China Treasuries, Fed Rate Cut, Global Trade Talks Drag: Eco Day

(Bloomberg) -- Welcome to Tuesday, Asia. Here’s the latest news and analysis from Bloomberg Economics to help get your day started:

• China’s holdings of Treasury securities rose for a third month amid signs its trade war with the U.S. could be coming to a conclusion. China’s economy likely stabilized in the first quarter, but a closer look will be needed to tell whether that’s temporary or the start of a rebound. The central bank has shifted tone on the economy and started re-emphasizing it will control excessive money supply
• The U.S. may need to cut interest rates if inflation falls, said Chicago Fed President Charles Evans, a sentiment broadly echoed by former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers. Deutsche Bank reckons the U.S. expansion will extend well past the 2020 election. And it turns out most Americans didn’t even notice President Trump’s tax cut
• Diplomatic efforts to end a global trade war are expanding to multiple fronts as the EU and Japan begin talks soon with the Trump administration just as the U.S. looks to seal a deal with China
• Francois Villeroy de Galhau, the ECB Governing Council member who pressed hardest for a review of negative interest-rate policy, acknowledged that the benefits still outweigh the drawbacks
• Policy makers should give the same priority to reducing inequality as they do to boosting growth, the World Bank’s chief economist says
• Japan needs a vision for eventually unwinding its massive asset purchases if it eases policy further, a former BOJ official says
• India cut its trade deficit with China by the most in over a decade, according to people familiar with the data, as it boosted exports amid a Beijing-Washington trade war
• Paris’s Notre Dame cathedral took more than 200 years to build and just a few hours to burn. Here’s a look at the treasures that could be lost forever in the inferno

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