Coronavirus case fails to improve overnight. The u. K. Prime minister is still conscious but has received oxygen treatment dominic raab is deputized. Equities heading for their first backtoback games in two weeks. Futures pointing higher in the u. S. While oil rises ahead of thursdays opecplus meeting. Coronavirusthe maybe reaching a plateau in europe as cases slow across the continent. Italy could start ending its. Ockdown on a gradual basis just under an hour away from the start of cash trading in europe. A quick look at futures here. A gain in futures at the cash trade closed higher yesterday. Gains in u. S. Futures with the 0. 4 the dow s p up 0. 4 . Anna everybody still focused on what is going on with coronavirus globally. Cases are being handled and death rates. We need to get to the first word news update. Prime minister Boris Johnson is in intensive care. His Coronavirus Infection worsened. He had been selfisolating for 10 days, struggling to shake off covid19. Dominic raab is temporarily taking over. Scientists predicting the peak of the u. K. Outbreak will be in the next seven to 10 days. The governments business will continue. Have a Brilliant Team at st. Thomas hospital. The focus of government sure wes to be making can defeat coronavirus through this challenge. The United States is using restrictions on exports of masks and protective equipment. The white house facing backlash from allies against the world. Says 3mt donald trump can export masks to canada and latin america. Is reporting no new coronavirus deaths. Cases are slowing across much of europe and in new york there are indications the number of new deaths is hitting a plateau. The European Union is facing its biggest challenge since its foundation. That is the warning of Angela Merkel, stressing germanys readiness to revive the economy. The chancellor pushed back against claims it lacks solidarity with its southern neighbors. Global news, 24 hours a day, on air and at quicktake by bloomberg, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. This is bloomberg. Lets get to the markets now. Laura, we talk a little bit about Boris Johnson. He is still in intensive care on oxygen. The pound seems to be doing well at just about 1. 23. Yesterday we had these reports Boris Johnson was sent to the icu. We did to the pound under pressure, but it has retraced all of those gains. Futures are lagging european peers. Unclear how they will take this news during the trading day. There are critical decisions yet to be made, so this does heighten the uncertainty when the you can get to see peak infection rate. The u. K. Has yet to see peak infection rates. Anna questions are being asked about the u. K. s handling of this. In terms of what is happening in these markets, we are going to get the eu finance minister meeting later on. Plenty of talk about Angela Merkel talking about the extent of the crisis. We talk about the euro zone being forced forged through crises and never letting a good crisis go to waste. What is the market going to be looking for . Just in terms of how the eu leaders will agree to some kind of joint backstop for financing a big stimulus effort. It is most likely to be through line,ilout, the credit about 2 of gdp. It could be repaying the European Guarantee Fund whereas joint bond issuance tends to be more resistant. We are still seeing such a contentious issue. Like you alluded to, investors are going to try to see solidarity today. What they want to do is put a lid on borrowing costs. There is ao ensure prevention of this uneven distribution of the potential financial burden because this could inflame sentiment further down the road. This shows we are seeing solidarity today. I want to break in with headlines from plus 500. Revenue and profitability are , more revenue and profitability ahead of current views. A margin of 73 . Full First Quarter revenue of 315 point 6 million. Just some notes on the Trading Company plus 500. On the mliv blog, you are asking the question, what should investors focus on in earnings . What are you hearing . To be important is the companys assessment of the damage and how they are bracing for the future. Earnings feetad expectations. They are seeing shortterm profit back on the back of containment measures. Drew earnings season i would expect its going to be focused on the longerterm impact and how companies can actually whether a prolonged duration of the pandemic. Equity multiples will shrink from here rather than expand. The real economy bite has yet to come through. Crucially i think it is how investors were how companies are seeing the future, is going to be a key indicator. Given the fact that q1 was the worst quarter for global stocks since 2008. The earnings will be quite severe in the First Quarter. Gettingat clues are a in terms of the time horizon investors are looking at . I have seen estimates of peak infections in the u. K. And the u. S. In the middle of this month. Sayingnote overnight after the virus, a twoyear recovery. What timescale are we talking about . What we are seeing is hapedtations of a vs recovery are out the window. It is unclear just how long this could actually persist. They are taking optimism from reports we are seeing lockdowns lifted as containment measures are flattening the curve. It is important to know land listings planned will be slow. Austria are planning some lifting of restrictions by the end of may, but that would be only a handful of essential stores. There would not be for the reopening of the economy until later in the summer. They were ahead of the curve in terms of actually closing their economy. Other countries like the u. K. And the u. S. Were behind the curve. That does point to lockdowns persisting. Looking beyond the recovery, its going to be of further ways away. We are not looking at q2, q3 this stage. For joining us from the markets live team. Still to come, we will focus on the latest in the u. K. Is in intensive care for coronavirus. His condition worsened yesterday evening. We will review the latest. Anna we are 45 minutes or so until the start of European Equity session. European futures could see more upside at the start of the trading day. Gains coming through in the evening session. Lets get the story does the asian session. At home as many are globally. Lets get an update on the european political story. Boris johnson is in intensive care as his Coronavirus Infection worsened yesterday after he was hospitalized over the weekend. Britain is now entering a critical period. Scientists in the u. K. Pretty inakthe outbreak will pe the next seen to ten days. All the plans for making sure we can defeat coronavirus will be taken forward. Raab, the was dominic foreign secretary. Joining us to discuss is our Senior Executive editor. Good to speak to you today. Aboutons have been asked the prime Ministers Health for many days. They came to a pinch point i suppose when we heard from dominic raab he had not spoken to the Prime Minister since saturday despite the statement from government that the Prime Minister was still in charge, and yet the person standing in for him had not spoken to him in 48 hours. This started to raise questions about how well was the Prime Minister. All of this adding to the sense of unease at crisis of the top government. Britain is really on edge this morning waiting for news. It was the standard 5 00 press conference we have had every day on the response. People started scratching their heads. Why hasnt he been in touch for two days . A couple hours later the nation was informed he had been moved into intensive care. Disbelief at the communications to come out of downing street. A lot of criticism of the governments handling being too slow. Now everyone waiting for news. We know from the past history of this virus by this point that once people have had 10 days or so, they had into hospital, things are getting very serious. Lots of headlines in the newspaper about the seriousness of the situation and also lack of clarity. Who is running the government . He did not go so far as to say dominic raab is the Prime Minister. He said he would deputize where necessary. What does that mean . The Prime Minister is conscious. Is he making decisions . Morning, no further update on the prime Ministers Health. We hope of course, Boris Johnson remains healthy and recovers, but in the u. S. We have a clear succession plan. What does the plan look like in the u. K. I find it very hard to hear on the line. Matt im sorry, lets try and kill the v. O. Im sorry. We have some audio problems there. The video we are playing has a lot of very loud sound over it which makes it impossible to hold onto a discussion. We will talk to David Merritt later in the program. We will get more on whats going on with Boris Johnson. Next, market moving events in the day ahead. This is bloomberg. Matt welcome back now to Bloomberg Markets. This is the european open. We are 40 minutes away from the cash equity open across europe and in the u. K. President trump is continuing to back a drug normally used to treat malaria, calling it a possible game changer in the fight against the coronavirus. There is limited evidence of the effectiveness. Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health vice dean spoke toart seen bloomberg. I thought, here we go again. This has been more than a century for the fda trying to make the case that just because one patient may do well or a couple patients does not mean the treatment works. The most important thing is to do a good study to really understand whether it works, how much it works, and what population, how it point of the disease that is how you get Real Progress to understand treatment. This has been going on around cancer treatments, other treatments, for years. Now we are seeing again. I support what dr. Fauci says, which is, you really dont know until you do a study that allows you to figure out whether giving the drug causes a patient to get better. Respond to the demarcation the president of the United States makes between academics and doctors . The us the divide between theory and practice of academic medicine, of the application of the field where he urgently wants to take the risk on this cocktail. I think it is ok when there are no other treatments, for doctors to try things. In the end, doctors want more than just treatments to try. They want treatments that work. Patients deserve evidence, not just hope. Tempermportant to expectations with reality and to be doing studies and talking about the need for real data. I think its ok for doctors to be trying to start trying that. There are very few tools right now. That does not detract from the urgent need, and we should understand things we are trying may work, they may not work, we are really throwing things of the problem now. Until we have evidence that tells us what actually works. Where do you see the greatest progress being made right now in terms of therapy and vaccine to help us deal with this . My sense from talking to people is that it is probably not in the medications the president has been promoting. Out thate studies bear those have some value, but i think the Real Progress right now is people are more excited about has to do with immunotherapies, whether you can ,se for example the antibodies people who have recovered from the coronavirus have made, take them out of their blood and give them to other people very early or even before they are exposed. There are studies like that Johns Hopkins and other institutions. There is promising data to come out of china, but a lot more evidence is needed. I am hopeful because so many people have recovered from the coronavirus that they can be donors and other people can benefit. That would be a relatively shortterm preventative therapy treatment that could make a big difference. It could also point the way to other products that might have a meaningful impact in the relatively shortterm. What is your sense of the accuracy of the models we are spending so much time paying attention to in terms of predicting when we are going to see the peak in the number of cases . There is a misunderstanding about the concept of the. Of the peak. There will be 80. The only reason it is peaking his we have shut everything down. Some people think on the other side we can open everything back up the reason it is speaking peaking is we shut everything down. That weto use the time have that we are buying to get more protective equipment to Health Care Workers and to build a stronger Public Health response. We have another set of tools besides just shutting everything down. That was joshua sharf stein, Johns HopkinsBloomberg School of Public Health vice the, supported by bloomberg. As we help you navigate the news cycle, here is a look at the key events to watch out for today. 5 10 a. M. U. K. Time, we will get traffic figures from the Scandinavian Airlines as the pandemic continues to hit the aviation industry. At 11 00 a. M. , spain holds its briefingonavirus. Eurozone finance ministers will kick off a Virtual Meeting. We will be on the lookout for any updates on stimulus plans. At 5 00 p. M. We will hear from u. K. Officials at their Daily Press Conference after Boris Johnson was taken into intensive care with his coronavirus case. Back, morewe come about that eu finance ministers meeting. From going to take place remote locations. Plenty of resistance within the eu. We will get you everything we need to know later on. This is bloomberg. Nowadays you do more from home than ever before. The xfinity my account app puts you in control with Digital Tools to give you the help you need when you need it. Get fast and easy answers with personalized help 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Change your wifi password to a phrase thats easy to remember. Even troubleshoot your services on your own. Were working to make things a little easier for everyone. Download the xfinity my account app today. A systemic crisis calls for a systemic solution. Europewide crisis and it requires a europewide solution. We need to build fiscal response, not only leaving it to member states. Is now under discussion among member states. Germany will work with the European Union. We understand it is necessary to fight together. Thinking spend time about the possibility of introducing euro bonds, corona bonds. If anyone would agree, it would never be in place at the right time to fight the crisis. I consider it apathetic debate. Ofcorona bonds are one form creating in europe. Our assessment is it could be useful to create such instruments to support the economy. We certainly think this is a good idea. Theod idea to demonstrate fiscal response from the european side. There are other possibilities to issue bonds over certain institutions. Esm. Xample, if you call that corona bonds, why not . Wewe have all the firepower needed we will use it. Of thehose were some different takes on corona bonds, the european stability mechanism, and the need for europewide fiscal response. Frances proposal for a fund to boost the economy after the crisis could be 3 of the blocks Gross Domestic Product according to the finance minister bruno le maire. Euro area finance ministers are comeo hold a conference to up with new proposals. Reinhardt, what is your view on this subject . Do you think the esm and other measures can handle this, or do you think europe needs to reach for mutual life that now mutualized debt now . There is enough money to deal with the Current Crisis based on up. Current institution set if it is just about money, the new eu sponsored Unemployment Insurance fund, we can handle that. The question we probably have beyond this is a different interpretation of solitary. I think countries like spain or italy, the way they define solidarity is they do not want europe to take the next crucial step and go for full mutual is ion. N mutualizat countries like austria, finland, germany, might not be ready. That is a indication the scope for disappointment on the side of italy and spain, is a political ramifications that follows from this. With that in mind, you say as a neutral observer, what is your take on the german stance . Angela merkel same that saying the eu faces its biggest challenge. The answer can only be stronger europe. Is there any sense she is laying the foundation for some level of debt sharing, or is that a step too far . This might still be a step too far. What germany and the netherlands might be agreeing to his Financial Support from the european stability mechanism with essentially no conditions attached. Something they would never have done in the past. Regard, without effective conditionality, germany and the netherlands and finland, austria, will probably move. They will define it as a major concession. The problem is this might not be seen as enough from the point of view of others. Matt it seems to me the current plan is stop all business, no more revenue or incomes for especially Small Businesses and for average consumers, then load them up with debt so that when we get on the other side of thi