>> we are counting down to asia's major market opens. we have spoken so much this year about this so-called last mile for disinflation and now it seems that is something being acknowledged by fed chair jay powell. haidi: the stickiness of a very positive and robust labor market numbers and broader eco-numbers we are seeing from the u.s.. what jay powell said overnight was not much of a surprise but any more clarity to the willingness of the fed to hold rates as long as they need to be at these levels to combat inflation. so we are seeing of course that big reaction across global bonds in the u.s. dollar passing through to asia fx in particular today. annabelle: absolutely. tracking the japanese yen very closely. very close to the 155 mark. a lot of different analysts in the market, bank of america

among those saying 160 is in the sand you want to be watching out for. we look for jawboning at this type -- time of the day but no lines yet on that. we know japanese government officials are watching these levels closely and we heard from the finance ministers of south korea and japan saying they are seeing -- sharing serious concerns about the weakening of their local currencies. weaker yen is a dynamic we know have been aiding japanese exporters in particular. today we are seeing japanese equities a little higher to the open. a bit of a standout because perhaps most ever -- most other markets could trade in the had given what we had in the u.s. session overnight. today we are seeing japan move higher. we just had march exports data. the numbers from japan a little better than expected. a rise of 7.3 percent on the year better than what economists

had been expecting. let's switch on and look at what is happening in korea so far as we come online. korea is a little bit higher. it is interesting because tech stocks in particular the key focus in the u.s. session overnight. today you are seeing the kosdaq index outpatient because we so far. it is still that focus on the local currency. a little bit of weakness of the dollar. but put in context, we have seen the best five-day run for the greenback going back to 2022. haidi: and the broader direction potentially getting a little concerning for in particular some of these emerging-market currencies in the seeing further sustained weakness. potentially 160 is the level to watch as they share concerns on weakening respective currencies. take a look at the start of the trading session inflate -- in

sydney. watching some of the mining names. with lending given to some critical mineral firms. also hearing from rio tinto talking about building lines being better than buying. watching that across the mining and mineral space. when it comes to australian bonds also seeing potentially the follow-through as we see u.s. yield sitting at 2024 highs and seeing the short and in particular, the two-year crossing 5% for the highest since november. the aussie dollar holding pretty well perhaps on some resilience we see across the commodities complex. oil pretty steady at the moment. middle east tensions and the fed outlook continuing to be in focus. this was the big plan. we continue to see that reverberation across asia and global bond markets. take a listen to what we heard

overnight. >> we will need greater confidence that inflation is moving sustainably towards 2%. the recent data have clearly not given us greater confidence and instead indicate it is likely to take organ expected to achieve that confidence. right now given the strength of the labor market and progress on inflation so far it is appropriate to allow restrictive policy further time to work and let the data and involving data guide us. come what may remain committed to returning inflation over time sustainably to 2%. haidi: homin lee is senior macro strategist at lombard odier. you have come back from using expectations from four rate cuts to three. did the commentary last night meaningfully change the outlook for you? homin: we maintain our base case despite chair powell's comments

last night. certainly the first three month of the year we have seen significant surprises on growth and inflation. that is going to make the fed slightly uncomfortable. with the potential start of the easing cycle in, say, june. so that is certainly going to be a borderline call in our view. but if you think about the economic context, wage growth is not accelerating partially due to changes in the labor market. and the economies outside the u.s. are certainly continuing to see inflation, especially in china we we continue to have very low inflation. certainly the country is still trying to maintain or even gain market share with low prices. in that kind of context we think it is quite likely that we will

see in additional 30 to 60 basis point decline in the core pce measure the next 12 months. i think that is a good enough context for the fed to start cutting. this is something that the fomc projection shows despite the rise in gdp forecast and inflation. they look for those three cuts. our base case remains three cuts. we would not be terribly surprised if they reduced it to two but that is not our base case assumption. haidi: how much further to go for the u.s. dollar rally? i know you are overweight and it comes to the greenback. homin: we have to acknowledge that in the near term the dollar will continue to be the outperformer, especially against other reserve currencies, especially the european currencies. but the economy is doing pretty well. growth performance in the inflation outlook definitely have diverged quite substantially the past few

months. in our view, it is quite likely the european central bank and the bank of england will actually do a little more in terms of rate cuts this year compared to the fed. they will also likely move slightly ahead of the fed in starting the easing cycle. against that backdrop we think it is quite likely that at least in the next few months, the dollar continues to receive a bit of support against the other currencies. and certainly a tricky geopolitical backdrop tends to boost prices, which by the way is rather helpful for the u.s. compared to other developed markets. that will also be another factor driving the currency higher. so in the near term we are positive on the dollar. annabelle: the flipside of that of course is weakness we see in other currencies. the japanese yen is standing out, very close to 155 at this point. is that he still -- is that

still a level you are tracking for intervention? homin: we in the market are basically moving the goal posts around. i have to acknowledge that we don't even have a firm consensus as to what the trigger is for the japanese finance ministry to intervene in the foreign currency market. despite the slightly mixed language from the finance ministry, we think the recent rhetoric from the finance ministry and also the meeting it held with the boj and fsa suggests we are pretty close to an intervention. we would not rule out 155 for dollar-yen to be the trigger for the markets. especially because they are unhappy with currency weakness in the recent move is a bit excessive compared to the underlying fundamentals for the economy. so we think it is possible the finance ministry tries to intervene when dollar-yen

punctures through 155. if it goes further from there, it could start affecting the inflation outlook for japan. this is an angle that boj governor ueda has been highlighting in his recent speeches. so our view is we are pretty close to the intervention level. we do not rule out 155 as the trigger. but maybe the weakness in the currency might be slightly on the excessive side. annabelle: let's speak about inflation hedges because you mentioned commodities earlier. gold is really standing out this year with the run-up we have seen. would you still find it attractive at these levels, and if so, how are you looking to play it, getting exposure to it? homin: in our portfolios we have strategic -- we have benefited from the gold position this year. the gold prices have actually

detached quite a bit from real rate in the u.s., potentially due to hedge fund positioning on the precious metal on top of aggressive buying for some emerging market government including china. that divergence is a bit tricky from our perspective. we are not chasing it at this juncture but we have a position in the portfolio and is -- and if the price corrects a little further from here, then we would suddenly biased to consider adding the metal to the portfolio. but currently we are more neutral. but we do have 2% to 3% exposure in portfolios. annabelle: homin lee, senior macro strategist, thank you very much for your time. still ahead, we discussed the upcoming bitcoin housing with emergent next digital asset insights. here why they think it is

already well priced in. bitcoin trading back towards this year's highs. first, the latest on the german chancellor's china visit as beijing pushes back against pressure to rein in his country's powerhouse industries. details next. this is bloomberg. ♪ en you own a small business every second counts. 120 seconds to add the finishing touches. 900 seconds to arrange the displays. if you're short on time for marketing constant contact's powerful tools can help. you can automate email and sms messages so customers get the right message at the right time.

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annabelle: the international has inched up expectations for global economic growth of this year. it now sees output expanding 3.2% worldwide. the fund's latest world economic report cites strength in the u.s. and some emerging markets while warning the outlook remains cautious amid persistent inflation and geopolitical risks. plus it is urging china to find ways to offset headwinds from its property crisis. >> we have an economy that has potentially still relatively weak domestic demand, but is growing. they would be an increased reliance on the export sector. that is something that in the context of very tight trade tensions could become located. s-- could be complicated.

so it would be in the interest of the chinese economy to develop ways of finding the vested -- domestic development. annabelle: xi jinping tilde olaf scholz a surge in china's cleantech exports has helped cool inflation. his comments suggest beijing may not be swayed by european and u.s. pressure to rein in chinese manufacturing capacity. jenni marsh is with us. we just heard the pressure that we are seeing in china's domestic economy, its reliance on exports. there had been a sense that perhaps beijing would be a bit more amenable, or willing to absorb this measures from -- this message from the u.s. or germany. but that does not appear to be the case. jenni: absolutely. president xi jinping came out yesterday very strongly defending china's domestic policy. one, cheap chinese exports are

easing inflationary pressures, which have been a problem for the u.s. and europe. and also china's advancement in these sectors is a good thing for the country's efforts to the carbonized. he showed no signs of relenting. the chinese economy is still very weak. we saw that in quarterly data released yesterday. consumers still just spending on daily essentials and not spending on eating out and other things that would help the economy. also the trade policies of the u.s. have pushed china back to this need to manufacture. president biden wants to limit china's access to high-tech chips, imposing tariffs on other parts of the u.s. economy. he has doubled down on xi jinping's need to make sure the domestic -- able to eat equipped china with what it needs.

there is very little space for him to pivot even if he wanted to. haidi: was there much space in talking about the geopolitical situation when it comes to china's relationship with russia and what potentially beijing can do in terms of pushing for what it calls the restoration of peace? jenni: i think china's position on this has been clear all along. they said they will engage with peace talks only if both sides are at the table essentially. olaf scholz is trying to really push xi to use his influence with putin, who is reported to be coming to beijing in may, to bring some sort of peaceful resolution to this. but there is only so much he can or is willing to do. having said that, we did see in china's march export data a pullback from russia. exports slumped for the first time since march 2022. so that kind of shows there is

maybe some kind of moderation in the economic engagement. one thing for china has always been they don't want to cross red lines that would lead to sanctions. so they are playing a very careful game. when yellen came to china earlier this month, she warned that if chinese banks are soon to be helping russia's war machine, they could face sanctions. that is certainly something beijing will be careful to avoid. haidi: jenni marsh there. china's position in the south pacific could hinge on elections today. polls opened and results are being closely monitored. our government reporter ben westcott joins us now for more. what are we expecting and why are there so many international eyes on this election? benn: polls opened this morning but we are not expecting a

result today. votes have to be counted from across all the different islands, more than 90. lawmakers need to meet in the capital where they will hammer out who exactly will be the prime minister. the current prime minister has moved his country a lot closer to the chinese government. it was under him that the solomon islands switched ignition from taiwan to china, diplomatic recognition. then in 2022 he famously announced that the solomon islands signed a security pact with china, which threw up alarm bells and lead to a massive diplomatic outreach. if he wins another term in office, you will be expecting the solomon islands to move closer to china once again in forms of business, security. however, if he is denied a second term -- actually, it

would be his fifth term as prime minister, but second consecutive term. but his successor but almost certainly want to reevaluate those ties. one potential candidate even suggested relations with taiwan might resume under his government. so, a lot at stake here. annabelle: certainly a lot at stake. get through some of the other international outcomes we can expect and also whether this was a sort of relationship, there was a perception in australia at that perhaps had been ignored from australian and others in this region. is there a window for other western democratic powers to reestablish some kind of tie, do you think? ben: it all depends on who is the prime minister later this month after the outcome of the election is known. he has been a very clever leader

of the solomon islands, using the strategic position, its new geopolitical importance to get outcomes for it. he was invited to the white house twice, something previous leaders of the solomon islands cannot say happened for them. he has been courted by china, by australia, which has led to millions of dollars in support for his government and his country. now, if he was to leave power, certainly there would be a big push by australia and the u.s. to embrace the solomon islands and pull it back towards those historic links it has that go back to world war ii. however, his successor would be courted very heavily by china. they are effectively china's closest ally any pacific. they would not want to lose that no matter who the prime minister is. annabelle: and as you said, we will be watching for the outcome of that vote count.

that was ben westcott. let's turn to the conflict in the middle east. the u.s. will be imposing new sanctions on iran, targeting its missile and drone program following the weekend attack on israel. white house national security advisor jake sullivan says these sanctions could be unveiled in the coming days, in the u.s. is coordinating with g-7 nations and allies on what it calls a comprehensive response. new zealand's prime minister has added his voice to the international calls for restraint following the attack from iran on israel. he told us his government continues to call for negotiations and an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in gaza. >> i think we join with the rest of the international community. we are concerned. we do not want to see escalation of conflict. it is the last thing the region needs. we want people showing restraint and we need the parties to get around the negotiating table and

commence the middle east peace process. that is a long-standing position of hours and we have been calling consistently for an immediate cease-fire. >> the you condemn iran for the attack? do you condemn israel? >> we condemn iran for the attack. it was unprecedented in terms of what we seen in the region. what is important now is all parties shall constraints so the region can get back into a process that is most important. haslinda: what are you most concerned about if there is an escalation? the impact on supply chains as well as the global economy? >> our primary thought is with the pain and suffering of the people in the region. it has gone through a tremendous amount. we think about the suffering of people in palestine but also israel as well. we really want to see stability in the region because it is about people's livelihoods in their lives.

so we want to make sure that we see peace breakout in the region. haslinda: do you see a need for new zealand to realign itself with traditional partners like the western world, let the u.s.? >> look, new zealand is a country, like many other countries, has an independent foreign policy that acts within its own interests. our interests are in the indo pacific region to see stability, but also prosperity and peace. we know these heightened tensions, there is more geopolitical competition in our part of the world now. but it is important for us that we build and deepen relationships with like-minded countries that stand up for the values we believe in. but also that we can work with all countries across the region. annabelle: that was the new zealand prime minister there. haidi: you can watch us live and catch up on past interviews at

tv . you can also dive into any of the securities on the bloomberg functions we talk about and become part of the conversation. you can send us instant messages during our shows. this is for bloomberg subscribers only. check it out at tv . this is bloomberg. ♪

>> we should, bearing major surprises, decide the first rate cut on our next meeting on june 6. i would then argue furthermore in favor of a policy of pragmatic. there will have to be further cuts this year and next. haidi: ecb councilmember on the

central bank's rate out cut. take a look at how european futures are opening. some reaction across the asian session when it comes to repricing over fed chair jay powell's comments about rates being held. we saw european stocks sinking for the worst day since july. we are seeing potentially a recovery in sentiment. futures looking mildly positive. the biggest one-day decline for the europe 600 index since july with mining and

annabelle: taking a look at some

lines crossing the terminal. singapore is pushing out its nonoil exports for the month of march. you can see they have fallen quite substantially past what economists had been expecting. a drop of 20.7% on the year. that was far greater than what economists had been expecting for a contraction of 7.4% instead. as well on the month we have seen a drop of 8.4%, roughly double what economists had been predicting. electronics, we are seeing weakness there as well, down 9.4% year on year. not great export numbers coming through from singapore. the singapore dollar trading fairly steady at this point in time. haidi: we are seeing that brought downside across emerging markets trading at the moment. australia just keeping its head above water. seeing some leadership from

utilities, some oil and energy-related names as we continue to see the demand-side being supported by middle east tensions per it the nikkei 225 up about .3% for the divergence even as we see potentially dollar-yen approaching 155, 160 did that divergence in terms of the beneficiary effect on japanese stocks seems to be weakening. we can see that widen further should the yen keep weakening amid ongoing middle east tensions and perhaps also the ongoing strength in the u.s. dollar. we have seen a decline in the yuan playing into some auto bets with the kospi seeing a bit of a bounce back and saw the biggest decline in about five months. maybe a little bit of equilibrium. kiwi stocks looking muted. we got quite a bit of volatility in the kiwi dollar the inflation number of inflation slowing for

domestic side persists. we could see further ongoing downside when it comes to the kiwi dollar. of course it is earnings season particularly when it comes to be focus on banks in the u.s. bank of america shares falling the most in a year. it also did joined the four other big u.s. lenders in beating expectations for trading revenue. let's bring in matt ingram for more. across the board seemed pretty healthy. what jumped out to you? matt: three things. trading was extremely strong. that was a mixed bag. bank of america was strong in equities. goldman is strong and fixed income. either biggest -- fixed income and equities or just fixed income. that is on the back of really strong client volumes. we have now well and truly moved

past the pandemic. questions about what the fed is going to do this year is starting to raise questions and that is keeping a good amount of activity in fixed income trading. we also had commentary from bank of america and j.p. morgan saying climate -- client and investment activity in equity is really strong. for me, investment banking is the biggest surprise. on this side of the pond it has been extremely week. but again, we are seeing really good deal flow spread surprisingly most of all probably in mergers and acquisitions, that is really healthy. the third one, and i think this is a good sign that banks have broadened their business model's post-pandemic, that is the wealth management inflows. we have seen big wealth management inflows across the board. it is also really good for bank return. those are the three standouts. bank of america, that was a

standout. j.p. morgan had some provisions last week. those of the standouts. annabelle: we are seeing banks benefit from the fed's hiking cycle. do you see that trend staying intact or are we going to see it weakening instead? matt: look, our analyst in the u.s. has made a good call on this. the net interest income is still close to record levels. certainly the margins in the outlook are tapering. what i said yesterday comes back to what the fed does as to how much impact that has. certainly we are expecting the peak in net interest income to be in the rearview mirror and the outlook from the banks, it will probably not be as good as it has been. but are we going to see the margin collapses we have seen in australia for banks like hsbc potentially? probably not. the margin outlook in the u.s.

is much stronger than here. annabelle: has diversification helped? matt: absolutely. something that came out of the financial crisis was you cannot run a business through the cycle with trading and investment banking. they are very lumpy in terms of revenues, very capital-intensive, and shareholders don't want them. the banks moved more towards lending and wealth management which i mentioned before. those are far more consistent through the cycle. we saw with goldman yesterday on that return on equity. that is healthy for the benner -- that diversification is coming to the for now with good revenues across the board. they will be held up by wealth and lending if those trade revenues drop off. annabelle: thank you so much for your time. that was matt ingram. we are going to have an exclusive interview with jamie dimon in the second season

premiere of the circuit with emily chang. you can see it here on bloomberg television at 6:00 p.m. wednesday new york time, 6:00 a.m. thursday if you're watching from hong kong. some breaking news relating to the trading we are seeing today over the session. we have had the asian benchmark, the msci asia-pacific index erasing its year-to-date gain. we are pretty muted so far in the session but certainly enough in a pullback over the last few days to bring us back down to where we were really to start the year. it is really that repricing we are seeing in terms of the outlook for the fed. it has been a really big readjustment around citations, given earlier this year we had seven cuts priced in. now around that two to three po int. those higher treasury yields. but the be gim ceo actually sees

bonds making a comeback the next few years. he told us more about the factors behind the migration for mighty mac it funds to money assets. >> certainly i am at a higher level of interest rates relative to money market funds as we begin to see rates peak and then decline. duration begins to look a little more attractive. but there are two other things going on which are at least as important. one is the big pension funds with higher rates are better funded. and so they are actually using this as a chance to de-risk and that means for them they are moving money into fixed income. and the second is we have be continued demographic trends going on not just in this country but around the world. and retirees need income. we are in the process now of this huge shift from accumulation products to de-cumulation and those need fixed income. if you take the short-term shift and add to them two structural

shifts we think over the next three years we are seeing bonds are back. >> i want to give your team a shout out because you are a modest man. my colleagues, absolutely phenomenal. pre-pandemic, really defining the regime of yesteryear. can you talk about how different this regime will be? >> we think it will be different. you are right, they were on the lower for longer for a while. and recently our call has been we are going to be higher. if you go back six months we were very early to the, hey, we are looking at two cuts for 2024. when the market was pricing in seven. we held with that view in the markets have come back to us at this point. we pride ourselves on taking considered non-consensus views that are long-term in nature rather than simply trading views. haidi: david hunt there speaking

with jonathan ferro. take a look at how we are seeing bonds reacting. we saw big moves across global bonds led by treasuries as sort of not new messaging when it comes to what we heard from fed chair jay powell but the reaffirmation of the fact interest rates in the u.s. could stay as long as they need to be, in his words. and we are seeing that catch up for australia and new zealand bonds. we are seeing the three year bond yield and austria climbing to the highest since december and reaction to the slowing of kiwi inflation to 4%, the weakest since mid 2021. there were still steep domestic price pressures weighing on markets. but certainly the yield curve in australia in particular shifting higher in the morning session. we have seen some yields in the u.s. sitting at the highest for the year, the two-year putting

the 5% level in play in particular. coming up next, here why emergentx expects a long-term rally in crypto ahead of the bitcoin housing event. this is bloomberg. ♪

annabelle: taking a look at

crypto prices, bitcoin very close to its year-to-date high and record high actually. it is all this market move we have been tracking over the course of the year led by the optimism and the inflows around spot bitcoin etf's, but also ahead of the halving event. a lot of different views on what halving will mean but here is a look at what halving actually means and how it could affect prices in turn. the olympics, sporting world cup, lead year, and bitcoin halving. they each happen every four years. in the crypto world, halving has usually been a boon for prices. bitcoin halving uses fewer new tokens are issued because bitcoin miners, who validate block train transactions, receive 50% less of a reward for doing so. at bitcoins launch in 2019,

miners received 50 new coins per block. that will be cut to 3.125 bitcoin now instead. in the past we have seen prices spike following the event. for example in 2012, when the token jumped 8000% in the following 12 months. this time the prospects are further gains is unclear. some analysts say the halving could trigger upside of at least 80%. others argue the event is already caked in, particularly since bitcoin has already risen to fresh records this year, which brings to mind if familiar phrase. past performance does not guarantee future results. let's bring in esme pau, ceo at advisory platform emergentx digital asset insights. i am curious for your views on this bitcoin halving. how much do you think has already been baked in at this port -- point, or can we expect to see a significant rally? esme: i would say overall i have

a bullish view in terms of future performance of bitcoin. overall there will be two key changes. i want to draw in the bitcoin etf that has been approved. the second would be around how to position investors. we always see with limited supply, that will bring in blue chips to perform at rally first. then we will see that into the meme coins and different subsectors. similar to equities. annabelle: so you think this next rally will be led more by institutional investors coming into the market? esme: yes. there have been a few cases of crying wolf, whether to deepen or are wh organizations. for this round in 2024 i am very bullish for two reasons. the first would be around regulatory clarity.

we have seen many broker-dealers offering infrastructure. the second thing would be around infrastructure including on-ramp, offramp. the second thing is i want to emphasize if i were to bring in spot etf's so we have income reductions, cable channel more aum into regulated exchanges and trading venues. annabelle: in-kind is a quirk, it is not being followed in the u.s. but it will be followed here in hong kong. what sort of inflows are you expecting? esme: i think we can start with the base case that what we see in hong kong internal spot etf's is only going to be a fraction of what we see in the u.s. i want to caveat that with what the market thinks we should focus on. on that front we should be looking at the chinese volumes coming to hong kong. what i would like to highlight is in terms of the market participants we do see that the

participants will be china emc, harvest. these are all major platforms and china. i think that will define what the participants will be when it comes to inflows. annabelle: these crypto etf's in hong kong, what would be the ways you would expect to see chinese money coming into them? because they would not be eligible for inclusion in the stock connect scheme at this point in time. esme: i think overall it will be a matter of time but near term it will be more of the offshore funds in hong kong that are relative allocated. i think overall it is more of a barbell strategy. first of all we are going to see more on-ramp offramp around the whole ecosystem. and then afterwards it is going to funnel into organizations. in singapore there are a lot of bad examples. i think overall this will be

full of confidence for the ecosystem. haidi: you have talked about evolving into a full ecosystem instead of just an alternative investment. what are the implications as this continues to happen? esme: i would say the overall ecosystem is that in previous cycles given there is very high retail participation and cryptocurrencies. we see a rather cyclical nature in price-performance. tying back to the market structure changes, we are going to see with more institution adoption slowly with regulations it is inevitable the ratio will come down. at the same time we will see more price support as we see in terms of bitcoin inflows into the bitcoin etf's in the u.s. so we are going to see a similar their image when it comes to hong kong spot etf's. the second thing is i would say hong kong is basically setting

the stage and a precedent for many other jurisdictions to follow. haidi: are we going to see a washout when it comes to bitcoin miners? even though we are seeing confidence being struck ahead of the halving, it does appear investors are concerned about a pretty sharp loss of revenue. esme: again i would say referencing to previous site kills -- cycles it is inevitable. over time there will be more innovation around that. i understand the minders have been close to other models. the second thing is bitcoin by itself is evolving into a technology in its own right and also brc 20 as opposed to being just storing value. we could see more of these miners setting themselves up to be conglomerates with multiple revenue streams. annabelle: you speak about the

evolution of hong kong's digital asset ecosystem. when you speak of some of the major etf issuers whose names are not on the list of approved applicants or people who have the approval in principle, one of the key reasons we hear giving people on the sidelines is the lack of a developed infrastructure in hong kong. what needs to happen next? is it a banking piece that is really missing? esme: you are right to point out about the banking piece at the same time having been in financial institutions and their journey of adoption and digital assets i would say overall there needs to be a lot of infrastructure changes. it always starts with the top. of course you have to have a buying and at the same time you have to have the government set a very strong framework and then you are going to see the banks start coming in. if you look at just globally,

digital assets are a phenomenon. it is weaker and given the green light to a lot of disciplines. in the u.s. we are going to see more clarity post-election. also for asia, hong kong and japan, we are seeing more of these regulators put their vote of confidence in. annabelle: esme pau, ceo at emergentx insights. tune into bloomberg radio to hear more from the days big newsmakers and get in-depth analysis from the daybreak team could broadcasting live from our studio in hong kong. you can listen via the app or on bloombergradio.com. plenty more ahead. stay with us. ♪ hey you, with theess. a... you've got all kinds of bright ideas, that your customers need to know about. constant contact makes it easy. with everything from managing your social posts, and events, to email and sms marketing.

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♪ relax into a caribbean state of mind. visit sandals.com or call 1-800 sandals. annabelle: latest corporate stories we are tracking, hsbc is said to have started a new round of job cuts at its asia investment bank. sources say the lender laid off around a dozen bankers on tuesday comes as dealmaking across asia had slowed, especially in hong kong and china other banks including ubs and goldman sachs made job cuts in asia over the past 18 months. country garden is said to be pushing back some offshore bond payments despite already getting a round of extensions last year.

sources say it's untrue unit plans to extend coupon payments for bonds maturing in 2026. last month country garden missed a $13 million coupon payment triggering a 30 day trading day grace period. lvmh reported slower sales growth as wealthy consumers reined in spending. organic revenue at the luxury group's fashion unit rose 2% in the first quarter which is the slowest pace of growth since the pandemic began in 2020. sales in asia outside japan fell 6%, although chinese demand was higher. rio tinto has reported a sharp drop in first-quarter iron ore shipments as chinese demand remains soft. the world's second biggest miner said it exported 78 million tons of steel making material, marking a 5% decline from the previous year. output of other materials

including copper and aluminum were more robust. looking at some aussie miners we are tracking so far, it is a story of broad weakness coming through for these names. rio tinto, that drop in iron ore shipments the first quarter of 5%. that stock down .5% at this point broadly when you look at how asian equities or aussie equities are faring so far it is a slight bit of upside. you see that materials and energy stocks are the big laggards in the session so far. it is that question around rate cuts as well playing into it. we did hear jay powell reiterating the need for patients overnight. caution on the outlook for rate cuts as well given that the last mile of disinflation is proving to be very sticky to bring down. haidi: as long as needed was the wording that we had from jay powell. take a look at how u.s. futures

are coming into the session. seeing a little bit of muted upside, about .1%. this is seen potentially as a shift in his message following a third straight month in which we saw the key measuring of inflation beating analyst forecasts. it also paints a picture of a fed that sees very little urgency to cut rates. any reductions could come relatively late in the year if at all. there are still some analysts seeing two to three rate cuts. coming up in the next hour, here why they believe chinese equity markets can trend higher even with its blemished economy. our markets coverage continues. the is next. ♪

>> more recent data shows solid growth in the labor market and a lack of further progress so far and returning to a 2% inflation goal.