Welcome to the program, this is countdown. We have numbers coming through from the German Chemicals giant. They toldthrough we have numbers coming through that came through at 1. 9 billion euros, beating the estimate for the First Quarter. Going into these numbers, we could see volume putting pressure on cost and the product mix. We are looking out for anything they say on the ability to cut cost, also there are emerging market dynamics, as expectations for growth have been on the wane, and we are getting various comments coming through. The forecast is based on the average oil price of 40 a barrel, which is interesting. Trading a little above that. The items are slightly below 2015. Their Sales Numbers are coming in at 14. 2 billion, and actually actually a touch below the estimates of 50. 1 billion. They see that in 2016, they see considerable sales decline. That said, they confirmed that outlook. Interesting comments coming through for the future of this year, considerable sales decline they are talking about for 2016, but concerning the outlook and estimates that beat in terms of that number. Lets get to some other breaking news for you this morning. The swiss reassurance giants are reporting numbers this morning. They have named a new ceo for reassurance this morning, net income coming in at 1. 2 billion u. S. Dollars, ahead of the estimate that was 969 million. A bit of a focus going into these numbers. Whether they say anything about the earthquakes they saw in the Second Quarter. Japan,thquakes we saw in the kumamoto earthquake in particular, what they will say the value what they will say about the value of that, and the cost of that to the business, thats something analysts are looking for. We could see the nine european weather the benign weather playing an impact as well. First quarter premiums and fees 7. 94 billion dollars. Lets get to some of our big stories on the macro front, because we need to talk about what is going on in china. A this a yuans story or dollar store . That is one of the questions the market is dealing with this morning. We are watcng out for the yuan as a regulator in china has responded to over nine moves in the dollar by dismantling the yuan, as it was in 2005. But we go back to the relationship between the fixing that we see for the dollar again for chinese currency, and tied the debt in with the bloomberg dollar spot index. We are following the dollars move against major currencies. That is coming from all lot of analysts who suggest the size of the move might be very big. Actually, it does not suggest apollo busy shift it is not does not suggest a policy shift from the pboc. Yesterday, we had that big move in the yen, and we are seeing continuing moves on that gdp number. By 4 10ar index is down of a percent. The yen is at 107. 22. Searched yesterday, having the best start of the year since 1995. On the commodities market, gold heading for its biggest weekly increase since february. Oil is a little bit sluggish, heading for its biggest monthly increase yeartodate, u. S. Output dropping. David joins us from hong kong. David joins us from hong kong. Gfks monthly sentiment gauge fell to minus three from zero back in march. The measure of Economic Outlook dropped from 14 to 12. That is the weakest reading analyst three years. Carl icahn says that he sold out of his position at apple because of concerns over the relationship with china. He told cnbc that he offloaded most of his or manning stake in most in february of his remaining stake in february. The former House Speaker john boehner says he would back donald trump for president in november and not vote for ted cruz. He described ted cruz as lucifer in the flesh, during a talk at stanford university. He also said that he and trump are texting buddies and play golf together. Ted cruz says that John Boehners comments show why he and Holly Fiorina are a better choice for the white house Carly Fiorina are a better choice for the white house. Soccericted fifa official was covered by fifa insurance policy. He says he is entitled to reimbursement of fee stemming from his indictment and exhibition to the united states. Facebook is revealed they spent 12. 5 million over the past three years protecting mark zuckerberg. Lester they played pay more than 4 billion in zuckerberg security making him the most expensive percent to protect on the s p 500 listed companies. Oracle spent 1. 5 million for larry ellis security. The cost of tim cook was over 200,000. Anna lets check out what is happening in the market in asia. Nejra cehic is here with the details. The asiapacific index excluding japan. We are seeing this benchmark decline, heading for a weekly drop though it is still up on the month. Across the region you are seeing some gains in china and losses in asia but the biggest losses indexeen in the hang seng its also because Chinese Energy users have been reporting poor results. Its First Quarterly loss since 2000. China responding to the first overnight tumble in the dollar by strengthening its currency fixing by the most since 2005. That is when the paint was the peg was dismantled. This white line is the dollar ou on and the dollar yuan. Extreme, relative to the small moves in recent years, but analysts say it expresses increased confidence in the dollar. Thats probably why if you look at the onshore and offshore renminbi, pretty much unchanged today. Speaking of the dollar that has dropped. Its coming in weaker than forecasts, showing at the economy expanded to its lowest quarter in two years. We saw the yen jump yesterday after that decision from the bank of japan. We are seeing dollar yen at an 18 month low. Anna lets talk about what is going to be happening in europe later today. Mario draghi will get a clearer view of what will be happening in europe when these figures are released simultaneously. The ecb president can expect to see another quarter of growth, but probably not enough of it to spur an uptick in prices. Lets get to jeff black, for senior european economics correspondent. What are you expecting . On the face of it, we have gdp for the First Quarter. Inflation data for april and unemployment data for march. As you mentioned, there is nothing spectacular expected on any of those three this morning, but we may reach the 2008 peak in gdp nominal terms. Is that a recent a popout the champagne corks . Probably not. Still a very high rate of unemployment. And as you mentioned, still low inflation. Anna how significant is this . It could have real implications for the relationship, couldnt it . Has been a lot of chatter about this subject in the past couple of weeks. In the immediate term, even if they do get downgraded, which is not a given, that doesnt necessarily mean catastrophe for the banks. They have other types of collateral that they can pledge for refinancing from the ecb. In the shortterm, it may make them ineligible for qe. That is not something that should plunge the bond markets into chaos. It isnt a very good sign for the country and the countrys government. That will need to be dealt with over the longer term. Anna thank you for joining us. Lets bring in our guest for the morning, lawrence hathaway. Chief economist at gam. Great to have you on the program. Lets talk about the European Growth story. Do you focus on signs of the output gap falling and unemployment coming down . Do you focus on that it gives you hope or do you look to the ecb to do more . The European Growth story is pretty intact. Different parts of the country complex and different sectors. There is a lot of pent up demand. Growth this year will probably come in at 1. 5 . We could do better. All things considered, i dont have great concerns about eurozone growth in 2016. Anna does that mean the ecb is on hold . We got a piece of the press speaking in this newspaper saying that negativity rates cannot keep going to much lower levels. A lot of people questioning where the lower bound is these days. That message was enforced by the bank of japan decision. Surprising decision not to pursue to be privately honest, i think the ecb probably overdid it so much. Inflation is really only down at these negative levels. Because of Energy Prices which have rebounded. I think that the ecb will because her to its mandate at the end of this year without having to do much about it. Anna how good is the rebound in oil and Energy Prices for the european economy . In general, it is not such a great thing. To some extent they chosen the wrong inflation target. That should give the more confidence that the underlying story of disinflation is not there. Having chosen a particular target, i think they would notice some additional lift in inflation. If for no other reason that it puts it on a more stable path. Anna we are really focusing on the periphery of the eurozone today. We just heard jeff black talking about it. They could lose their last investmentgrade rating. It might not cause panic in the shortterm, but will not go down well in terms of the ecb. And the Bond Buying Program, maybe they cant by portuguese anymore. Are you worried about that . I wouldnt worry about that on the basis of a ratings change alone. Fiscal consolidation, structural adjustment, those are the things that both the market and ecb will be looking at. Bond yields can only jump so much in this environment. Anna Larry Hathaway stays with us, from gam. Later on but we will talk about the chinese story we mentioned at the top of the later on, we will talk about the chinese story that we mentioned at the top of the show. We will have a bunch of data out of europe, starting with french gdp. Then euro Area Unemployment and gdp figures. At 10 00. And at 11 30, a russian rate decision. At 1 30 p. M. , we get a rating of canadas gdp. A couple of countries creeping onto the radar later in the day. Also coming up later is the Bloomberg Brexit debate. This exclusive conversation about the u. K. s membership of the eu. Norman who was the u. K. Chancellor when the union was formed. And another former chancellor who served in margaret thatchers economist. Side, we havein these three guests. That should be a fascinating conversation. Francine lacqua will be hosting that debate. That starts here on bloomberg. , chinas centralbank boosts its yuan fixing by the most in a decade. Anna welcome back to countdown. The hang seng is down by 1. 3 . They are without japan. Those markets are closed for a holiday. In london it is 6 19. 7 19 in madrid. Lets talk telefonicas numbers. The firstquarter numbers coming in at 3. 4 billion. That is exactly in line with the estimate. They are reiterating their goals for 2016 and their goals toward their dividend. I touch below the net line for the First Quarter there. That seems to be the focus for our bloomberg colleagues. Going into these numbers, a reminder that this is a business that has been streamlining and refocusing. Since 2013, it has exited ireland, taken itself out of the czech republic. It is agreed to sell its u. K. Operations and is using those assets to acquire ands acquire in spain and brazil. U. K. Ceo will to be joining us at the top of the program in the next hour. We will talk to him about the broader operations. Isna after central bank responded to a tumble in the dollar. The pboc is responding to the depreciating dollar. It is depreciating the yuan. If investors were to view the tuan as depreciating against h he dollar, they might be shaken and it might spur outflows which could jeopardize the improving economy story. Anna the other big story out of has been the last week the regulatory response. Talk to us about what is going on. There were some reasons for Commodity Prices to lift. There is an improving Housing Market and that has supurred purchases of the commodities used in construction. Some of the bigger players moving in on this, as we saw property prices improve over the last couple months. The market generally getting better. Happen ins wont to china, speculators got in on the game. The government has put in place a series of curbs at various commodity exchanges throughout china to curb that speculation. What we are seeing here, in terms of the drop in volumes thesehe past week may be curbs having an effect on the speculation. Anna thank you for joining us. Greg in our shanghai bureau. Lets get back to gary hathaway. With yourweigh in thoughts. It seems this big refixing story is not causing a panic in markets. This seems to be an other curr c ncy kind of story. There is a chinese angle on this as well. The first is that the Chinese Authority would like to create a twoway market in the yuan. Opportunities to see a bit of yuan appreciation are welcome from that perspective. Figure the economy has improved, so some movement on the currency is allowable at this point. Anna i was looking at this story last week about speculative bubbles in commodities in china, and one of my colleagues was describing this about a game of whack a mole and the bubbles that keep popping up in china. There is little doubt that in the long run, chinas economy remains very in balanced. Not enough activity either. So those problems which are now well known but remain unaddressed are at the top of the list. The strong desire by chinese residents to accumulate foreign assets, thes capital outflows have to be managed in a way that is consistent with stability in the market and chinese economy. Capitalnaging this outflows and reducing the imbalances, do you see any activity by the regulatory forces to take these issues on . They are well understood, but are they going to be interacted upon . On the capital side for the most part it has been cosmetic. Try to curb certain parts of the illicit capital outflows. Very little has been done. Its a big task and they had better get on with it soon. We seem anna we seem to be going higher on the commodity since february how much of this is a dollar story and how much of it is has has to do with real enthusiasm for the commodity . There is a dollar issue, no doubt about that but then would become more differentiated. So for example it reflects some unwound that are being with movements back to norms, relative to Commodity Prices. The big mover is oil and oil represents increasingly the big reductions in capex. The wells will be depleted. Heard for a calling of the bottom of commodities in china. Do you share his view . There is a certain demand. Oil is a more interesting story. Anna we have gdp figures from france. With the economy have recovered from the devastating paris attacks last year. Iaaem anna welcome back, this is countdown. Lets bring things back to europe. Lets talk about the earnings from various french companies. The First Quarter companies coming from the french drugmaker. Net profit 7. 22 billion. A few more details coming through on their attempts to take over medivation in the u. S. They are saying the price is a good premium. They have written a letter and they want to take over this. They are searching for new avenues as growth and generics ease into their sales. A real focus on what they are saying with regard to that potential m a. 0. 4 was the estimate for quarter on quarter gdp. That looks to be a touch ahead of estimates. The actual number theyre coming in at 1. 3 , against 1 . Ahead of the estimates. Of course the French Economy still recovering from the dreadful effect of those attacks that we saw last y ear. I want to try to see if i can find this breaking news on casino. They are an operator of supermarkets in the French Economy, saying that they are selling their big business for evaluation of one billion euros. The casino group saying they are selling that business this morning. No other details coming through. Lets get over to david ingles. Consumer confidence has fallen to the lowest in 2014 at amid concerns about the u. K. Referendum a measure here of Economic Outlook dropped to 14 from 12. That is the weakest reading in almost three years. Says it sold out of its position in apple because of concerns over the companys relationship with china. He told cnbc that he offloaded most of his remitting stake in february. Keep in mind that china shut down apples itunes, ibook, and movie services. Showing that the company is not immune to the reach of beijing regulators. Pay the Legal Defense costs of an operator covered by a certain insurance. Is occurring to a judge who says he is entitled to reimbursement of the costs extending to his extradition to the united states. Facebook has revealed that it spent 12. 5 million over the past three years protecting mark zuckerberg. They paid more than 4 million in zuckerberg 14 million in zuckerbergs security making him the most expensive person to protect. Amazon spent 1. 6 billion protecting jeff bezos. The cost of protecting apples tim cook was a little over 200,000. Day,l news 24 hours a powered by our 20 were hundred journalists in 150 news bureaus around the world 2400 journalists in 150 news bureaus around the world. Anna lets turn to the news around the banking sector. 4. 70 billion against an estimate of 4. 5 2 billion. It seems what analysts what way off on here, the estimate had been for a 1760 17. 6 million danish krone are on the loan and theyve done it right back. Interesting to look at another bank beating estimates though they are sticking to their fullyear outlook. Asian stocks are on track for a weekly decline as investors weigh earnings in the region. Look atirl nejra the index excluding japan it is declining today. Japaneseapan because market are closed today. We have seen losses in chinese markets. With seen some losses there, too. It is still up on the month as is the asiapacific index. It is on that on course for its him first backtoback monthly advance since april 2015. If kept their stimulus unchanged. Ive got the dollar yen here but also the dollar. Weve seen this dropped to an 11 month low. Number came. S. Gdp in weaker than forecast, it shows the economy expanding at a slower pace in the past two years. We saw the yen jump unexpectedly. Look at the weaker dollar driving that dollar yen down to an 18 month low. Seeds sees a slide. With the dollar pain, you are seeing commodities gain.