U.S. Growth Worries, Jobs Preview, China's Birth Rate: Eco Day

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

• A gauge of U.S. manufacturing plunged by the most since the 2008 recession a day after Apple cut its revenue outlook, fueling concern that the trade war with China is taking a bigger-than-expected toll on economic growth
• Jerome Powell gave the U.S. economy a thumbs-up review last month. Since then, the Federal Reserve chairman has received several reasons to temper his assessment
• Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan said the U.S. central bank should put interest rates on hold as it waits to see how uncertainties about global growth, weakness in sensitive industries and tighter financial conditions play out
• U.K. consumer confidence fell to the lowest since 2013 last month as escalating Brexit concerns continued to weigh on sentiment
• The pace of U.S. job creation in December was likely immune to the market sell-off and intensifying political uncertainty -- here’s our preview of today’s report
• Weeks before China will release its official birth figures for 2018, a demographer’s estimate of fewer than 15 million new births has sparked discussion on social media, underscoring growth concerns gripping the world’s second-largest economy

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