Way better numbers anticipated coming through. This is in yuan terms. March exports thought to be down 12. 8 . Official number suggesting they were down just 3. 5 . Imports year on year from 7 . 2. 4 . Ht increase of that is what we have at the moment coming through with the latest data from china and the department. Lets have a look at what else is going on. Hong kong schools have been closed since late january. Little hope classes will be resuming soon amid this coronavirus. They wonder there could be an exodus of students. Issue with thehe hong kong education secretary, kevin yeung. Kevin good morning. Did theseow long schools stay closed, secretary . Kevin it is difficult to tell. Health of our students is always our first priority. Are stillage we monitoring closely the coronavirus,f the whether the situation in hong kong and other places in the world, before we could finally make a decision when our schools could resume. What needs to change for you to actually change your policy . What are the things you are looking for on the ground before you relax this . Kevin we always say we need to consider a few factors before we could consider school resumption. Coronavirus, we rely a lot on professional health advisors. To consider the preparedness of the school, whether the schools are wellprepared for the resumption of classes. We need to ensure there will be ample supply of academic prevention materials or supplies in the market. Whether there are sufficient or hand rubbers or Something Like that, it is safe for students to resume classes. We put in great efforts in promoting learning without suspending learning. Through a lot of different means. Elearning soing students are still able to learn a lot. It is not the same as learning at schools. Some parents are feeling to support to how their kids at home learning. We should look at it from a different angle. Learning, not just limited to schools these days. There are a lot of things students could learn in the community, say housework, lots of reading, all sorts of things. The epidemic is a very good lesson for students, learning how to take care of their hygiene conditions at home during such a disease is spreading around. Evenll think students, though they are not going to school during this period, they can still manage to learn a lot. What would be the facts on the ground for you to change . What kind of indicators are you looking for for schools to reopen . Segment . That, which would it be kindergarten first and primary . How would you stage it . We still need to discuss with the principals. How well about their students. We need to talk to them about class resumption. Weally when we start school, likelyith seniors first, senior and secondary school first. That stage could exercise more selfdiscipline. When wely at the time say personal hygiene is very important. We hope we could gradually from the seniors go down to the juniors, secondary and then primary schools and kindergarten. Also, a lot of parents [indiscernible] is there any move by the government perhaps to refund some of the money . Is there any thought process on that . We have ahong kong very comprehensive Public School system. We have government schools. Students do not need to pay any fees. There are some private schools including international schools, especially for the international community. If they come to work in hong kong, they have choices of curriculum, which may suit better the children. Schools, they are privately run. Parents have to pay the tuition fee. Situationthis kind of at this stage, there are no feel ifand parents may there are no classes, why do i have to pay for such a high fever or tuition for the schools. We know they are actually helping the parents in helping the kids to learn at home, may be through elearning. We have a package that we support different agencies. One of the mergers we put in is employers to front the employees. It also applies to private schools. Have the private schools, including international schools, to ease the burden. And from the Education Bureau we have a package of giving around 18,000 for each international school. Schools could ease their financial burden and hopefully parents asme to the well. We are prepared to adjust their canif they apply and we handle it quickly. Rishaad i wanted to get your view. There is a lot of talk of things to improve on the ground here in hong kong and schools are likely to open that some holidays could be canceled. Do you have any view on that . Anin we have made announcement earlier that we think because of all the elearning and learning during this time, we do not see a need this year. Ory every school is different and every student is different. We leave the professional judgment to the school to decide whether they think their students need lesson time. After the end of the school year. Some of the schools in hong kong have tutorial lessons, during the summer break. Weeks. For one or two maybe just a halfday or Something Like that. So we leave the judgment to the school. I want to also ask you about them wharton exams held later on this year. In a month from now, are they going to be canceled . The diploma for secondary education in hong kong, at maintain thetill start date as the 24th of april. It is about 10 days from now. Based on the latest situation, we have confidence we could still hold the 24th of april as the start date because we have to make special arrangements at the centers to ensure there is separation between the candidates while taking the examination. Usually they are relatively low risk activities because at the examination usually we do not have a chance to have lots of communication with other candidates. If we require them to have a mask on during examination, they order a temperature check, we think it would be safe, if the situation maintained as they did today. Are you worried with the lack of normal classroom education that many of these kids will perform badly, o levels are the gtes or other levels . The local the dse, examination, most of the school has reported to us they have completed the teaching before the chinese new year. Basically the whole curriculum has been covered. I think most of them have been canceled. They have their way of assessing the performance of the students based on their performance at schools and also their own mechanisms. This is a very special year for everyone in hong kong as well as the rest of the world. And for students who are competing there secondary education it is also a very special year for them. Be one way or another affected. Think you so much for joining us, kevin. The big news this hour, the latest numbers on trade in china. Yuan data coming out better than anticipated for march. Exports were expected to decline by 12. 8 , according to economists we surveyed. We saw a decline of 3. 5 . We were looking at a 7 contraction in the number of imports. They actually got an expansion of 2. 4 . Moment, perhaps telling us things perhaps are getting back to normal. I have to say these were yuan numbers, too. Lets have a look at what is going on with first word news in new york. The coronavirus heading for another grim milestone. Almost 2 Million People around the world confirmed as having been infected. The total has doubled in size since april 3. The World Health Organization repeating calls for lockdown vigilance as governments plan for lifting restrictions. With political pressure rising the who says now is not the time. The International Olympic committee delaying the tokyo games because of the coronavirus will cost hundreds of millions of dollars. Overall bill could be as much as 6 billion. Before the postponement organizers put the bill as more than 12 billion. A government audit doubled that amount. Indonesian president joko widodo, a 28 billion dollars fiscal stimulus for the coronavirus and would widen the budget deficit necessary. He says of the pandemic last more than six months they can raise the deficit target beyond the current goal of 5 of gdp. Indonesia announced three virus stimulus packages so far. 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. Lets tell you what we have coming up in bloomberg markets. , theng at the outlook investment outlook. Kerry craig will join us at the bottom of the hour. That is on the way. This is bloomberg. Selina welcome back. Chinas exports fell. Imports rose. Concerns over Global Demand and place in remaining in many of chinas key trading places. Tom mackenzie joins us from beijing. Take us through the details. Those numbers providing some lift in the markets. Dire then analyst expected. This is year on year. They contracted 3. 5 . Not nearly as badly as the forecast. Economist saw a drop of almost 13 . Contractionsus a not nearly as bad as forecasted. 2. 4 actually increased year on year compared to estimates of a 7 drop, goods like beef, pork and soybeans. Time, evenome at a though chinas production is getting back to precoronavirus levels, that Global Demand weak. E still looking very we had a few lines out from Customs Officials speaking at a press conference in the past few minutes that china faces big difficulties when it comes to trade, there is shrinking International Demand on that will impact china. Official saying we should not underestimate the difficulties for trade this year. Tom, how much of chinas Production Capacity has been restored . 95 ink i heard a figure of being bandied around. That seems quite at odds with what is happening globally. Tom that is right. Bloomberg economics have been crunching the numbers on this for a number of weeks. For the forecast last week that latest data said china is back to work 95 last week. There is some concern amongst economists getting the last 5 will be difficult because there are still challenges and issues around getting staffing in factories. But it is currently at 95 . Production and investment have been ramped up. That seems to have provided modest support. A modest increase in imports. There was an expectation to see a contraction. It is about that external picture. That is what chinese officials were talking about, many trading partners and economic lockdown. Early cases suggested that demand will be weak and continue to be weak. We have seen manufacturing in the u. S. And japan slump as well. Best caseying, scenario, Global Trading 2021 will fall 13 . Many expect a further fall in Global Demand. Much,d thank you very Tom Mackenzie joining us from beijing. Lots coming up on bloomberg. Looking at those trade numbers in dollar terms. Just had Tom Mackenzie showing way betterl by 3. 5 , than the fall of 12. 8 that had been projected. This is bloomberg. Haslinda lets focus on emerging markets. Investors often told to focus on em currencies first strong fundamentals when the world emerges from crisis. But that may not be the case this time. From singapore. You seem to be suggesting buying em fx based on fundamentals does not always work. Why is that . Simon that is right. Reasons why iuple think it does not work. First of all, there is a general that currencies that get hit hardest in the initial phase of the crisis often do not have great fundamental so they also tend to be victims of panic selling and that exaggerates relative fundamentals. More specifically though it will depend on the cause of the rebound though if we look at the in 2008, thesis currencies we saw rebounding earliest probably benefited from the china stimulus package. That brought about a recovery in the process in commodities, palm oil, gold. Oil hit bottom in late december and that was very important in this instance. Rishaad why do you think buying highquality currencies does not work when the market starts to rebound . Let me step back and explore that crisis. Indonesia, brazil and south africa, these were the first to drop. They dropped months before the markets. Even though some of their external fundamentals were reserves for example, covered to imports. These probably rebounded relatively early because they had been victims of panic selling and secondly because they benefited from the china rebound. Simon haslinda simon joining us from singapore. Lets look at where we are in terms of markets. Asian markets strongly in the from those vetted and expected trade data out of china in yuan. Uphave taiwan, indonesia all by more than 1. 5 right now. The philippines also up. This is bloomberg. It is 10 29 a. M. In hong kong and china. New york. In chinas exports spell less than month, although the coronavirus is hurting Global Demand and the countrys produce and ship goods. A yeard 3. 5 from earlier, while imports rose more than 2 . Despite china returning to normal, Many Companies are still not running at full capacity. Meanwhile, the number of u. S. State governors say theyll form regional alliances to coordinate the reopening of schools and businesses. That sets up the potential clash who says hent trump alone has that authority. Californias gavin newsom says and other governors will be guided by facts and science but hes pressingsays ahead with reopening plans. Ive been having many discussions with my team and top experts. And were very close to completing a plan to open our hopefully even ahead of schedule. On plunged to the lowest record. A gauge of sentiments from minus to minus 21. Ry National Australia bank says growth andrt job capital expenditure. The australian treasury seize sees the jobless rate soaring to june. Twice as high as february. Construction ticked up last that theing signs economy is starting to recover. The mainlands top 25 excavator manufacturers sold about 50 thousand pieces of equipment in than inlmost 12 more the same month last year and 90 of the machines were bought by companies. And the coronavirus has further weak end Global Demand for arabia. N saudi they have cut most of its oil pricing. Prices whileuced raising prices in the u. S. Opec has agreed to slash output in the hope of draining the glut. And the last two democrats chasing the white house have put them, withbehind Bernie Sanders endorsing his rival, joe biden. The endorsement comes less than after sanders abandoned his campaign. He and biden are creating a task shared policyon ideas. Global news, 24 hours a day, on quicktake by bloomberg, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. Taking a look at the markets right now, asian markets firmly that lossey, after that we saw yesterday. Its getting a bost pretty much chinasboost from export numbers, coming in better than expected. Contracting just 3. 5 . Chinas production gradually being restored, but the spread to have virus led to stringent measures. T here, up about 1. 6 . All 18 sectors are up. Still, if you take a look at how its done so far since january, down about 18 below its 52week high that we saw back in january. The bok set to extend 4 billion using the currency swap line with the fed. Taking a look at the other koci, malaysian said they will continue to pay dividends, even world areanks in the scrapping them. Cited the negative impact of the virus on the economy. Sees aa, by the way, it contraction in growth for the year. The currency market, yen at the60 and some strength in Chinese Renminbi as well. At 7. 04. Lets talk markets. Is kerry craig, Global Market strategist at jpmorgan. To have some kind of optimism in the market. But is this pretty much driven headlines than anything else . Good morning. Think whats driving it is the idea that as bad as things have been, the markets are now looking and saying, well, theres a flattening of curves in terms of viral world. Around the we now have a deal on oil. Actually see, in this quite horrendous than normal. Faster however, we would disagree with that view. Markets can have rallies, and the recovery usually takes much longer than in, given is pricing how deep the recession is likely to be in the western world, over coming quarters. I think this is a bit of a reprieve in terms of some both sentiment. But as we see the Economic Data and the earnings from companies thinkto come through, i potential, in investors minds. Ofhave we seen the end volatility . Were seeing vix from about 42 previously. Are we done with those 5 gains from both sides that we saw in march . Well, i think the Central Bank Action and the government to try and boost the economy and provide a fiscal way ins has gone a long bridging that volatility. Particularly the Central Banks have this one job of just aiding money cheap to government financing and that will bring those volatility numbers down. Trading, 40 ont the vix, thats well above the average of just under 20 on average over the long run. The vix is still elevated. I think volatility will remain, maybe just not as high as it has been. Tell me about the dollar a more, kerry. Essentially printing all this money and this bond buying program, including bonds, we should be weakness here. Whats your take . The u. S. Dollar hasnt behaved as we would have to. Cted it looking at the dollar, before we moved into this period around pandemic, that we thought the u. S. Dollar was too strong. Just had to look at the deficits to say it should come down. Period ofou had that dollar funding, the liquidity of the market that really kept the consistently higher. So add to that the safe haven that came with it. In the wrong moved direction, given that we had all the Central Bank Action that equate to qey lowering the dollar. Bit of whattle youve seen. We look at the aussie dollar and the u. S. Dollar coming off. Those some some of liquidity concerns. Also i think the dollar to remain largely range bound over the course of this any bighout seeing shift downwards or any big moves stills, although to us it seems overvalued. Mostrry, which is the vulnerable currency in this part of the world, in your view . Currency movements, as i mentioned, arent behaving as normal. In terms of the market, it will be those where we see the biggest balance, current account deficits. Were not seeing the policy support. I think thats something to consider when we look at emerging markets and see opportunities from valuations that are much more attractive. We need to balan