Transcripts For BLOOMBERG Bloomberg Markets 20240713

And any barriers to goods and workers should now be removed. U. S. Business is pleading for help as demand and production fall. The president calls says that china will pay. Shery we are looking at how markets are trading. U. S. Futures are under pressure after we saw the nervous rebound in the trading session. The s p 500 slipped between small gains and losses. We have energy in a discretionary stocks leading the gains. We actually saw the nasdaq composite really rising more than 2 because of bargainhunting going on. Twitter andtesla, netflix as well. So we have seen a little bit of upside, especially the energy sector. Take a look at what oil. Is doing it just hot its best day on record. In fact, climb back most of the clawing back from most of the losses we saw earlier in the session. We are coming back from the lowest level in 18 years. This has the president said he would get involved at the appropriate time in the state of between russia and saudi arabia. We have seen the u. S. Gearing up to fill emergency reserves. Now a look at asia. We are looking at asian futures pointing higher after a rough thursday. And pse coming back online on thursday. There will be emphasis on credit quality as we assess Balance Sheets in the wake of this. Boj opening up before the long weekend. Be a bright spot on thursday. Markets have been offline today. We will see what they will do, they are expected to be lower by 20 basis points, according to derivative markets pricing, and we will be looking further boks activity this afternoon. They will be buying bonds. And looking at australian assets ahead of the rbas repo operations and the bond buying offset they will be announcing in two hours, also yields are aussie yields are lower, while the aussie dollar is under pressure. And they are implementing measures today to provide Additional Support to domestic Financial Markets. And we also have the fed lines to its swap alleviate stress across the credit markets for nine Central Banks, including those in south korea, new zealand and singapore. Barrage,his stimulus we are still seeing some caution in the markets. Ok. That set up for the market there. Lets get you caught up with the first word news. Central bankssian have taken decisive steps to counter the coronavirus and bolster the economies. The philippines cut rates by 15 basis points and eased regulations on banks. In indonesia, they will continue to intervene to ensure confidence. In malaysia, lowering the reserve requirement by 100 basis points. And china delivering testing kits among equipment across europe in an exercise of soft power and a new challenge to the u. S. Planes have delivered to several countries with jack ma picking up most of the bill. This comes amid pressure on washington from washington to shun Companies Like huawei. Prime minister shinzo abe in been meeting with Business Leaders in japan to come up with a rescue plan. They are fearful about the Tokyo Olympics being delayed. Economists say they could see the longest contraction since the financial crisis. And europe and of u. S. Are beginning to see factory shutdowns not seen since world war ii. The fallout is shifting from Service Industries like travel and hospitality to manufacturing on both sides of the atlantic. Companies are idling plans as china did at the start of the crisis, adding to the pressure on Global Supply chains. Global news, 24 hours a day, on air and on quicktake by bloomberg, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in over 120 countries. This is bloomberg. Shery lets bring in an investor who has her eyes on the horizon. Of u. S. Equities at aviva investors. Susan, it is great to have you with us. We have seen investors take a hit. Oe have seen hospitality, wh will be next . Susan i think at this point it is really too hard to tell. Not careeen investors about the sectors so much as they care about risk exposure and getting out of the market and getting out of the way. So on the shortterm it is hard to determine which sector is going next because it seems all of them are under pressure. It is hard for investors to put a valuation on something when they cannot predict nearterm cash flows. I think it is to the advantage of large term long term investors to step back and look and put a clearer picture together to figure out valuation. Shery despite all the uncertainty, are there highquality sectors at that investors should be looking at that perhaps has been mispriced by the markets . Susan i think there are opportunities within each sector. This is where stockpicking and annoying the businesses you own will really work to the investors advantage. We have strong teams in place operating companies that can produce cash flow regardless of the backup. Those are the businesses investors want to look to now as they look to the longterm to see how we can come out of this. Nobody knows where we will be in 18 months, but we can do a lot to position ourselves so we have a steady ride. In terms of the tech rally, rebound,ny r mini are these the names we are looking at to come out the other end . Susan they have been interesting names to investors. This has been a hot sector for them to put money into. And a lot of those names are disruptors, and a lot of things that we are moving toward in the next generation of tech, so when we saw that today i think what you saw was a move by investors to finally start to differentiate between companies. We started to see correlations between stocks break down today. Going back to areas where they think there is potential, they are looking for that longterm business that can withstand this. Arerofessional investors saying that cash is king at this point and if so much of the andet, at the volatility aggressive selling we are seeing now, is just uninvestable. Susan i do not think that the market is ever uninvestable, it depends on your timeframe. If you are waiting long enough, you might find that this is a time to take a look at companies, get to know them better, do your research and homework. Many people said that 2009 was uninvestable, but they may have doubled their money. Shery if you take a look at all of the Government Action in the fiscal packages we are seeing around the world, not to mention centralbank action, the fed and ecb, all trying to provide liquidity. Where do you invest to take advantage of all of this policymaking . Susan i think the important thing is sentiment over all from all of those actions. It should improve. There is a lot of movement and there are many moving pieces. My team, on the u. S. Equity market is where we are most comfortable and at that is where we will stay focused. I think there are opportunities in each market, but going back to investing in businesses you feel have the strongest position in their industry, and with that cash flow stream, i think more than ever that is very important. Shery we have seen the American Economy slowing down, even before the latest coronaVirus Outbreak. We saw the retail Sales Numbers from february, not to mention the jobless claims that came in today, not looking good for the payroll numbers we are getting for march. Is this something you have to be careful about when making your investment decisions, given it is not just about the outbreak . Susan it is not just about the outbreak, it is about the impact afterwards. What does it do and how much will it slow the economy . We saw a jump in jobless claims. We saw up to 281,000 this morning, but that is nothing compared to the 6. 6 million we had in 2008. So you have to look and see, what could the ultimate impact be. I think we have to look at the support the government is talking about to stimulate the economy and action from the Central Banks that are trying to support businesses through this. Again, caution is the way of the land right now. Every investor is nervous and because this is a great unknown mother is no clear path. You have to look down the line. We do not know where we will be in six months, but hopefully you can get a picture of how businesses may be able to operate in a year. The International Labor organization came out with pretty scary numbers overnight in terms of what they see could be global unemployment, so many people in every economy affected by the coronavirus and lockdown, they are losing jobs. Does this have the potential to turn into a humanitarian crisis . Susan we are looking at governments being aware that in making a move to prevent that from happening. In the u. S. , Mitch Mcconnell talk to this afternoon about a plan for individuals. We have seen other plans from the house talking about payments per individual. We are seeing both of them work toward that. I think it is important for governments to have the on their mind. We are doing something very different than we have done before, we are asking the economy to go on pause while we deal with the Health Crisis. The big unknown is what happens when we are finally through this, will be snapped back as an economy, or will we crawl out of this mess again . Investors have backed off. Government think they are being proactive, rightly so, to try to get ahead of this and provide support. Thank you for joining us. That was susan schmidt. Still ahead, more on the barrage of emergencies around the world. We will talk with the Global Strategies president later on this hour. Shery coronavirus deaths in italy overtake the chinese figures. We will look at this as they continue to slow down the outbreak in europe. This is bloomberg. Shery more details are emerging from the stimulus plan, with the Senate Planning to give 1200 to individuals. This after donald trump once again suggested that china wasnt responsible for the outbreak, complaining it could have been stopped before it spread globally. He again called it the chinese virus at a press conference, a term that officials in beijing have rejected. Lets bring in greg sullivan. In a time when he should be focusing efforts on mitigating the outbreak in the u. S. , what are we hearing from President Trump . Greg we are hearing a few things. He once again briefed the breast today in washington, and he also spoke with governors across the nation from fema headquarters here in washington. During the brief income he did briefing, he did refer to it as the chinese virus and to suggest china was responsible for the global spread of the virus. Saying, it could have been stopped in china. he stopped short of directly blaming china, but we know there have been early complains about how china handled information about it to begin with. So that is what we are hearing from President Trump. He also spoke about drugs and cutting red tape to get more therapeutics in the market. We are getting breaking news. G golden gop bill bannin parachutes for bailouts. Give us context on this. What does this mean for u. S. Airlines . Greg the senate gop just released their stimulus plan. We know a few things about it, we know it doesnt include doesuts to individuals include payouts to individuals, as well as loan guarantees. That includes for the airline industry. And there is a provision in there that does seem to limit the socalled golden parachutes. There have been complaints from democrats that aid to these industries it come with restrictions, an it appearsd and it appears that is in the bill. Shery they are trying to get a lot done in congress. Anymore changes coming up as lawmakers about remotely . Greg congress doesnt seem to be working on overdrive to address does seem to be working on overdrive to address the crisis. Now, both chambers are rather traditional and have tried to avoid abrupt changes, like voting from outside the capital or not doing things in a traditional way, but now with two members from the house testing positive there is attention being paid to whether they need to change the way they are voting or looking at alternate methods. There could be changes on the horizon, but for now it is business as usual. The house is being told to stay away until the senate bill is voted on. Thank you for joining us. Greg sullivan in washington. More people have died in italy from the coronavirus than in any other nation. 3400 fatalities, over 41,000 cases, the second largest number of cases outside of china. And we will now go to our correspondent, our borough chief. Bring us uptodate. The government is furthering restrictions in their government shutdown. Lets remember that italy right now is not shut down is shut down, only essential shops are open. You can only travel for work. There is restriction on all movement. Most factories and other places have closed. So the government is thinking of imposing even harsher restrictions, like going out once per day for food shopping and all that, but it is not clear if it will be enough to slow down the growth of the virus in some regions. It is very worrying in the north , hospitals are at capacity, there is not enough intensive care units for all the people coming in with a virus. And one thing that is not clear is why the death rate has been so high compared to china and most other countries where the virus has grown exponentially. Shery the u. K. Prime minister says that they can turn the tide on the virus by june, only 12 weeks away. How does he intend to do that, when we have seen his own cabinet suffer from virus symptoms . Alessandro this is a complicated challenge for the u. K. At the beginning there was an idea of letting the virus spread trying tore or less, get what is called herd immunity. Now they are closing schools and they have talked about closing restaurants in london. But what the government has tried to do is reassure people that there will not be a lockdown, london will not be isolated from the rest of the country. Unleashing a massive stimulus, 350 billion pounds, and the bank of england has cut rates to a record low. Lets remember, the u. K. Is also dealing with brexit and the risk of a hard brexit cutoff from the european union. Shery extraordinary time in that sense. Thank you for joining us, alessandro. You can get more on the stories you need to know about in todays addition of daybreak. Onis on your terminal, also your mobile in the bloomberg app. Customize your settings so that you get information on those stories at that matter to you. This is bloomberg. Lets check the latest business flash headlines. Wants to raise an extra 10 tolion to its vision find support those companies battered by the virus. Softbank is talking with investors for 5 billion, which it says will match internally. However, it may not be easy. Middle eastern backers have been hit by the oil prices and at the fund has already spent 80 billion of 100 billion. The coronavirus has prompted dividend,spend its even though it has vowed to maintain the payout. Draw downhey must more than 15 billion from two credit lines. They are pulling the 2020 Earnings Guidance. The ceo said he is confident the strategies will work. To suffertest sector from the virus includes relax, suffering from a slowdown in china. Rolex have shut down all their plans in switzerland for 10 days, while watchmakers in geneva and basil have been canceled. Three quarters of their staff are on reduced hours. The coronavirus has taken a toll on many people across many different industries. Quicktake takes a look at how artists are coping with the impact. Gigs started disappearing such asovernment action the public venue restrictions even went into place. Dismass can be easy to Cultural Workers because they are doing something that seems creative or fun, not a real job, we actually contribute tremendously to the overall economy. Broadway theaters bring in 1. 6 billion into the city economy every year. Just the broadway theaters. The City Government has come out with some new policies. Those have largely been focused on Small Businesses to help them keep payroll going, so states do not have to lay off workers. But with the new restrictions that have recently come out, the overall majority of Service Businesses are mandated anyway. So i think we are moving in a direction where the governments response needs to think about individuals and families and that has to come in the form of disaster unemployment. The crisis really eliminates how the safety net is for a huge number of workers in this country, basically anybody not on a fulltime w2 content. We need to rethink the safety net in general as our economy shifts more to a gig structure anyway. The next time a crisis hits, if the safety net is in place more broadly it will not be so immediately devastating for so many workers. And it will not affect the economy to this extent. Lets look at how this is playing across the early part of the asian session. Big moves extended when it comes on itslaryen, the yen biggest fiveday slide against the greenback in seven years. This is the dollar continues to soar. And we are also seeing sustained w when it comes to trading with the aussie. This is bloomberg. Awesome internet. Its more than just fast. It keeps all your devices running smoothly. With builtin security that protects your kids. No matter what theyre up to. It protects your info. And gives you 24 7 peace of mind. That if its connected, its protected. Even that that petcamera thingy. [ whines ] can your internet do that . Xfinity xfi can because its. Simple, easy, awesome. [ barking ] it is 9 30 am in sydney. The market open is 30 minutes away in sydney. This is how futures are shaping up. Rising just two point 5 , of 4. 1ing an early gain percent after stocks rose in fits and starts. A relatively calm market with some bargain hunters waiting overnight, particularly in tacks big techs big names. Market expeditions in response to the rbas rate cut and the targeting of the yield curve as the rba wades into quantitative easing. Australian stocks extending declines after the rba announced yesterday. First word news with Karina Mitchell. Karina western europe remains a focus of the coronavirus with italy overtaking china in reported deaths. Fatalities have reached 3405 with more than 41,000 infected. U. S. Businesses are increasing calls for government help during the crisis including relief from tariffs on chinese imports. President trump rebuffed the idea, saying there is no reason, and china will pay. Premier li keqiang says china is returning to normal after the virus. He says most of the country is considered low risk and any barriers to the flow of workers and goods should be removed. Satellite animation shows the chinese economy cut back during the virus. Computer images show a fall in emissions of factories and traffic shut. Emissions are starting to increase again. India is urging its 1. 3 billion people to stay indoors to stem the spread of the virus. The government is calling for a nationwide curfew from 7 00 a. M. To 9 00 p. M. Local time and wants individual states to enforce a work from home policy. India is barring all International Flights from landing for a week from the 22nd, joining a list of countries who are effectively sealing their borders. The coronavirus threatens to disrupt brexit trade talks. The e. U. s top negotiator has tested positive and put himself in selfisolation. The u. K. s top brexit official is also positive and also in isolation. The two men have not met since the first round of talks two weeks ago at news of their tests is likely to dash progress. Quarantine is nothing new for astronauts, who live in isolation. The crew of an Upcoming Mission to the International Space station say the disruption caused by the virus is becoming stressful. They sayris cassidy scientists are increasingly concerned about their health. Global news, 24 hours a day, on air and on quicktake by bloomberg, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. I am Karina Mitchell. This is bloomberg. Shery. Shery breaking news at the moment. We are hearing that Occidental Petroleum is planning to name its former ceo, stephen jason, as its new chairman. Now, this of course coming at a time when occidental is scrambling to write itself amid plunging demands. We have seen Occidental Petroleums august 2019 heavilyion of anadarko burdening the company and it has been just cut to junk by moodys. They are planning to name their former ceo as a new chairman. Now, we also have news on the g7 meeting. President trump canceling the in person g7 meeting at camp david over the coronaVirus Outbreak. Of course, we have seen g7 leaders try to coordinate the response earlier this month. President trump canceling the in person g7 meeting at camp david over the coronaVirus Outbreak. Australia opening at the top of the hour. Lets turn to sophie for what to watch. Sophie taking a look at the boards to see how u. S. Futures are faring so far this morning, we are seeing s p eminis moving lower by 1. 6 . We are seeing the yen just hold above 110. Kiwi stocks nudging higher but headed for a second weekly decline. We are seeing kiwi bonds climbing in the wake of more bank stimulus. The rb and said offering term loans to new zeal in banks. Rbnz offering term loans to new zealand banks. We are seeing shares take a hit, falling more than 40 , the biggest drop on record, taking the stock to a 2012 low as the airline agreed to a government loan for 510 million. It canceled its first half dividend as a condition of that deal and it will not pay future dividends while drawing down the facility. Qantas is seeking a way to manage their prices without more government aid. The carrier expects to receive 400 million australian of the relief package offered by canberra airlines. The ceo says qantas is planning for a crisis that will last as long as 18 months. Watching miners as well, jefferies says base metals players will recover in the second half with most undervalued. They are cutting lending rates after the rba made cheap money available and the regulator relaxed capital requirements, and we just have the lines saying companies can postpone for two months. More Australian Companies are suspending their guidance. Iv. Haidi Sophie Kamaruddin haidi. Haidi Sophie Kamaruddin in hong kong. Bloombergs Global Markets editor adam haigh is here in sydney. Adam, how much of the oil market do you think has already repriced for a significant shift in the price were narrative given President Trump has said that he could potentially intervene . Adam that is the thing, isnt it . Just when you thought you had seen the biggest bulk of the move and oil, you suddenly have a huge rebound. Of course, we are still about 60 lower than where we were at this time last year on the Global Oil Prices front. This movement that we have seen in the past 24 hours still has got to be taken in that context and thats very important. That is the supplyside issue that continues to plague the market, the opec plus meeting that crumbled in the early part of march. There is that feud between saudi arabia and russia and that ultimately is continuing to pull down prices, so the rebound has been more about this idea that trump finally is reaching that many thought he would anyway. He would have to intervene or the u. S. Side would have to intervene at some point. Exactly how that is going to manifest itself is very much up for debate. It gets to a point here where we have seen so many emergency crisis meetings across policymakers that the oil crisis 20 a barrel, for many people, is totally unsustainable. Trump at this point saying he really does need to step in. We need to keep a close eye on that in the next few days. And little bit of a return Risk Appetite but it seemed pretty fragile. Adam yes. I think really, sharing, this is people wanting to take a little bit of risk exposure, but positions still need to be liquidated. We are seeing that in early friday trading in asia where the dollar is getting. Again. You are seeing the likes of the aussie and kiwi getting pretty hard hit again and that really speaks to the big theme of what we have had over the last few weeks. The massive readjustment in outlook for Global Growth that may even materially be an extended, protracted, deep recession in many countries, including the biggest economy in the world, the u. S. A lot of people are still think readily nervous. You are getting very small rallies. Only finished up. 5 on the s p 500. It was not a big gain for u. S. Equities. It was a pretty topsyturvy session and you are already seeing s p 500 futures this morning after to the tune of 2 . It is clearly still very volatile. People are still very nervous. People are coming back into give a little bit of risk to their portfolios, but at the moment, very piecemeal, and ultimately, people are very worried about the outlook. Shery adam haigh, thank you very much for that, bloombergs will markets editor with the latest on the markets. As we speak, we are continuing to see more and more Central Banks jumping into action. Peru cutting Interest Rates to 1. 2 5 . This is an unscheduled decision. We had seen them hold their file on march 12. They held it at 2. 25 . They have cut it to 1. 25 percent in an unscheduled decision following many other Central Banks that have really launched Emergency Action including the fed here in the u. S. , the boe, itsecb with at the with emergency asset purchase chinese banks set to lower the benchmark Interest Rates for loans later after beijing the east Monetary Policy to blunted the economic blow of the coronavirus. Our china correspondent, selina wang, joins us from beijing. How much are we expect in this to help . Selina china is under increasing pressure to cut these Interest Rates as we are seeing global Central Banks take more aggressive action, especially after that Economic Data showed the is imprinted ended unprecedented slumps. The economy is forecast to grow at 3. 4 this year. That is the slowest pace since 1976, the final year of the cultural revolution, so Standard Chartered is expecting this one your loan prime rate to fall by five basis points, but the estimates vary all the way from no rate cut to a 10 basis point rate cut, which is what our Bloomberg Intelligence is estimating. This is the de facto benchmark rate, the Market Indicator of the price that lenders charge corporates and households, and buts currently at 4. 05 Standard Chartered is expecting the pace in the future, the near future of this loan prime rate, to be cut very slowly so that banks can avoid any sharp we have seen banks come under significant pressure because of efforts to combat the virus. This does follow moves just monetaryof gradual easing and Central Banks reduction of the reserve requirement ratio, which unleashed 78 billion dollars of longterm capital into the Financial System just last week. But again, this rate cut and what we have seen for the pboc is much more disciplined than what we have seen from the fed, and china has not unleashed any significant stimulus efforts. On thursday, it was quite a milestone for china. We saw no new cases for the First Time Since the coronavirus epidemic and now pandemic began. And is there a sense that government leaders are wanting things to return to normal with the economy . What are the concerns given there are warnings of a second resurgence in cases . Selina there is certainly growing confidence with authorities with premier li keqiang saying most of china is considered low risk, and that they should try to return to normal work and life and that barriers to the flow of people and goods in these lower risk areas should be removed and there is not a need to quarantine people in the risk areas, so this is a major shift. He has also called on officials raw materialwith shortages because these shortages have been a major challenge for factories, especially when it comes to labor, with many workers stuck in their hometowns because of travel bans, or they were struck in quarantine. Wast 85 of chinas economy back to work as of last week. Widelyce has been varied with larger rates for more developed regions. Again, this does not mean that china is letting up on their containment effort. Scientists have said it is likely there could be a second wave of infections as the situation escalates globally. The number of cases and deaths in europe surpassing those in china with no signs of slowing down. Even xi jinping has warned that the risk of rebounding in this Virus Outbreak remains high. Haidi our china correspondent, selina wang, with the latest in beijing. Coming up, we will have more on all the Central Bank Moves as our Global Strategies president will be along with us. This is bloomberg. Haidi we are just getting some breaking moves. A move when it comes to the australian 10 year yield extending its decline to 19 basis points. The threeyear falling by five basis points as we get day one of the rbas yield curve control function, starting today. The rba and australia joining the qe club with expectations of the first recession in 29 years. We are going to be watching that 10 year pretty closely because it was a surprise to some Market Participants that the 10year was not actually what was targeted. He is aiming to keep the threeyear Government Bond yields at. 25 . A second round of stimulus is set to be delivered. We will get more from our economics editor, alexandra. What do we know about the second package that arrived much quicker given that we were looking at the first stimulus package . Last week, the Australian Government delivered a fiscal support package at around 1 of gdp and this was largely aimed at Small Businesses and welfare recipients. The situation has clearly changed rapidly in the past week with greater social distancing and selfisolation measures introduced. The australian treasurer said that this package would be significantly bigger than that delivered last week and we are expecting to receive details of this package over the weekend. As you said, the reserve bank of qetralia did embark on its expedition for the first time with that announcement yesterday, and as philip lowe said in the speech after delivering this message, he said it is aimed at keeping people in jobs, keeping businesses alive, providing this bridge while we endure the shock. Shery the rba was not the only centralbank that jumped into action yesterday. We had plenty of banks in Southeast Asia also cutting. Alexandra yes, thats correct. We also saw the philippines, indonesia, and malaysia, all of the Central Banks lowering their benchmark Interest Rates, and this is as we are seeing the virus is really disrupting activity all throughout the region. Haidi thank you so much for joining us, are economics editor, alexandra veroude, here in sydney. Three major Central Banks were among those taking actions in the past day. We had the ecb with that whatever it takes moment, embarking on an eight hundred billion dollar bond buying program. The bank of england jumped in, announcing bond buying and cutting rates. Said established liquidity lines. We expect to hear the fed established liquidity lines. Economist, the president and founder of a Global Strategies company. We saw 16 or 17 Central Banks over the past 24 hours really ratcheting up what they can potentially do. Are we hitting the limits of even unconventional Monetary Policy, and are we starting to see we will continue to see diminished returns in terms of how much they can really affect market functionality and Economic Growth . The think that is very much case. As we say in american football, it is the equivalent of a hail mary pass. You take the ball and you throw it and hope, somehow, that you will go on to eventually a touchdown, because you have reached a situation where the Interest Rates are very, very low. Take the case of the bank of england, for instance. They lowered it from 25 basis points to a mere 10 basis points. Whether it is 25 basis points or 10 basis points is not going to affect the spending behavior of consumers. Nor will it make the factories invest more and produce more under the new set up. So essentially, i consider the reduction in Interest Rates to thattotal waste of the they could have used. What is helpful and very helpful, haidi, out of all the measures to backstop commercial paper, which was taken in the United States, and the decision by the european to buy high quality commercial paper as well in addition to sovereign paper as part of its 700 50 billion euro purchase program, i think the effort should be on the quantity side, the money supply side, and the asset purchase rather than the Interest Rate reduction, which has lost efficacy. Haidi there is a level of understanding going on with global Central Banks, too. Which is why i think we have seen. 25 being the effective lower bound where almost every central bank that has gotten to that level has said they will stay there and probably will not go any lower. Komal you hope they will not go any lower, but i would not be surprised if they do. After all, bank of england seemed to indicate that was the low point and they have gone to 0. 1 percent. Europe had a situation in the European Central bank where the deposit rate is actually negative, and it has been negative for quite a while. So i do not think it is beyond imagination, haidi, for some of the Central Banks to go negative on the policy rate, not that it is going to be affected, but i think they will try to do that. This is the time when fiscal policy needs to step in, it needs to be targeted in terms of making sure that people who are unemployed get compensation, to make sure that companies which ae essential do not get blanket bailout but a way to keep functioning and keep workers employed. But instead of that, i think we are doing something where every Government Institution thinks it has to do something to stay effective. Seen so manye now different liquidity injections coming from all of the Central Banks. Right now, the rba injecting another 4. 426 billion aussie dollars on top of the 12 billion aussie dollars we saw in the previous session. After 5 billion, really just more and more liquidity being injected into the markets. This has been happening globally. Of arent we seeing more positive reaction when it comes to market function . Komal that is a very good question. I think the reason is because it is done at the 30,000 foot level where they just shower cash into the session and that is something we did in the United States after the 2008 financial crisis and what that does is it helps with the stock market. It boosts asset valuations, but it does not do very much in terms of actual consumption and increasing the wages of the workers which is basic in terms of making the economy grow at a faster rate and for employment to pick up. Australia, forof instance, i would have preferred to have seen a more targeted situation where they are supporting particular Asset Classes and expressed their intention of supporting them rather than just throwing a lot of cash into the market by indiscriminately buying bonds of different maturities. That does not help us much. Shery how does it compare to what china is doing . We have seen the money market rate, for example, gaining ground. I mean, declining by about 20 basis points or so in march already. Komal yes. Has been diminishing and the chinese have been working for quite some time in terms of coming Interest Rates, and i think, again, i dont see as much efficacy coming forth from that policy in china. What is going to help is the fact that it looks like there are few to no extra coronavirus cases developing. Factories seem to be getting back in china to operation, and if that means the employment once again picks up, that is what is going to help the chinese economy eventually to get back on its feet. It is not going to be how much it is reduced p or at this time, that basically is almost irrelevant in terms of the pace of economic recovery or its timing. Shery always great having you with us. Komal srikumar, president of Komal Srikumar Global Strategies. We are following this story with the coronaVirus Outbreak and its impact on different regions. Macau having its 2020 gaming revenue forecast to 130 billion on the virus impact. We are talking about their 2020 gaming revenue forecast being taught in half. Of course, we have seen macau casinos being closed for a number of days during this outbreak. Already, we have seen 80 of casino gaming tables resuming operations, according to macau. But still, the impact on revenue forecast for gaming cut in half. More ahead on Bloomberg Markets asia. This is bloomberg. Lets check in on how markets are trading in new zealand in the early part of the fridays session as we heard from the rbnz offering term loans to banks. 5 re seeing upside about when it comes to trading in kiwi equities. The kiwi dollar continuing to weaken as we had another day of a record high for the bloomberg dollar index. The kiwi aussie continuing to flirt with parity as well. Ready strong gains. Haidi a very good morning. I am haidi stroudwatts in sydney, where markets have just come online. Shery south korea opens in an hour. I am shery ahn in new york. Welcome to Bloomberg Markets asia. Haidi our top stories this hour, europe remains the coronavirus epicenter with a lean overtaking china in reported deaths. Fatalities have topped 3400 with 41,000 infected. Premier li keqiang players china is returning to normal. He says most of the country is now low risk and any barriers to goods and workers should be removed. Shery u. S. Businesses pleading for help as the virus hits demand and production. They rebuffed calls for tariffs to be, saying china will continue to pay. Australian markets have just opened. Lets turn to sophie for what to watch. Sophie pulling up the board for whats going on with marcus this friday, u. S. Futures extending losses, falling as much as 2. 2 percent, and check out what is going on with the sydney open. Asx 200 higher by. 8 after a choppy week for australian stocks, which do have earnings forecasts diminishing along with forecasts for dividends. More companies withdraw guidance which Morgan Stanley says it is prudent but delays a true assessment of the virus impact, also noting that early estimates of a 10 drop in australian corporate Profit Growth could be conservative. We are getting lines out from telstra, seeing targets at the bottom of guidance and it has put job cuts on hold. Flipping the board, checking in on aussie and kiwi dollars, sliding with bond yields this morning. The currencies resuming declines for the fed expanding its dollar lines. Credit quality is increasingly a concern, especially with liquidity transition not functioning smoothly. Liquidity playing out in treasuries. I want to visualize that blowout that we are seeing in spreads for u. S. Treasuries, which have widened beyond levels not seen since of the Global Financial crisis, haiti. Haidi. Haidi lets get you uptodate with the first word news with Karina Mitchell. Karina europe and the u. S. Are beginning to see the biggest factory shutdowns since world war ii. The widening economic fallout of the virus is shifting from Service Children industries such as travel and hospitality to manufacturing on both sides of the atlantic. Adding to the pressure on Global Supply chains and raising the specter of recession. Premier li keqiang says china is returning to normal after the virus disruption. He says most of the country is now considered low risk and any barriers to the flow of workers and birds should be removed. Satellite animation shows how the chinese economy is coming back during the virus. A fall in emissions as factory and traffic shutdown. Emissions are starting to pick up again. Japan is preparing a second massive stimulus package as the virus threatens to push the economy into deep recession. Prime minister shinzo abe has launched a week of hearings with Business Leaders to come up with a rescue plan. Japan is equally fearful about the Tokyo Olympics being delayed. Economists we spoke to say that could result in the longest contraction since the financial crisis. India is urging its one point 3 billion people to stay indoors to stem the spread of the virus. The government is calling for a nationwide curfew on sunday from 7 00 a. M. To 9 00 p. M. And wants individual states to enforce a work from home policy. India is barring all International Flights from ending for a week from the 22nd, joining a list of countries who are effectively sealing their borders. Global news, 24 hours a day, on air and on quicktake by bloomberg, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. I am Karina Mitchell. This is bloomberg. Haidi. Haidi karina, thank you. Lets get more on the Market Impact of the coronaVirus Outbreak now. Our next guest says not to buy the dip just yet. Joining us is the cohead of investment, andy capron. Great to have you. Depending on the day or hour youre speaking to someone, either everything is uninvestable or it is time for bargainhunting or you can selectively look at companies with strong cash flow and fundamentals or you just hold all cash. What is your approach at the minute . Andy i would not hold all cash. It does not make sense to be invested. What many investors are thinking about today is rebalancing, which is selling the investments that are preserved to value the best Treasury Bonds and putting it to work in everything that is sold off, which is just about everything else. Investmentgrade corporate, municipal bonds, and stocks. People are really eager to do this because over the past 11 years, every time there has been a dip, it has paid to buy. This is different. And i do not think it pays to buy this dip yet. Why is there this condition line . At some point, it could get more compelling. It is possible valuations are compelling today, but all we know today is the price. We know prices have fallen. We dont know how far fundamentals have fallen. And we dont know yet what policymakers are doing to arrest this drop. So let me give you a little bit more color on that. Central banks have done a lot to prevent a crisis in the real economy from becoming a crisis in the financial economy. Seen fiscalnot yet policy step in in a significant and meaningful way. Because this is the crisis in the real economy, fiscal policy is going to be one of the prerequisites. When you start to rebalance, see fiscal policy developing, when you start to see it get passed, and when you start to understand how it might impact this real economic crisis. Visibility that we encourage you to be more confident to take a risk at the moment look like in terms of the Public Health response, for example . Andy visibility is not perfection. You cannot wait until you have near certainty about the future to invest, because by then, all the profits have been taken, but you need to have some basis for rebalancing today. Would say theres a couple of potential sources of that basis. I have already measured one, fiscal policy. Meaningful moves that governments around the world are making to try to stop this crisis from becoming a depression. What else . This crisis is ultimately caused by the coronavirus, by a disease that is spreading around the world, and another form of progress, another form of visibility, will be for us to new cases ining in hotspots currently in europe and the United States. Not seeing that yet. We are seeing an acceleration rather than a deceleration in both of those locations at the moment. Is not much really consensus on what will happen next because visibility is so low right now but consensus seems to be on the fact that we are most likely headed into a global recession. How do you trade that . Andy i would not even call it most likely anymore. It is a near certainty and it will almost with near certainty be one of the worst recessions in peace times. This is less like a traditional economic event and much more like a Natural Disaster. Except the difference with a Natural Disaster is that it impacts one region at a time. When a hurricane hits a part of the southeast u. S. , it can shut down a city for weeks at a time, it can take a very long time to recover. This is not one city. This is the entirety of the developed world shutting down for a period of time and really suffering from that. Now why is this different than what can you do to get some confidence . It is different because it affects both the supply side and demand side of the economy. Right now, like myself, a lot of consumers are not going to work. I am able to still work from home because i work in a Service Industry that allows me to connect my office online, but many workers work i retail. N work in retail. Problems tha progress on fiscal policy will be hardly important. Let me give you an important example of that progress. All developed countries in the Unemployment Insurance scheme. Most Unemployment Insurance schemes require that workers be actively looking for work to be able to collect the on employment check. That is at odds with the goals of coronavirus containment. We do not want people hitting the pavement. We dont want them Walking Around to employers, potentially spreading the virus. We want to pay them to stay home. Governments need to come around to that. They need to understand that. They need to update policy. One meaningful piece of progress that we have had in the u. S. Is for the first time, really, in modern history, major parts of the u. S. Government are floating the idea of sick pay, as in paying workers while they are sick to stay home. That is unique. That is the first time we have discussed this in the u. S. , and it is meaningful progress, but it is only talk. We need to see us getting closer to action. Shery so what happens when, because of all this uncertainty, we really are not seeing traditional safe havens like the japanese yen and gold behave as havens . How do you hedge . That u. S. Lieve treasuries continue to be a very good safe haven asset. I recognize the past week has been a tough environment for long treasuries, partially because theyre safe haven status is interacting in unique ways with some of the fiscal stimulus that has been floated. World whereat, in a deflation is a big risk, where the economy is likely to contract by the largest amount in modern history, treasuries still present a good hedge. They are not going to earn you much money. It is a safe place to park your assets. And it is a safe place to rebalance out of when you have more visibility on the future. Investments, andy kapyrinm, thank you very much for that. Lets turn to Sophie Kamaruddin. Sophie i want to check in with qantas this morning. We are seeing the share price claim as much as 11. 7 for qantas but staying near a december 2014 low as the ceo is saying the carrier will attempt to manage the crisis without tapping more government aid as it plans for the crisis to last as long as 18 months. Also want to check in on Air New Zealand in wellington. We are seeing shares far more than 40 , the biggest drop on record for Air New Zealand, taking the stock to a 2012 low as it agrees to a government loan for 510 million. Haidi. Haidi Sophie Kamaruddin with some of the early movers there. Virus deaths in italy topping chinas reported number. We will have the latest on the outbreak. Shery we will hear from spains finance minister on what the measures what measures they are taking to combat the virus crisis. This is bloomberg. Shery this is Bloomberg Markets asia. I am shery ahn in new york. Haidi i am haidi stroudwatts in sydney. More people and italy have now died from the coronavirus that has been reported in any other nation, including china. European governments are struggling to keep up with their response to the virus spread. Lets bring in stephen engle. What is the latest from italy . Italy, obviously, the new or existing at the center of this outbreak, this global outbreak, as you just mentioned are the number of deaths in italy surpassing those in china, and the number of cases also surging. Probably, theres some discrepancies in how the number of cases are reported, so we have to take it with a little bit of a grain of salt as far as the reporting. Italys number of cases have surpassed or have the number of deaths have gone past china and a much shorter amount of time than china did. Again, we have some discrepancies on the reporting standards. We have italy with 3405 deaths. It is an addition of 420 seven from overnight. China has on record 3245. Total cases in italy, about half those of china. 41,035. Again, the nation remains on a nationwide lockdown. We are seeing schools will stay closed longer than first expected beyond march 25 or beyond april 3, i should say. Also, hospitals in lombardy, of course, around the milan, northern italy area, they are overwhelmed, and we are also seeing different types of rates of infection. Not the same kind of numbers but the rates of infection rising in france and in spain. We are seeing the number of deaths in spain up 28 from those reported just 24 hours ago. 767. France also higher by 41 the number of deaths to 370 two. And another large event, wellknown event, has fallen victim to the coronaVirus Outbreak, the film festival, a staple on the may calendar. It will be postponed. Shery Prime Minister johnson says the u. K. Can turn the tide june, just virus by 12 weeks away. Is that a little too optimistic given that even his brexit chief seems to be in isolation right now . Stephen he is putting on a brave face an optimistic tone right now, but the number of cases in the u. K. And the number of cats also surging as there cases alsow, of surging. The u. K. Might have been a little bit behind the curve on some of those preventive measures and Boris Johnson has taken a lot of criticism for that and he is actually now saying we do not necessarily have to shut down all of london like some have called. He is saying we are not going to shut down the Mass Transit System even though we are hearing that the tube might be shot, up to 40 stations of the london tube will be closed. Boris johnson putting a positive spin on that. There are now 144 deaths in the u. K. , more than double the number just two days ago. Schools will also be closed as of today. Friday, the english premier league, will continue to be suspended, longer than first thought, at least until the end of april. We had this bank of england drastic move of cutting rates along with other Central Banks around the world. They are going to be adding to the asset purchase program, and again, you mentioned about david frost. He was the u. K. s brexit negotiator. He is in isolation. We have not had confirmation whether he is confirmed positive, but again his counterpart in the e. U. , michel barnier, he has tested positive. Those two gentlemen last met about two weeks ago. Shery stephen engle, thank you very much for that. Fdaident trump has told the to look into expanding the use of a decadesold malarial drug as a potential nearterm treatment for covid19. Bloomberg opinion columnist matt mason covers health care, biotech, and pharma. How much does the president actually know about these treatments . You know, based on todays press conference, probably not very much. Just because, you know, you came away from that initially thinking that the president or the fda had actually approved it for a wide use against covid19, that is not the case. The fda commissioner had to clarify that they are taking a closer look, looking into running trials, but you still have to confirm efficacy of the medicine before it is widely available. The kind of recurring theme is that as much as the president or anybody would like to be able to speed up the trials of these medicines, these older medicines that are being tried against covid or the case of the development of new ones or vaccines, there is only so much that you can speed up science. You have to run rigorous, randomized, blinded Clinical Trials to actually confirm that these drugs work. Hitting pause for a second, getting breaking news and a bloombergs group. We are hearing that a holdings group, budget group, an enterprise rentacar company have asked the Treasury Department to be included in the federal plans to rescue u. S. Travel companies that have been ravaged as we know by the coronavirus pandemic and various shutdowns. The chief executive officers of the three companies have made the request in a letter to the treasury secretary, steven mnuchin, on wednesday, describing their industry as being crucial to u. S. Transportation infrastructure and that they would sustain grave harm as airlines cut back on service. They have asked treasuries to consider providing zero interest loans, tax deferrals, and relief from airports. Mets get back to this story as to in terms of the priorities, upcoming stimulus packages, beyond sending everybody, you know, free cash and checks, what is the kind of level of prioritization that we are looking at here . Max cash is obviously very important. And i would argue, you know, in an amount larger than has been put out there from the initial reports on the bill. I know their priority is not just about Industries Like airlines or as you just mentioned car rental, but also, you think about restaurants, you know, in new york city, you socialscroll past your media without seeing a call from groups of restaurants and individual restaurants that have laid off their entire staff, and those are businesses that tend to be on margins. Not a lot of cash. They dropped to absolutely nothing paired on the policy side, this is an opportunity potentially to deal with issues like supplies billing, the practice of sending people really large bills for medical care if the hospital, for example, does not agree with the amount that Insurance Companies are willing to reimburse. That is something that is going to be an issue for people that go to the hospital for covid19, so something to deal with as well. Max, thank you so much for joining us. Our Bloomberg Opinion columnist. We will have more perspectives later today. The Philippine Central Bank governor will be joining us along with indonesian finance minister we will be speaking with the president of garuda and the worlds biggest glove maker. This is bloomberg. There are dozens of unjust g groups in the u. S. Pushing for exemptions to local bands and curfews to keep shelves stocked and fast food chains say it is crucial to the American Public that they stay open during the outbreak. The ceo of burger kings Parent Company discussed how their brands are coping with the coronaVirus Outbreak. We have 10,000 restaurants that are owned and operated by franchisees, Small Business owners across the country with burger king, popeyes, and tim hortons, and the franchise owners are working really hard to kind of adjust some of their staffing to address a shift in service mode. We have always had drivethrough business. We had a strong dine in business, and as of the last couple years, we have really ramped up our drivethrough Delivery Business through third parties and our own Delivery Networks as well, so we have had a big shift in terms of labor resources to address a shifting need in the business right now, so that is where we are. Andave seen a strong consolidated effort across the entire system to make sure that we do the right thing for our consumers. They have changed their behaviors. And we are changing and adapting with them and we are set up to less service in mobile order and pick up as well to address their needs. What about the distribution of some of these efforts . Country ts the some parts of the country, you have drivethroughs built in. Other areas like in new york city, where drivethroughs little bit more of a rarity and the ability of customers to sort of interact with your servers in a way that maybe you can do in the suburbs you cannot really do here in a more densely populated area. Are there physical changes being made to some of these stores to maybe accommodate that . Over time, we will see more of that but in the shortterm, we are adjusting procedures to address the different needs of the business. In high density urban areas, we tend to have a really strong Delivery Business, and so, we already have that in place and we have had that in place for quite some time so we are stepping up and addressing those density those high urban areas and in suburban areas, we are having staff set up mobile order and pick up. We are equipped and ready to address the needs of the consumers. Behaviors are changing, given the social distancing and some of the containment taking place that is likely taking place in order to address the needs right now and we are ready to meet demand and ready to feed america under any circumstances. Shery that is the ceo of Restaurant Brands international. A big interview to tell you about that is airing on bloomberg next week. We will be speaking exclusively thatey wat and you can see on monday. Lets now get a quick check of the latest business flash headlines. Tesla has succumbed to coronavirus pressure. It resisted calls to close its u. S. Plants but will now idle the facility just as the quarter comes to an end. The decision follows calls my police city managers and Health Officials about work continuing despite a shelterinplace order. Promptedavirus has ford to suspend its dividend even though it has repeatedly found to maintain the payout. He says he has to prioritize cash reserves, investment, and flexibility, and will also drawn down more than 15 billion from two credit lines. For it is also pulling the 2020 Earnings Guidance it gave in early february. The watch industry is the latest sector to suffer from the virus. Rolex watch and others paid higher costs. Closures store rolex has shut all its plants is what the land for at least 10 days while watch fares in geneva fairs in geneva have been canceled. This is bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Markets asia. I am Karina Mitchell with the first would headlines. Western europe remains in focus with the coronavirus, with italy overtaking china in reported deaths. Fatalities have reached the thousand 405 with more than 41,000 in fact 3405 with more 0 infected. President trump said there is no reason and china will pay. The coronavirus threatens to disrupt brexit trade talks. Michael barnier has tested positive and has put himself in selfisolation. The u. K. s top brexit official, david frost, is also positive and also in isolation. The two men have not met since the first round of talks two weeks ago and news of their oflikely to dash hopes progress. India is urging its 1. 3 billion people to stay indoors to stem the spread of the virus. The government is calling for a fromnwide curfew on sunday 7 00 a. M. To 9 00 p. M. And wants individual states to enforce a work from home policy. India is barring all International Flights from landing for a week from the 22nd, joining a list of countries who are effectively sealing their borders. Quarantine is nothing new for astronauts who routinely live in isolation ahead of rocket launches. Say thecrew men, they disruption caused by the virus is becoming stressful. Nasas Chris Cassidy and two spacen teammates say scientists are increasingly concerned about their health. Global news, 24 hours a day, on air and on quicktake by bloomberg, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. I am Karina Mitchell. This is bloomberg. Haidi. Haidi karina, thank you. Australian markets have been training for about half an hour. What are you seeing in terms of this reaction to the rbas actions . Sophie a mixed reaction when it comes to stocks on the asx 200 but we have the index mostly moving higher, gaining 3 , and here is a breakdown of some of those movers. You have woolworths, the biggest laggard. With plexi group has withdrawn guidance. Exi metal has withdrawn guidance. Lets check it out, losing ground today, falling as much as 3. 4 . At the bottom of the range for key targets, plus 5g investment while holding off on cutting headcount. An interimn to pay dividend next week. Its taking movers to the upside. Conglomerate wesfarmers gaining ground after its Trading Update in which it addressed virus outlook. Continuing growth when it comes to overall sales growth. Aussie banks are gaining ground with cba rising more than 5 . This after it cut lending rates watching other lenders to follow and keeping an eye on this space given the Banking Industry association ceo will be giving a press briefing at 11 00 a. M. Sydney time today to announce and release measures for Small Businesses. Chery. Ry. Ry she shery thank you very much for that. Shinzo abe is gearing up for his second big stimulus package in a number of months as coronavirus pushes japan into what could be a deep and prolonged recession. Dan moss joins us now. What else can Prime Minister abe do right now. Dan not a lot. Japan of shery continue. We thought we did not have you for a second but we do. So what else can the Prime Minister to . Do . Dan keep doing what they have been doing. Now, with the addition of one thing, and this will be a bit of a bitter pill. The government ought to seriously consider rescinding consumption tax increase that was implemented in the fourth quarter. They were advised by many people not to proceed with that. What they got, as a result, before the world had even heard of wuhan, was a 7 contraction. This meant japans economy was nowhere near as strong as it ought to have been going into the virus era. That will hurt. They ought to really consider it. Is the stimulus happening fast enough . Let me begin by knocking down a bit of a strawman. Which i have heard and read a lot in the past week. A common refrain during these market gyrations has been stimulus is not enough to solve the virus issue. It is not supposed to be. Listen to jay powell every time he talks, he says we are not the panacea. The idea is that stimulus can cushion the blow, and hopefully, grease the wheels, for an eventual recovery. I want to turn to the rba in terms of waiting into qe land. I think a lot of people in this part of the world thought we would never have to see this day, but here, we are just wondering about your reaction to the rbas handling of the situation, targeting the three year bond instead. What was your response hearing the details of the qe announcements . Dan let me address the first point you made because it is critically important. The rbas announcement yesterday feels like an epitaph on the famous world beating, all singing, all dancing 28 years without a recession that australians like to boast about. Who i sensedn never really fully bought into that was ironically rba governor phil lowe. He has been very clear that within that period, there were distinct peaks of activity and immigration played a huge role in sustaining the economy. This is more evolution than revolution. If you go back late last year when the rba started cutting, edging down towards zero, the reserve bank did try to prepare the public discussion for the potential need of special operations beyond the zero lower bound. What the rba has found, as has its counterparts, is that time frames for decisionmaking really caved in upon them. What get ready and go with we have got. Dan moss, thank you very much for that. Sentlobal market rout has the japanese yen on its biggest five day slide against the dollar in seven years, really not acting as a traditional safe haven as we would usually see in the markets we the japanese yen slumping against the u. S. Dollar. Our crossasset reporter is following the money. What is happening right now . Is entirelyay this a dollars story at this point. There is a Global Funding crunch that is going on and that is sending investors straight into the dollar and the yen has really suffered here, as you said. The biggest five day slide in seven years. The speed of this move has been breathtaking. 1. 5 weeks ago, we were wondering 100. Llaryen would crack that is part of the reason the fed has established these dollar some blinds with other Central Banks, but if you look at the options markets, traders had been positioned for stronger yen. They were expecting it to be a haven, but theres probably Short Covering going on here. Haidi if the traditional havens are selling off, not behaving like you would expect them to, where are the fixed income investors going to . Katherine thats a great question, because treasuries, we saw a little bit of relief today, but they have just been selling off like crazy. Theres been a lot of demand for money market funds and short duration etfs. You saw u. S. Money market funds taking a record inflow last week and that is because people are really looking for cash here and there really short duration know,ment paper, you government bills, they are as close to cash as you can get and highly liquid, so anything you can get in and out of there quickly is going to be very popular in this environment. Haidi haidi and highgrade bonds is an area that you are watching . Katherine absolutely. We saw 36. 5 billion come out of u. S. Investmentgrade funds last week. And to see that kind of figure in a single week is shocking and it definitely turned heads over here. This is part of that Global Funding crisis we have been talking about. You know, investors are looking to raise cash any way they can, even if it involves that painful choice, having to sell your highestquality assets because those are the bonds that you are going to actually be able to get thed on, so that is hitting investmentgrade market, hitting treasuries, and you are actually seeing less liquid issues such as junk bonds actually outperform in some cases just because investors are not even trying to sell those, in some cases. Haidi haidi our crossasset reporter, katherine greifeld, with us. We will be taking a look at the gender gap around the world with beth siegel joining us. This is bloomberg. Haidi this is Bloomberg Markets asia. I am haidi stroudwatts in sydney. Shery i am shery ahn a new yorker now for our bloomberg equality segment with influential Business Leaders to find out how they are paving the way for more people future. This week, we are looking at the gender gap around the world. Our guest today recently released a report that found we are still a long way from a gender equal world. Joining us now is the global director of diversity and inclusion, beth siegel. Great to have you with us. When you looking for data across the u. S. , the u. K. , australia, and india, who is leading the way when it comes to women in leadership roles . Beth first, thank you so much for having me. It is wonderful to be here. As we did our report, we looked across regions and what we found is that australia is leading the way both in terms of the percentage of women and mps as well as women and Corporate Board roles, which takes you through some of their aspirations and targets themselves. Shery tell us about those targets. Do targets actually work, and in which countries have we seen those already . Beth great question. Targets tend to be a very polarizing topic. You either love them or you hate them and they can be the solution but not always, and it really depends on which country you are in and what your context is in your view of targets in general. For example, as i mentioned, in australia, there was an aspiration to have 40 women, 40 men, and 20 of a mixture in terms of the ideal gender composition in boards, and that was enough to drive progress. In other countries like the u. K. , a target was put in place as well as in india. We have seen that have driven some progress targets are more acceptable in those countries, but in the u. S. , targets are anathema and we dont have set quotas and targets in the same way although there are some states like california and new york that are enacting legislation to put in some requirements there, to drive some progress of the real key, is ensuring transparency. Ensuring you are measuring and reporting on progress, or lack there of, that is what can truly drive some progress, and in a way, putting targets in place is a way to uncover that and bring about some of that greater transparency. If you say, in some markets like the u. S. , initiatives like the 30 club are not as effective and proved to be more culturally divisive in that narrative, how do you achieve gender parity in a more inclusive or effective way . Beth i think that there are benefits to having the targets in that it helps to bring around greater transparency. While they can be more divisive, as you said, the key is really measuring and reporting and Holding Companies accountable for what they have achieved or where they are falling short. Thatby requiring reporting, that will generate some change. You are getting a lot of pressure for come from consumers. You see a lot of consumer facing industries are ahead of the curve in terms of bringing in more women into leadership roles and board roles, largely because of pressure from consumers and because they recognized that that helps to drive better innovation and reduce risk in creating Better Business outcomes for them. About thel me more data that suggests not have a more diverse representation, female representation, in decisionmaking, like you say, brings down risk and actually results in Better Business outcomes. Where does that data broken down show us . There was a recent report by Credit Suisse that highlighted and tracked what was the progress on the outcomes and impact it is having on more women on boards and leadership . Catalyst did a lot of research on this as well. Credit suisse as well as the report highlighted how the roi for companies in the financial metrics and have been better for companies that have women on boards, particularly when there is more than one woman on a board and you are seeing that also in some of the u. K. Companies as well. A little bits about the consumer facing center. It is seeing some of that push back more diversity. What other sectors are leading . The as i said, some of consumer facing Industries Like consumer packaged goods and financial services, some of the Technology Companies where they really need to be in touch with consumers and having the diversity both in their leadership ranks as well as on their board causes them to generate better innovation and when consumers are demanding that diversity, they need to react and respond. Consumers walk with their dollars, otherwise. Shery what are you seeing in the Public Sector . Beth it really feels like businesses are leading the way. In the Public Sector, some quotas are in place. Really, businesses are the ones that are leading the way and putting things in place with consumer pressure normalizing some things around this and highlighting the roi, which is of course more difficult to highlight or showcase in the government sector. Thank you so much for joining us, global director of diversity and inclusion, beth sehgal. We will have more perspectives on the virus and the Market Outlook today. We will be joined by the we will be speaking with derivatives president as well as the worlds biggest glove maker, top glove. This is bloomberg. Melinda gates, thank you so much for joining us. I always look for any philanthropy we do to fill those gaps. Haidi this is Bloomberg Markets asia. I am haidi stroudwatts in sydney. Shery i am shery ahn in new york. Massive stimulus from the ecb and the bank of england, saying it provides muchneeded stability across the continent. Spanish finance minister said nation spaces her to consider additional fiscal support. An auction of spanish sovereign debt, and reaction of the markets have been very positive. We had over 10 billion, almost 11 billion demand. Interest rates have gone down. Moment, i think that the action of the ecb has provided the needed and appropriate stability to take the right decisions. Due to the reinforcement of containment measures in our country, we started to see an impact which was quite significant in terms of the economic and social movement, dynamism of the country, and we need to be able to take the right decisions in an environment that does not generate more stability, volatility, and anxiety at the end of the day. Do you worry that further down the road, if spain decides that it does issue now, that it does expand now, that there will come a point where spain ends up being punished for what it does now but significantly further down the road . Maybe in a years time, when the situation has stabilized, spain ends up with a significant debt load, a much greater debt load than it has now, as a result of which, the Financial Markets turn around and say, you know what, we are not comfortable with this . As a result of this, there is a cost of what is happening . We absolutely need to avoid that that happens because it is a global challenge, it is on global disease. The impact on our societies and our economies is also global, and we need to provide global responses. We need a coordinated response of all the countries, and obviously, in europe, we need a european response. National governments are doing their parts. We are adopting the right measures to address the different challenges at the ecb has done its part. Now, we need to think about global european fiscal response to ensure that of course that risk you are putting on the table does not materialize. Haidi that was the spanish finance ministers speaking to bloomberg. We are getting breaking news when it comes to the china cases, no newew coronavirus cases from the epicenter of wuhan for a second day. That is a milestone, but cases,ng 39 confirmed additional confirmed coronavirus cases on march 19, saying all of those cases are all of those cases are in fact important also, imported cases is reporting three coronavirus deaths on march 19. We go into the next hour of trading. Japanese markets are close to the vernal equinox today. We are taking a look at trading in australia and new zealand as the rba embarking on day one of its unconventional trading policy. This is how kospi futures are shaping up as well, looking like a bit of positivity in the asian session. This is bloomberg. South korea has just opened for trade. Shery welcome to Bloomberg Markets asia. Haidi europe remains in the grip of the coronavirus and italy and china have reported deaths. China is returning to normal. The premier says most of the country is low risk. U. S. Business appeals for Government Health well retailers in korea. We are live in seoul, korea. Haidi we have an alert on the bloomberg. Jp morgan could be returning to work mid april. Diamond has undergone emergency heart surgery and we now hear he might be back to work mid april. Lets get to the Market Action with sophie in hong kong. Week for assets across the board. Rough moves for stocks and bonds. Higher. An shares, moves 5000 level. Worse for the asx 200. Morgan stanley cautioning early estimates for a 10 drop could be conservative. Movingl, korea, kospi higher by 3. 2 . Closing 8 lower. Stack in focus. Gains of nearly 4 after a low in south korea. And yuan gaining ground. Afternoon. T for this bonds to be of bought by the be ok. Europe remains the focus of coronavirus with italy overtaking china in reported deaths. Fatalities have reached 3405 with more than 41,000 people infected. U. S. Businesses increase calls for Government Health government help including relief on tariffs from chinese imports but trump says there is no reason china will pay. Asian Central Banks have taken steps to counter coronavirus and bolster economy and Financial Markets. Philippines cut rates by 50 basis points and eased some regulations on bank. Bank indonesia cut by one quarterpoint and will continue to intervene to ensure confidence. Japan is preparing a second massive stimulus package as the virus threatens to push the economy into recession. There is a week of business meetings to come up with a plan. The Tokyo Olympics could be delayed. Result in the longest contention from the since the financial crisis. Consideredna is now low risk and any barriers to workers in good should be removed. Satellite shows how the chinese economy cut back during the virus. A fall in admissions as factories were shut down. They are now starting to increase. People torging their stay indoors to stem the spread of the virus. The government calls for a nationwide curfew on sunday from 7 00 a. M. To 9 00 p. M. And wants individual states to enforce a work from home policy. They are barring International Flights from landing for a week, joining a list of countries ceiling the borders. Global news 24 hours a day, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. This is bloomberg. Shery look at how south korea markets are trading at the moment. Sinceseeing the best day 2011. We have seen the kospi suffer the brunt of the selloff globally and we are seeing the korean won strengthening significantly against the u. S. Dollar and jumping the most since january of 2009. This after falling to the weakest level in 11 years. We have seen the south korean government unveil a 50 trillion won in aid. This is we continue to see more coronavirus cases in the country. Ahead, a look at the Consumer Spending crisis in south korea, china, and the rest of asia. Shery and oil jumps by the most ever after trumppence he might he involved trump hints might get involved in the standoff between saudi arabia and russia. This is bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Markets asia. West texas intermediate surged by 24 , the most ever after trump said he may intervene in the standoff between saudi arabia and russia. They are pumping more crude in the battle for market shares. Commentss not just his , but the fact we might start to see strain in the price war. That is right. At thet have to look prices down around 60 . It is affecting all major oil producers, including saudi arabia and russia, the main protagonists in the price war. Games gains yesterday and trump said he might step into trying to do something to resolve the standoff. Comenk he will probably down to moscow to see who will blink first. [indiscernible] that also help the move overnight. Consolidation is falling. How much influence does the president have in the standoff between russia and saudi arabia . We are seeing markets pricing this as a done deal. Trump has made a point of nurturing relationships with putin and in riyadh, which has been controversial. Now is the time to start cashing in on that. A lot will come down to how strong the relationships are. They will not do trumps bidding but there is a certain amount of self self interest. If you have a huge impact on the Balance Sheets for both countries. It could have a huge impact on the Balance Sheets of both countries. Know how big the demand shock will be with coronavirus. As the markets price in, there is a likelihood we will get some sort of detente between the countries. We hear factories in china are starting to reopen and coronavirus cases have plummeted since the beginning of the outbreak. Could china help offset some of the weakness we see in the industry . That is what producers will be hoping. New cases in china, it has slowed dramatically and i hear reports the economy is getting back to normal. That would go a long way to helping the market recover but given that we are still in the , i think without an agreement between the saudis and russia to scale back production i think you cannot call an end to this yet. Where tradersy on. Ee the bottom [indiscernible] thornhill with the latest, thank you. Plummeted. R has copper and aluminum are the lowest and year. Malvern. Ns us from david, what is dragging the losses is the impact on mining stocks. Copper and aluminum have taken a hit. Copper down 12 this week. The question is demand. There are signs of the economy coming back to life. We have seen less cases in china. The question is if it is enough to offset what is now declining demand and the rest of the world, particularly with the impact on the manufacturing industries. Plants will have an impact on aluminum. Similarly for copper. So there are a lot of questions to grapple with. [indiscernible] [inaudible] we have seen some Companies Lose 50 and seeing sharp revisions. Thinkdman sachs seems to minors could end up being bargains with strong Balance Sheets. What are they saying . Goldman taking a mediumterm month view 12 [inaudible] they see the prospect of a bleak Second Quarter this year but it is dependent on chinese stimulus. Bhp. Ikes of down to the fact that companies are in a better position now than they were in. Revious crises we saw a slump in 2014 and 2015 and there is a stronger balance complexess debt, a less backtion and can pay dividends. Goldman sees lots of potential bargains [inaudible] thank you so much for that, david stringer in melbourne. Buyout 5fering billion of aussie dollars in day one as it heads into quantitative easing after the announcements of the packet of measures yesterday. We are getting news from the Australian Banking Association saying banks will consider emergency relief for mortgages. These measures are focused on loan relief Small Businesses. Briefing the media. Measures have been coordinated in conjunction with the Australian Banking Association. Small businesses can divert loan payments for up to six months. Toare getting details as what measures will entail but , economistsvirus are predicting a recession for the first time in 30 years and australia and employment is a serious issues we are seeing to what the Banking Industry can do. Lets get to analysis on the markets. Laura fitzsimmons joins us. Operationt with rba lines in terms of venture kiwi buying in april and may. It was interesting for them to keep focus on three year. Laura what will give confidence to the market today is they are buying further out the curve so what was initially the issue itterday when they announced was the fact that would they only be targeting the front of the curve and then we saw a dramatic steepening on the curve because of 10 year yields at 128 basis points. This caused concern in the market. We were confident the rba would work in terms of maturity withse they are working the Australian Office of Financial Management issue along the curve and it would be strange for the rba to only remain confined to the three years so this announcement will give relief to the market. The target would have to be extended if we keep seeing this level of volatility. I think it was a concern they would let long and deals do whatever they could do but the fact they are looking at november 27 to may 28, these are bonds where the market will be happy. We have seen a lot of pressure with the treasury market and Government Bonds around the world have been hit hard in the few weeks and come under pressure so this will bring relief to the local market. Demonstrates they will buy along the curve and help achieve lower yields along the curve. Plenty of action coming from new zealand. A big fiscal package. Withs this helping liquidity conditions . Situation where the Government Bond market is smaller and any program they might embark upon will be difficult in that environment which is why they have talked far inx and swath but so terms of full response the fiscal package is one of the largest we see in relative terms on a global scale and they are taking strict measures. We see them support the forward ket with the quality liquidity but this is what they do on a regular occasion. We are seeing them provide liquidity in the bond market, which is rare. But it is much needed. Will we continue to see fiscal measures and china . Media reports more to come. But with the pboc, it seems to be more targeted. What are we expecting in terms of monetary action . This stage nothing can be ruled out. Even though china might be starting to see less cases and the word world will look to china to see have a recover but right now we cannot rule out further liquidity provisions or rate cuts. Fiscal stimulus measures will be significant from this time forward. We have seen a lot of targeted measures and that will continue but this situation, Central Banks are showing they will do whatever it takes. We are seeing that across the globe and that will continue to unfold in china. From j. P. Itzsimmons morgan, australia. Thank you. The Philippine Central Bank governor is going to join us with the indonesia finance minister and the president of the worlds biggest glove maker. Top glove. This is bloomberg. The ceo spoke with bloomberg about the ability to withstand potential losses posed by coronavirus. Outlinedenario we assumed essentially the world would be down 80 for the rest of the year and what we see with hong kong is there is a big hit authorities health get control of the situation, life returns and when it does, uber returns. In hong kong, people going back to work and then commuters start using the services that they always have. That thef we assume health authorities, cities, governors, president s all over the world are making the hard decisions, the necessary moves to control the virus, eventually, life will come back and when it does, when people start going back to work, they will start using uber. Kong, there isng no reason we will not see that recovery, even in a circumstance where you are 80 the rest of the year, will still have 4 billion of cash and access to 2 billion. We think it is highly unlikely, but we want to make sure that our investors know that we are planning for the worst case and essentially calculating with the worst case is and then operating to make sure we are ready for anything. You sent a memo to your employees saying this is scary but not a full financial meltdown and that you are on solid financial footing and the majority of your costs are variable and you manage your business day by day in a way unlike other companies in the world. That said, coronavirus is new and understood. Based on what you have seen, is ridesharing safe . Is delivery safe . That thek assuming right steps are being taken, absolutely, this is a model and we are seeing in hong kong, taiwan, and china, ridesharing is coming back so if people come back to work, ridesharing is absolutely safe. Haveariable cost nature we makes our business quite resilient. Food,d, we are seeing especially in many countries where restaurants are not shut down and we have delivery in ines, food is holding some cases very strong. Logisticn incredible network taking People Places or bringing things to peoples homes and it will be more important than ever to bring food to peoples homes and we think the food business is a great diversifier. So ridesharing is safe and we think it is especially safe because we have the best in the business. Uber ceo speaking with us. We will have another big interview next week where we speak with china ceo and you can watch it monday. Up next, how the u. S. And china are taking two different paths to combat the impact of the virus. This is bloomberg. [ fastpaced drumming ] [ fastpaced drumming ] this is daybreak asia. Virusis delivering testing kits and medical equipment across europe. Planes have delivered equipment to several countries with alibaba picking up most of the bill after pressure from washington to shun beijing. Follow of the virus is shifting from service driven Industries Like travel and hospitality to manufacturing. Are adding to the pressure on global supplies chains. Coronavirus threatens to disrupt trade talks. You top negotiator tested positive the eu top negotiator tested positive and is in self isolation. News of the test is likely to dash hopes of immediate progress. And astronauts live in isolation ahead of rocket launches but the disruption from the virus is nasa andstressful for russian crewmates who are headed to the iss next month and space mates are concerned about their health. Global news 24 hours a day, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. This is bloomberg. Breaking news out of south korea. Be ok governor speaking to reporters saying they are ready with all measures on the table that south korea fx reserves are at an appropriate level what the situation is more serious than during the Global Financial crisis. Addressing the establish with the fed reserve it is expected to help stabilize effects working onb ok is 60als with others billion. South korea, mexico, singapore, sweden. Sophie policy support from the deteriorating conditions and downgrades and we will look to them this afternoon. Assetsin green korean for kospi gaining ground this thursday but a low evening the rise we saw this morning. Trading above 1261 against the greenback. This morning we learned aussie lenders will defer Small Business loans for six months and aussie dollar gaining rising over 1 after rv offered to buy australian dollars in bonds. The reaction in yields, not much reaction. Points. By 90 basis Philippine Central Bank governor joining us with indonesia finance minister and the worlds biggest glove maker. This is bloomberg. Lets look at how we are trading. We continue to see strength in the dollar dominating currency market. In for a closer look , we are seeing a bit of a recovery in the aussie dollar. Mark. Bring in lets start with dollar yuan. Pressure is adding to mouth with the strength mounts with the strength of the greenback. Weve seen the dollar pick up against the offshore yuan in the last few days. Moving up to last years high, just below 720. Big moves as people anticipate a rate cut. Loan primarya coming out later today. That will come out in about an hour. It is helping weaken the yuan against the dollar which is strong against other currencies. Next month there is an option expiring at 730 between dollar expiry betweene now and the middle of april. If the market pushes higher for the dollar in general we could the 730gh that toward area where things get interesting because with such a big option expiration they might use it as a target to trade towards of things will get spicy in the next couple of weeks, particularly with the offshore yuan. The euro is trading with lowes we have not seen in three years. What does this tell us about Dollar Strength and what is happening with ecb and fiscals stimulus in europe. Dollar strength is widespread. Particularly because of funding issues. Fed is doing its part to try to alleviate crunch by making more dollars available around the world but it is the end of the quarter and it could be even with the extra dollars, the strength of the dollar will persist because people need to get through the next couple weeks and maybe after that we will see some benefits. In the shortterm, people are scrapping dollars with a can and the side effect, euro being such a huge currency, people swapping we euros to get dollars and could look at three year lows around the three level coming into play before this finishes. As far as the aussie is concerned, there has been a lot of activity because of the kiwi started by the rba today. Think rbaht start to could intervene if needed. Maybe 0. 5 is the line in the sand. People will keep their eye on the aussie. Thank you for that, mark in singapore. Breaking news from an australian big lender, nab, bringing vital support saying they will cut ratesboat small ball and putting in reductions for home loans with no changes to home lines that have variable rates. Majority would be on the variable rates the reduction of 60 basis points has an effect. Lets turn to china. Thanks are set to lower the benchmark Interest Rates for loans after beijing eased a Monetary Policy. Selina wang joins us in beijing. What can we expect today . In one hour we expect the rates to come down five basis points but the range goes from no rate cut to 10 basis points. Banks are taking aggressive action and pressure has been put on china to be more aggressive in cutting rates but the pace and size of this will be small and slow so banks can avoid a sharp sweep of their margins which are already under significant pressure to combat the virus. Economic data and china has been bleak. The economy only expected to grow 3. 4 this year. This lowest since 1976. The final year of the cultural revolution. When you compare with the fed in china is doing, a cautious approach and china is concerned about unleashing significant stimulus to get it in the financial crisis because they are concerned about overwriting overrunning the debt loan which is already large. After that glorious day yesterday where china reported no new infections, we are nationallyreported for today and they are all infected. How does this play into the eagerness to get the economy back and functioning . Confidenceg boosting is for the second consecutive local new zero infections for the second day in wuhanprioress province. China is getting more confident about getting the economy up and running. Most of china is considered low risk and called on officials to help Companies Deal with raw material shortages which has been a major challenge for manufacturers since workers have been in quarantine because of travel restrictions. But the economy is coming back 85 ofrunning as much as chinas economy has gone back to work as of last week but the resumption rate is higher for Larger Companies in developed areas. We saw 39 imported cases for today but it does not mean china is leading up on the effort. Big cities are stepping up travel restrictions and rules for International Travelers and Scientists Say they could be another wave of infection in china and president xi jinping says the country needs to stay on high alert. As the virus continues to take the toll on the travel industry, Tom Mackenzie has a take on what it is like arriving at beijing international airport. I am at a Convention Center in beijing. Passengers have flown in from outside china and we are being screened. Tom it is very busy year. Lots of people from all over the world. Many chinese residents who have been abroad. Little information being passed on. The line is very long. Coronavirus separate is hitting retail sales in south korea, especially among tour operators and dutyfree shops. Companies have fallen over 20 this year. Discretionary Research Analyst june lynn. Differentsense of how this outbreak and Health Crisis is from anything south korea has seen in the past. Sector,omestic consumer Consumer Staples are relatively significantbut a acrosst first impact Consumer Discretionary is expected in the face of the pandemic. Outdoorave curbed activities like dining out and going to the movies and shopping. Employees are working from home more than ever before and traffic is halted. By subsector the impact is most detrimental to dutyfree outgoing tourism and domestic cosmetic sector. ,onster retail like online phone shopping, and proximity retail like Convenience Stores are relatively protected from the impact. Traffic,und chinese shuttles from china are near zero. Arefree operators reporting a sales declined by 50 in the first two weeks of march in downtown outlets with korean cosmetic companies in dutyfree reporting a 90 dip. Lets talk about korean cosmetics companies. They were already struggling for the outbreak. Yes. An adverse impact is likely. Dutyfree is the most profitable with op contribution from dutyfree as much as 90 . Sales theylunging are offering margins and face sizable downward pressure ahead. The rate of sales declined is steeper than that of european and japanese. They continue to struggle. Lower Brand Recognition and popularity. The problem with Korean Beauty brands is rather than placing more priority on product innovation, the Marketing Strategy has hinged on and discount andice has stuck them in a vicious cycle of deep discounts and slower stimulus growth. But chinese consumers place high importance on product quality and choosing one brand of the brandso korean cosmetics are not viable and the strategy will leave them continuously marginalized from competition from global peers. They are somewhat overrated at the moment. Quickly to expect the chinese recovery debate, particularly that shoppers are risktakers . How much the shift to Online Ecommerce will be permanent and a shift in Consumer Behavior . I see this as a longerterm impact on the consumer sector. Social distancing in korea might continue for some time and might lead to an acceleration and value shift to Online Retail from offline retail, especially from supermarkets. The impact will likely be prolonged. Thank you so much for joining us. Interesting to get your views. Breaking news. Trump has asked the state to delay the release of jobless claims that data according to a report from the new york times. He has apparently asked state officials to delay the release of jobs data. We are getting more details as they become available. More on the impact of coronavirus on the chinese economy where half of the companies dont have enough cash to survive six months. It underscores how quickly beijing needs to restart their economy. Joining us is daniela way. How bad is the cash flow for the retailers and how quickly do we see the deterioration . Sectors, restaurants, apparel, they are hit the most and rely heavily on physical customers in the stores. Data shows half do not have enough to cover costs for more than six months which means they need to recover soon or if they cannot renegotiate a better term, retailers will run out of cash and are exposed to shut down. It in less worse shape but cannot support themselves for more than six months but better bigger operators arent better position. A chinese chain has hundreds of new cash to support operations for nine months. Others are strong with cash but smaller ones will run out of cash in about two months. All of the companies we are talking about listed are relatively big operators. What does it mean for the rest of the market and small and mediumsized businesses . Seen some already small sized restaurants shutting down right after Chinese New Year. So that happened quicker for them because they cannot pay rent. Many cannot continue the business for more than three months because of week cash flow conditions and the upper it came during Chinese New Year. Retailers usually spend most of the cash to pay for our staff bonuses before Chinese New Year timew they dont have before shutting down. Daniela, thank you. We have the Chinese Markets opening in about half an hour and a longtime rate being announced. Here is sophie with what to watch and markets. We will keep an eye on the opening in manila. Psc saw a record plunge after returning from a two day halt. Symmetrically not enough to lure buyers. Lines at a south korea. Fsc saying banks have agreed to participate in a potentially and want bind ahead of the yuan bond. Coming frompport central bankers and policymakers across the region but it looks like it might not be enough to lift the confidence we need to bring markets further into the black but today we see stocks gaining ground. Kospi rebound after a deep plunge thursday when it fell to the lowest level since 2009. Korean won gaining ground, trading above 1261 against the greenback. Moves from central bank like rba which came through with more bond buying today. A little optimism to end the roller coaster week. Coming up, we are joined by the Philippine Central Bank governor and indonesias financial minister at we will speak with it is not a clock a. M. In beijing, shanghai, and singapore it is 9 00 in beijing, shanghai, and singapore. Europe remains in the grip of the coronavirus. Italy passing china in terms of reported deaths. With tops are hit negotiators from both sides testing positive. Yvonne most of china is