certain extent. How do you think the story is going to be affected here in europe . How do you think it is going to work in the United States . Mike theres a couple dynamics. The speed is coming from the same thing you are seeing and speed of social media, some of the protests last year. Withthing accelerates now automation, automated trading, 24 hour news. The gasoline on this fire to a variety of dispense, but there of participants, but there are Different Things there. You get good information and Bad Information at pace globally. In europe, they are expanding fiscal policies. They were already struggling for growth, and i increases the challenges. The number of sectors hit by this, the travel and leisure, restaurants, that is really the piece of it you saw and hong kong that has taken the brunt of it. Big corporations adjust, and i think markets like china are on the back end of this, as f ar as policy is concerned. They have effectively and open market again, and that is the second phase. Theres multiple steps to it. Europe is going into the first round, and we will see how that plays out. I think in both, it will be local. A lot of areas wont be affected at all. There are certain areas with less infrastructure that will be affected more. You know,st month, as dan loeb said prudential should change its strategy to pivot to more longterm value creation. You have been tinkering a little bit. I am curious as to what your recent communications have been. Mike we have not had any direct communications, other than the i received. Meetings plus investor last year. I can promise you, all of them have a view on what our strategy should be, but we should do more unless of. They all represent their clients and shareholders. We discussed getting input from our shareholders. The fund is effectively a value fund, and their view is similar to value investors. We have 30 year funds that look at the business. You get different looks with each of them. Thinkost investors, they our shares are underpriced given the strength of our asian franchise and how will the thenesses how well business did last year in a difficult year. On other issues, it depends if you are a dividend investor or growth investor, emergingmarket , or hedge fund that is going to onus for a week. You have all of those in our shares, as any Market Participant does. Vonnie what do you make of the idea that you should separate more businesses out, the asian business from the u. S. Business in particular, given what you said about the strength of the asian business . Shares are obviously getting hit hard by the selloff, but you are down 26 this year. Thorough point owns pretty much 5 stake. See the Share Registry when it comes out. I dont question they have that interest in the share. We did announce at the halfyear last year that we would look at our u. S. Business with external capital. We announced today that the preferred route on that was for a partial minority ipo in the United States. We also agree that the shape should change, but keep in mind, Fourth Quarter of last year, we did the largest restructuring of this group with a merger in the u. K. We also bought a asset manager one of oure extended largest Bank Relationships in we entered the Digital Space with the launch of pulse in asia. So the shape of the group and its capabilities keep changing, and those Strategic Decisions are taking place in our boardroom for a very long time, and we are getting on them now. Guy what is the timing on that partial ipo . Will it be affected by the markets . Mike i think any ipo is affected by the markets. It is an extremely valuable business, and i think our shareholders see that. The question becomes at one point at what point can you bring it. Have to be a bit evasive on that. Guy fair enough. Thertheless, now is not time, given the volatility in the markets. Things need to settle down, right . Mike jackson is quite unique. It is capital generative and produces generous amounts of cash flow over prudential. Its produced 5. 5 billion in dividends alone in the last 11 years. We had a very different most. Ence then firms in that space in a potential experience then most firms in that space. It is a unique beast in that space. Guy give me your sense of what you think Financial Markets right now. How brutal they are, how volatile they are. You are a ceo that is about to business. You cant tell us the timing, but nevertheless, you are going to sell a business into these markets. What do you think of them . Mike i think they are a bit hyper. I think the vix is probably the best indication of a motion now in the market come the shortterm volatility. Do i believe personally that the vix will stay in the 40s and 50s . No. That would imply that those alternatives. Easing the quantitative has geared up the amount of equity institutions and pensions have had to take on. If you are running a pension fund in the u. S. Or u. K. , your bond yields are down, your equity exposure is up, and that is increased, the amount of equity exposure and the stretch of return youre getting, including five equity. Theres a number of things going on in the market that are new. What i think the core needs of the consumer are our accelerated because of that. Do people need more Retirement Income in the United States they can depend on . Yes. Do they need to fund more of it privately . Yes. When you look at the company we are selling a piece of, that is the lens. To somebody want a growing business does somebody want to growing business . Yes. Vonnie you are no longer a subject of the Capital Requirements, not regulated by the bank of england anymore either. What does that allow you to do that is potentially more risky and potential he has more reward. Mike our general view of risk and how we view that risk has not changed. Our primary regulator is hong kong. We are listed here as a primary listing. We have a secondary and singapore, adr in the United States. Our own economic risk capital key, and wethe have not changed our Risk Appetite any. By aligning our regulatory capital and largest growth markets, theres a logic in that that i think is consistent with our future growth, but we had a very Good Relationship with the bank of england and the fca, when they were our regulator. We were wellcapitalized under solvency two, and under the current regime. The current regime is a little closer to what defines distributable regimes in our country. It is a summary of all the Capital Requirements in every jurisdiction we have presence in , and an expectation of headroom above that. Vonnie all right. Prudential ceo mike wells joining us there in london. Thank you for that. Much appreciated. Lets get more now on todays market turbulence and the impact of the coronavirus. Bank of england makes the first emergency rate cut since the financial crisis. We are joined by Tobias Levkovich, citi global u. S. Equity strategist. What do your indicators show you . You have special proprietary indicators. [laughter] areas i dont know if they so special. I would say the coronavirus has been catalyst, but we were already vulnerable. There were nine different. Actors back tested in the that generates about 70 probability of markets going down. In addition to that, household equity exposures, what households in the u. S. Own as a percent of their financial highs. Are at 50 year there isnt necessarily this uninvestable Retail Investor out going to swoop in and buy the market. We were already seeing revisions fall before the crisis. Consensusarting their numbers for earnings growth. We are moving we were moving towards seven before coronavirus, and then still too high. Vonnie so your bear market checklist is thriving. It doesnt quite say buy the dip yet, though. Doesnt count for the types of problems we see in the market . Tobias someone told me a long time ago that economic cycles dont die of old age. They are murdered by the fed or some exhaustion us shock some exhaustion us some exogenous shock. We are getting this exit genus shock. Exogenous the pandemic shocks are something that is not going to show up on a bear Market Indicator or anybodys checklists they are thinking about because it is not something you can predict or really get great insight on. I told investor today that while this is particularly bad for elderly people, i can also make the case that it is going to be much worse as everybody gets very fearful. I dont know about you, but ive never lived in a world where we had trouble bands and split workforces and social distancing. This is a kind of new phenomenon the street is count the street is trying to get their arms around. Guy if there is a rally, say we do get some sort of fiscal or monetary response out of the fed or the treasury in washington. Would that be a rally you would advise people to sell into . Tobias weve already seen the fed cut rates on the emergency factor here intro meeting ting by 50 basis points. Im not sure that in r. Kellys it. That inoculates i dont think you can buy off somebodys health with lower financing costs. I am not sure that really inoculates. That does help credit spreads widening, and fiscal response is a question of how quick can congress do something. Number two, how people react. If all you are getting is a payroll tax cut, you are worried about being infected, worried about potentially getting laid off, im not sure that will be spent as aggressively in the market place as might be hoped. Guy you bring up credit. Is credit the next shoe to drop . Tobias we are certainly concerned about that. Youve seen Investment Grade and highyield credit spreads widening. Selective. Bit more its not been across the board. People have gotten very nervous in the energy space, but if you look at highyield credit for energy versus everything else, they were almost paying 2x the kind of yields you were seeing in that before this, and now it has gotten even worse. So energy is kind of the epicenter, and it is not clear that low oil prices are going to drive people together, no intended, to fill up their cars and go on vacations. Vonnie do you foresee bailouts of individual industries or companies at this point . Tobias i am not sure what they are considering. If i was to give advice, i would probably lean more towards Small Businesses that people arent targeting and probably dont have as much access to capital that a major aircraft investor does. Trying toi were there advise at the white house in terms of policy, thats probably where i would spend my time. Vonnie youve mentioned the fed emergency rate cut wont help the market, at least in the near term. What is necessary to shore up confidence . If Small Businesses are having trouble, that is going to get passed on. Tobias its a tough answer. People have said maybe a vaccine or at least visibility to a vaccine. I think a coordinated federal response is important to shore up some of the confidence. I got an email this morning, can fema do anything . I said, look, i was a victim of hurricane sandy. Yes, fema came in and were effective, but it didnt happen overnight. It took some time. Would beeems it encouraging, but it is really a matter of time for people to see that this isnt horrible in terms of the outcomes, and that people arent laying off a lot of people, and thats what you need to generate the failure of Consumer Confidence right now, jobs are still good. We got a good jobs number last month. But that is going to affect that consumer that is critical. Will corporate spend a lot on capex right this minute . Probably not because they will want to wait and see a minute. We also have elections later this year, and we were already of the mindset that corporates might tamp down expectations or some of their activity because they dont know whos going to win in november, so they are going to wait and see. Vonnie we are just Getting Started. We will have more with Tobias Levkovich, citi chief global strategist. Guy we are looking at the effect of coronavirus on business. We havent talked much about how it is affecting asian businesses. Do that now. Haslinda amin come over to you. Y expects an 80 collapse in passenger numbers, the likes of air asia delay in plane delivery. Having said that, several winners among them, ecommerce like alibaba, and i have with me david liu come up pinduoduo vp of strategy. This could be a longterm negative impact. David first of all, think you for having me on the show. In terms of impact to ecommerce, we have seen on the onset of coronavirus outbreak in china that ecommerce actually played a big part in supporting the life of the people. Pinduoduo is the second largest ecommerce platform in china in terms of user account, so around 600 Million People have come to rely on pinduoduo for daily necessities. At a trying time like this, our priorities are actually with our users, so we have proceeded to provide subsidies against medical suppliers. When we see surgeon demand andacing the supply disarray in the markets area the other thing i would point out is is actually in agricultural produce. Pinduoduo has been a strong Online Platform for purchase of agricultural products. As using about home and hood supplies, we leverage our network through the very different time to make sure farmers whose businesses have the impacted because of disruption of transportation are able to make goods available efficiently to the online logistics toeting make sure the goods are actually delivered promptly for the users in the comfort of their home. Haslinda but there has been disruption in the supply chain. Even alibaba has said if it persists beyond one quarter, there could be an impact in earnings. And consumer spending. Yes, absolutely. We also expect the First Quarter to our gme and our growth. That said, we have been observing very positive trends. N terms of Consumer Behavior we are roughly a month into the resumption of work. We have seen 90 coverage in the Delivery Network in china, and we have seen a pick up on merchants and users. To take the end of february as an example. We ran a three day campaign of program our rnb Subsidy Program. Consumer demand remains very strong, and the outlook for the year remains positive. Risk for is that a your smaller merchants . Those are more exposed, so we as a platform have actually set aside one billion start aeserve to Subsidy Program to help ease the transition back to normal. Vonnie pde announced haslinda pde announced results today. Are you at all disappointed . David we are actually very positive on our own results. We thought the Fourth Quarter was very strong. First of all, we had a new milestone in terms of gross merchandise volume, the one mark. In the 1000 secondly, we added 50 million active users in the First Quarter, about twice of our nearest competitors. So we continue to see more people come into our platform, becoming more engaged, and we think that bodes well for the longerterm. Monetization and revenue is not our focus today. Our priorities are on improving mover engagement and an action. Targetingalibaba is about one billion active users by 2024. Can you do that earlier, and a shorter period of time . David we had 50 million users in the last quarter, and thats twice what our competitors have added to the platform. We see no reason why that pace should discontinue. It is just a matter of time. Haslinda what is your three to fiveyear strategy . Pde has always been seen as a and likeatform, alibaba, are you looking at the first and second tier, or are you tweaking that to compete with alibaba . David let me clarify the miscoi dusty misconception. We look at user distribution on our platform. Begin tortantly, as we win more trust and build more engagement, i think activities first andm secondtier cities. 40 of our gross merchandise volume was generated by users buying things, so as a strategy, i would say that our platform has continued to understand and to understand what they may be looking for. A greater breadth of products, a greater diversity, and to share with other people. Haslinda black friday last year, you partnered with amazon, which was seen as a pretty successful partnership. Reason to think you will deepen that partnership . We partnered during black today to bring deals the chinese customers. We want to bring the experience to our user, giving them access product andality have very confounding have very compelling value. Haslinda we are going to leave it there. David liu, Vice President of strategy at pinduoduo, listed in the u. S. Raising 1. 6 billion two years ago. Vonnie thank you. That is bloombergs haslinda amin. Quick check on the markets now, although it is not going to be that quick because we have a selloff once again today. In fact, it is pretty strong. We have the s p 500 down 0. 29 , just off its lows of the day. The 10 year yield up 11 basis. Oints to 70 basis points atde oil futures trading 33. 61. 1. 32. Year yield up this is bloomberg. Vonnie live from new york, im vonnie quinn. Guy from london, im guy johnson. This is bloomberg markets. Vonnie we are awaiting crude Oil Inventories out of the United States as stocks continue to selloff further. The dow is down 3. 7 now. Crude Oil Inventories, the market looking for a build of 2. 1 billion barrels. Wti down 2 . We actually got a build of 7. 6 Million Barrels, as if the market didnt have enough trouble. Lots more inventory in the bag. You can look for oil to selloff even further, and indeed, right now the reaction is that it is down about 2. 6 at 33. 45 a barrel. Once again, crude Oil Inventory building by 7. 6 Million Barrels last week. Gasoline was a drawdown of about twice what the market was looking for. The final utilization was negative by 7. 5 . Time for our weekly muni movement segment. Taylor riggs is live. Taylor putting the today is , managing director at neuberger berman. Jamie when you have a rally, it is very difficult for any other market to keep up with it. Munis were on the full side before the rally, so communities have gotten very attractive right now. You can buy a 10 year aaa muni at around 1 . That doesnt sound great in the grand scheme of things come up with that as a taxable equivalent of around 1. 6 . The 10 year treasury is around 70 basis points now, so on a tax adjusted basis, i think the highquality muni market is looking really good right now. Taylor lets go from highquality to credit. Is this a buying opportunity . Jamie it has been a volatile last few days. Theres a lot of risk aversion in the world. We are seeing some funds raise money through selling, through larger cap names into the highyield market. That is creating opportunity, and as a manager that has liquidity, this is the moment you are looking for. You are looking for bonds whose prices have moved away from where you think the Intrinsic Value is. You have to be cautious right now. You dont put all the money on the table, but this is a time to nibble on the market. Taylor when hes sick about the coronavirus, the market could be bonds,d in saving education, shopping malls. How do you sift through all of those Credit Opportunities and analyze on a realtime basis the impact from the coronavirus on a stadium fund . Dige you really have to into your credits, understand how they are secured. You have to think about the first effective this and what could happen if it is a much longer timeframe. Most important, you have to remind most muni investors they are in this for preservation of capital and liquidity, and this is not a homerun hitters market. You should play it safe right now, focus on the big, wellknown, triedandtrue names, and wait for volatility to settle down a bit. I dont think this is a time to jump in and say, to your example, i am going to jump in and buy. This is not the time. , portfolioie iselin manager at neuberger berman, thank you. Guy some headlines coming currently from treasury secretary mnuchin. Saying, of what he is the u. S. May provide over 200 billion of liquidity by tax permit delays. We are looking at a big increase in lending for small companies. In the united kingdom, domestic and International Travel down significantly. Eu regulators on the virus and calls and hosting calls on the conversation. Lets get back to Tobias Levkovich, equity strategist with citi global markets. How big does this have to be . Tobias its hard to say. How it it is more about is executed rather than the headlines. I think people want to see a little bit more facts on the ground, but there are three things you need to from a markets perspective, therefore the economic perspective. [cough] excuse me. S p,u look at the somewhere between 2300 and 26 hundred, valuation would be sending a very positive signal. You need to see real panic in the market. We have metrics that are quantitative, but even qualitative, finding investors looking to buy. You need a little bit more revulsion for stocks to get that sense of capitulation. Havent quite seen it in these wild gyrations in the market, up 1000, down 1000. That suggests there are still people who want to pick up bargains or perceive bargains. You kind of need that out of the market. The third thing is earnings need to get to a point where they are probably showing down numbers. We cut our numbers or we could , and that on the s p is basically flat to down very likely from what we are likely to see in 2019. 5. 5 . Sus is still up on the bottom up consensus side, i have looked at similar economists on the street. Some of the things like energy have just occurred. From theentiment economys perspective, you need to make sure the credit markets dont cut off. I think the efforts being made bysecretary mnuchin, and jerome powell, are both welcome, but we need to see a little bit more. Guy ok, tobias. All of that is taken on board, but the big question i think a lot of people are grappling with is are we had a much bigger turning point. Regardless of the policy action, is the bull market over . Tobias it depends on how you define it. Traditionally when we talk about the bull market, we talk about a secular bull. Are we seeing a cyclical downturn in the secular bull, or seeing much more secular . One of the things we talked about before, and we were showing this to people in january, is historically, that has not been a great signal for long, extended bull markets. I would suggest that potentially suggests it is overcome a but theres more to it. Economic downturns occur. Its normal. But as i said earlier, ive been on wall street for over 30 years, and ive never been not allowed to travel anywhere. Vonnie on the other things, is there enough urgency . We had the treasury secretary saying hes hosting a g7 call, but we are talking about incremental news. Maybe 200 billion of liquidity by tax payment delays. Again, no details. We are learning that House Democrats are planning to vote thursday. That is just House Democrats, and everybody is on recess next week. Is it any wonder the dow is down 1000 points in the s p is down more than 3 and declining . Tobias i would argue that yesterdays rally seems to be more of a relief rally than anything fundamentally changed. We saw big bounce backs as people were trying to pick up what they perceived as bargain. I am not sure that is the kind of fundamental strengths of support that we need. It does take time for these things to happen. How comfortable are democrats out there trying to vote for things that might make the economy better when the election is coming up, and they are intent on trying to remove donald trump from the white house . Youve got all these kind of things in the mix that creates this lack of certainty that wall street would love to have. Vonnie if this doesnt get resolved in some way in terms of fiscal stimulus, and if we start getting more numbers, which we are definitely going to do, if we get more event counsel, more quarantine areas and so on, does that suggest that the market is only Getting Started with the selloff . Tobias i would say theres more Downside Risk because you start saying, ok, i took 10 out of error estimate. If we are going to recession, i could take out another 25, 30, because typical downturns are 20 , 30 earnings declines. 15 , so itsy down not the start anymore. We are maybe 60 of the way through. If recession is the outcome, then you are talking somewhere in the 20 400s on the s p in the 2400s on the s p. Guy when using about what is happening here big picture, in terms of the longterm nature of how Financial Markets are going to operate, if Interest Rates are going to stay where they are now and stay close to zero, what does that mean longterm in terms of what i can expect for the rate of return off my portfolio . It seems like seismic shifts are taking place here. Inflation is very low, and probably going to be, according to the bond market, for a really long time. I am just wondering what that means for longterm asset managers. 7 , 5 ,enchmark rate 3 , 2 . When do we pay the bill for this . Tobias there are two elements to that. If the bond markets are right about the next five or 10 years in terms of very low inflation and economic growth, then some of the tensions we are seeing in the economy are just going to get worse, and governments are going to have to respond in the form of more aggressive physical activity, may more trade workers, that would be inflationary down the road. Years, notlking 3, 5 3, 5 months. Thats one element of that question. The other one is should people be taking down the return expectations . Hey have been they were 9 three or four years ago, probably more in the 6 , 7 now, and we might have to go down to 3 to 5 , which is a problem for a lot of the pension funds. Morewill have to put a lot in the system. The newer companies dont have that problem, but the longer Legacy Companies do. We are down on the s p 500, vonnie ie vonnie we are down on the s p 500. Thank you to Tobias Levkovich for joining us. Guy absolutely flat on the stoxx 600, that we have turned negative. The cable rate catching a bid. We have seen a onetwo punch from fiscal and monetary authorities in the u. K. Today. Italian market seems to be in focus. An increased package of help for the Italian Economy remains flat on its back as a result of the quarantine. This is bloomberg. Renita this is bloomberg markets. Coming up next, we will speak with cbi director carolyn fairburn. This is bloomberg. Guy from london, im guy johnson. Vonnie from new york, im vonnie quinn. This is bloomberg markets. About an hour and 15 minutes into the u. S. Session. Heres abaco belittle. Heres abigail doolittle. Abigail monday was the worst selloff for u. S. Stocks since 2008. The s p 500 near session lows. It is orderly, tired almost. The stoxx 600 has flipped lower. At had been higher earlier. The euro is climbing on Christine Lagarde saying that the ecb is ready to do anything it will take, and that there should be a coordinated Global Response around the virus. Stimulus from italy around the virus. The euro is climbing on all of that, weighing on the dollar. Bringing crude oil into the picture, down 2. 3 . A risk off mood around a potential Global Impact on the virus. Over the last 15 trading sessions, the s p 500 is close to a bear market, at this point down 17. 7 . Not so long ago, close to a true bear market. The question is whether it will join the dow transports. Seems pretty likely technically. We take a look at the sectors in the terminal using the imap, all 11 sectors are lower. The worst, real estate, down 11 . Most sectors down 3 . Health care is down 2. 2 percent, so investors clearly want out of stocks. As we take a look at some of the other assets out there, we see a pretty solid haven bid for the 10 year yield, shedding nine basis points as investors want in on bonds. They also won in on the haven yen. We also have gold at this point down. Into thousand eight, gold was not a in 2008, gold was not a haven. Finally, the vix spiking a little bit. It seems like 50 is the new normal. Guy mike wells talking about that, the ceo of prudential, a little earlier. It has been a busy day and the u. K. First thing this morning, the bank of england surprise the market with a 50 basis point cut. News of a plan to help provide easy credit to business is also there, and we also saw a reduction in bank capital buffers, which basically gives more room to lend. Lets take a listen to the governor. Bank will takee all necessary further steps to support the u. K. Economy and financial system, consistent with its statutory responsibility. Guy then came the second part, the banks move followed by the u. K. Budget, which delivered 30 Million Pounds of stimulus. The governor set out this morning the actions the bank will take to help u. K. Businesses and households bridge across a likely economic disruption. The government will use fiscal action to support public services, households, and businesses. Guy the new chancellor of the exchequer joining us on set, with Bloomberg Opinion columnist marcus ashworth. That was, and your birds, quite impressive. Thats how you do it. Thats what the market was waiting for, a 12 punch, monetary and fiscal working in coordination. Of us werehink all surprised at the 50 basis point rate cut ahead of the markets. That was shock and awe, so i am very impressed and that certain with the actual delivery, the rate cut is exciting. Fundingreality is that for small and Medium Enterprises , combined with the potential Regulatory Authority saying to , we willyou use this come down on you like a ton of bricks. They will push this through the transmission mechanism. They mean to give the real economy is much as it possibly can. This will set a 10 foot for the world. Are we expecting big things tomorrow from the European Central bank . I hope they deliver because they have set a real clear example of what the three prongs of response should be. Boost,y, big fiscal which the u. K. Has really set cashead here, and the flow, all those various things show the real economy tipping over. Vonnie we have movement in gilts, but its not clear if that happened because of everything happening policy wise, or if it was more of a global yield move. If you look at sterling, we did get that dip in pound versus u. S. Dollar, but we rifted philly we were effectively unchanged. How can that have more of an impact . Marcus i think it is probably following more u. S. Treasuries per se. Lower than the market expected. The reality was much closer to what the market expected, but is it increases. We have brexit negotiations going through, and we dont know how badly this coronavirus will affect the country. The market is taking it was a bit of a breather. I would say the conditions to are comfortable with the conditions going through. The fact that the bank of england is working so closely with the government is what is helping it. Guy Andrew Bailey was there this morning, the incoming governor at the bank of england. Caught a lot of peoples attention when he said we can still be more. Theres more here. I am, along with a lot of other people, probably with you on the assumption that we dont go below zero on rates,s the room to maneuver is very limited, but qe . Marcus i think essentially, they have a chance to do qe if they need to. It could come as soon as the march bank of england meeting. , a lotthis doesnt work of it could be done in qe. Guy thank you very much, Bloomberg Opinion columnist marcus ashworth. This is bloomberg. Vonnie time now for futures in focus. Joining us from the cme is ira epstein of lin and associates. How hot is it getting down there now . E cme right we have the Dow Jones Industrial average down another 1020 points, 4. 1 . We could be looking at another Circuit Breaker getting triggered. Ira it wouldnt surprise me at all, and when the and then we have to go through the weekend. This is like a bell curve virus. You dont have to be a doctor to realize it. The u. S. Is probably in the second, third week of the virus getting bad. We have to go through that top and then come down the other side. You are probably at the be give dampen italy, coming down that side in a week or so. Monday morning for the stock market, is the news going to be most cases . Why people are standing in front of thats, i dont know. You nibble on some of them at numbers you consider a gift, but as you are trying to look for safety in futures, it doesnt exist. Vonnie the vix down from its high, but nevertheless spiking in general. Vix how by does it get before it starts to get better . Ira i think we look at a real problem. We will see the president come out with a plan. Congress should not go home next week unless theyve got a plan in place. They dont deserve a weak path rate. Break. Eks we all elected them to take care of us during a crisis. I unfortunately have been through the polio events, chickenpox, measles. Viruses come and go. Vonnie our thanks to ira epstein of the Ira Epstein Division of lynn and associates. And associates. This is bloomberg. Es. This is bloomberg. From bloomberg World Headquarters in new york to our audience worldwide, im david westin. Welcome to balance of power. We start with the markets falling again today as investors wait for that stimulus plan President Trump has promised to help combat the coronavirus. Joining us for a report on the markets is abigail doolittle. Abigail volatility is the name of the game at this point. You have huge amounts of uncertainty out there. The s p 500 down almost 18 . Even though there have been rebound rallies, bears taking over because of the uncertainty around this coronavirus. As weve been talking about what the impact could be on the global economy, more importantly, what will the impact be on the bottom line for the economy . In the u. S. , it is very difficult to value stocks. David there really is disappointment because we dont have a stimulus plan. Is that fair, or is it uncertainty of the virus itself . Abigail