Washington ramps up pressure on beijing. Goldman sachs raises billions for a new fund to focus on private equity. The move comes amid rising interest in secondary investing. Haidi lets look at what the day has in store at the sydney open. We are expected a muted start to trading in asia after downward pressure coming from the u. S. Session overnight. Restrictions continue to take place to curb the the Coronavirus Spread we are starting to see accelerate again, even as we get further good news on the vaccine front. Trading marginal. The u. S. Dollar held to the lowest we have seen since april 2018. We are also seeing the aussie dollar on the back foot. Nikkei futures look like they will see a muted start to trading. Shery lets get started with good news on the vaccine front. Pfizer says final Data Analysis shows its covid shot is 95 effective. The ceo of its german partner told bloomberg about plans for mass production. Our goal is to supply up to 50 million doses by 2020 which andd go to states in europe the United States. For 2021, our goal is to produce at least 1. 3 billion doses. Shery our Bloomberg Health care reporter joins us. Two vaccines on the cusp, more on the way. How accessible will this be for the world . Can consumers start comparing which one is better . Do we have choices . We are going to start having choices. Pfizers vaccine test looks good. Any day we could beginning additional results from astrazeneca and others. Have data they will in early 2021. Great news there will be more than one option. There will be different supply chains and manufacturers. That offers a lot of hope for getting enough vaccine doses to vaccinate large numbers of the population. You are exactly right, getting this immunization to some emerging markets will be incredibly difficult. A lot of western countries have already large numbers of doses, so there will be delays. Hopefully these Public Health officials are working on parsing it out in a way that makes logical sense to get the virus under control. Haidi pfizer was part of operation warp speed. Do we know who gets credit for the Vaccine Development . We have seen question marks whether the poor will ever get access. The fight over who gets credit for these vaccines are already hot and heavy. Every government is putting their hand up, saying we participated in this. Pfizer did not take money from operation warp speed to actually do the research and development, although the u. S. Government did put in a large order for doses of the vaccine, rounding up a number of those for american citizens. The same happened in europe. Much of the funding came from the biontech partnership through the german government. Truly the credit goes to this Publicprivate Partnership where the governments of the world ass ured the industry they would have their back, they would give them money and buy the doses so they could start manufacturing, which is why we have millions of doses available now. That will allow vaccination doses to trickle down to these emerging markets as well. But as you point out, it will take time. Shery a few minutes ago we had the latest numbers out of john hopkins university. U. S. Covid19 deaths topping 250,000. It is no surprise we are seeing more measures to restrict the virus. New york schools closing down again. Absolutely. It is a terrifying thing. A quarter of a Million Deaths from something that did not exist a year ago. This is the Third Largest cause of death in the United States. The u. S. Is trailing europe, which is starting to see their death rates start to skyrocket, which is something that follows the increasing rates of cases. 150,000 people a day in the United States. The idea of new york city s whenng down its school you are not going to have a larger shot down raises questions shutdown raises questions. If there are people doing outdoor gatherings, many people not embracing social distancing, having people gathering in small parties and whatnot, it is those measures that have to be reinforced. We are going to see how it turns out with shutting down the schools. Studies show children get infected at much lower rates and are much less likely to fall sick. The risk is to the teachers and administrators and others in those schools, not the childrem themselves children themselves and whoever they are bringing the virus home to everyday. We dont know if it is safer for kids to be in school and away from the higher risk areas of the house. With time we will know. Haidi we are getting breaking news, a joint statement coming from the u. S. State department between the u. S. , u. K. , and australia on the topic of hong kong, urging china to stop undermining the rights of the people of hong kong. This statement saying the three nations calling on china to stop the undermining of rights of hong kong people to elect their representatives, saying for the sake of hong kongs stability and prosperity, it is essential fine and hong kong authorities china and hong kong authorities respect the channels for citizens to express their opinions. Three lawmakers in connection with a protest in the legislative chamber. It comes after the alleged opposition resigned en masse last week. We have seen pressures building after the National Security law was pushed through the end of june, despite concerns it would be used to suppress dissent in hong kong. Surge in virus cases is names from the Bloomberg NewEconomy Forum. We will be hearing from bill gates, from the imf managing director, the head of the World Health Organization as well as the ceo of moderna. This is bloomberg. Haidi we are taking a look at a couple movers in Different Directions in the sydney session. Otherwise a pretty muted session so far. Bluescope shares are jumping in a session high after increasing their outlook for guidance. Bluescope one of the positive movers, saying they are expecting demand in the Australian Market in particular segments. The Crown Resorts down 2. 8 . They were down by as much as we have seen over the past month. Crown delayed its sydney casino opening amid the highprofile Money Laundering probe. 1. 5 billion dollars sydney casino given ongoing concerns going into the presenting of evidence in that and corey. Lets get you the first word headlines. China says its confidence about the state of economy despite a looming global recession. The mainland economy will likely grow despite difficulties and will probably surpass 15 trillion dollars. He said china shifted from a stage of rapid growth to one of high quality develop it. The European Union saying substantial work is needed ahead. One official says there remains important issues to be resolved ahead of any potential agreement. Sources say the u. K. And canada are close to a new trade deal replacing the one britain had through the eu. We are told an announcement could come within days. Tension is rising among Oil Producers with the United Arab Emirates floating the idea of leaving opecplus. Officials have not given any public details over the plans, but tensions have been rising between abu dhabi and saudi arabia for weeks after the uae raised production levels above its opec quota. Those are your first word headlines this hour. Tory asian stocks look set follow the u. S. Lower. Asian equities under pressure from covid19. Joining us now is melda mergen, deputy global head of equities at columbia investments. Great to have you with us. Just until recently this week, we had seen vaccine optimism leading to a rally in cyclicals. This chart showing how em value stocks beat Growth Stocks by the most on record yesterday. Is this trend again going to be threatened by a resurgence of the virus . Melda shortterm, the answer is yes. We are expecting tough times in coming months because of the surge in cases. In terms of the longerterm recovery, vaccine was an Important News milestone. We passed that. We think the cyclical recovery is going to come back, but there will be some bumps on the road. Shery whether it is because of covid19 or the u. S. China tensions on trade last year, we have seen this diversifying of supply chains by businesses trying to build redundancies. How do you play that in the market . Melda it started with the trade dynamics changing globally. Pandemic accelerated. There were a lot of discussions whether onshore or offshore. We believe it will be offshore, just more diversified by countries. We are looking at different opportunities in different parts of the region. We believe it will stay offshore, so we recommend our finds focusing on that development. We play that in our portfolios, expanding our exposure to distant areas. Haidi the protections seemed to have fizzled out over the last few days. . S there conviction behind that melda the Growth Stocks are outperforming for a reason. They were resilient for a reason when the market was going down. Places in thel portfolios to be investing in Growth Stocks. That said, we will see cyclical recoveries from here because we ,ave seen a big recession globally impacted the economies. Bumps onl be some the road. I dont think people need to rush into investing in those names yet. But this is a good time to start looking into those companies that are mostly affected by the pandemic. Those Companies Already had a Good Business model, but the revenues impacted in the shortterm. Those companies are the places we are looking at. Investors can take advantage of this volatility and enter those names at a good price. Haidi where do you see conviction when it comes to emerging markets . The u. S. Dollar going lower will be a beneficiary when it comes to em assets and currencies. Where do you see the opportunity . Melda we see opportunities in asia. There are existing secular trends there in terms of ecommerce. There the penetration rates are relatively low. There are a lot of opportunities in asia specifically. Economies were resilient because they were more domestically oriented. We find a lot of ideas in the local domestic market. Brazil is an opportunity. Thee are some changes in regulatory environment. The rates are coming down. It is a lot of different places, but those are areas i would call out as conviction for now. Us. I melda mergen with next, china continues efforts to undermine regional influence. Inping set g jinping this is bloomberg. Haidi the Trump Administration ramps up pressure on beijing. Tom mackenzie is following this. We had this joint statement from the u. K. , u. S. , and australia itsng china to change actions when it comes to hong kong. What have we heard from president xi so far . Tom that statement coming after this speech from president the leaders of comes, russia, and it after a trump and mr. Risch and lining up further actions trumpt beijing administration lining up further actions against beijing. It is within the context that xi speech,gave this pushing back against what he called unilateral sanctions and long armed jurisdiction, a nod at the Trump Administration. He said the brics nations were facing momentous changes. He said they were all in the same boat. It is not clear many in india and china would agree with that sentiment. For many, president xis call for multilateralism will ring hollow, particularly when you look at beijings actions against australia in terms of trade. President xi is set to address the apec summit later this morning. That after the signing of the regional comprehensive economic partnership, that asset trade deal between nations which many analysts say shows the strength of china and its role in trying to pull nations together in a broad trade pact. It is potentially a challenge for the incoming biden administration. We will see what president xi says in that summit. Some familiar themes you would expect. Shery did any of that geopolitical risk make a dent on demand for chinas zero yield bond selling . Tom all those concerned about the potential decoupling between china and the u. S. Being put to one side because the hunt for yields is taking a priority. We saw pretty Strong Demand for that eurobond. Chinaing to sources, . 75 billion 4. 75 billion u. S. Dollars. China hoping to use this to set a benchmark for its lenders and build out the yield curve. In terms of sovereign bonds, it is a pressure point. You see a continued selloff in chinas sovereign bonds. You are looking at potentially seven straight months now. You are seeing yields well above 3. 3 . Concerns about whether the pboc step back with support. Concerns about defaults. And concerns about a cash crunch as banks have to repay into bank lending. Pressure on chinas bond market. Tom mackenzie in beijing. South africas president has reiterated his reason to reigniting raining and the country raining in this countrys skyrocketing debt pile. The president spoke to bloomberg in johannesburg. Our investments have been going down in relation to our gdp. One of the reasons why i, right at the beginning of my tenure as president , focused on attracting investment was to try to correct this. We are in the process of doing so. We set ourself a goal of attracting 100 billion dollars into our economy in five years. We are already more than halfway there. Bymitments are being made companies. Many of these commitments are being actualized. Trusting investment is in an effort to increase investment visavis our gdp. I think we can turn things around quite significantly, but sector,means the public which is government throughout its various entities, needs to demonstrate confidence in our economy. Publicsector, investment tapered down, and we now want to boost that. Through the infrastructure play and refocusing our state owned enterprises, we are going to be able to do so. In turn we will also see the private sector beginning to invest more. How confident are you south africa can avoid a sovereign debt crisis . This is a risk the finance minister highlighted. We have taken it upon ourselves to draw a line in the debt sand and decided we are now going to arrest the debt level, bring them down quite significantly over the next four years. We want to see our debt being brought down. We are spending too much money somebt servicing costs, in cases more than what we pay for education. That cannot be. Weve got to bring down our debt levels, make them much more manageable. Variety ofrking on a schemes, be it stopping thosetion, with all measures we are putting in place, i am certain we will be able to bring our debt levels down and avoid what you could call a debt crisis. Nation weling the have too much debt. A country that needs to grow needs to reduce its debt. We want to be able to generate more debt. It is through more investments you get growth. Thanu get growth, you are able to collect more revenue through taxes and be able to reduce debt. 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Download the free app today. Shery this is bloomberg daybreak asia. Reported virus deaths in the u. S. Have now topped a quarter of a million. Rising infections are forcing new york city to close schools and return to remote teaching. U. S. Regulators have given the goahead for the first covid at home testing kit as infections surge. Result system costs around 50 and users will need a doctors prescription. The new york subway is becoming a hoe prior file victim a highprofile victim of covid19. The loss of almost 10,000 jobs in train and bus lines if the federal government does not offer more aid. Tolls in the and metropolitan area will rise. Peak time Commuter Rail services will be every halfhour or even hourly. Hsbc is offering hong kong staff greater flexibility to work remotely, allowing employees to work up to four days a week from home. A memo seen by bloomberg says the bank wants to become more flexible in how it operates. Its cfo said last month that more Remote Working could reduce office costs and some banks say staff will ultimately work from home about half the time even after the pandemic. Lawmakers in thailand rejected demands by prodemocracy groups for curbs on the power of the monarchy, voting instead for a committee to realign constitutional passages that dont involve the king. Protesters say they will step up rallies in support of their demand, which include royal changes and a resignation of the Prime Minister who has so far refused to go. Those are your first word headlines. Haidi we are seeing asian stocks slipping after a small session in the u. S. Tos go to some p Sophie Kamaruddin in hong kong. Below the yen holding 104 after a fiveday gain. Ngx 50 has swung lower. A vaccined inked agreement, securing supplies for a vaccine and as well as effective pandemic management. Those will become key drivers in 2021 and markets set the timeline for vaccine distribution. A more than ample global money supply that is on the sidelines. One saying that leaves lots of room for r