Dismissing Negative Rates, U.S.-China Ties, Fed ETFs: Eco Day

(Bloomberg) -- Welcome to Friday, Europe. Here’s the latest news and analysis from Bloomberg Economics to take you through to the weekend:

• Global central bankers are echoing Fed chief Jerome Powell’s dismissal of negative interest rates, but investors are still betting they’ll be dragged toward that policy
• Damage from the coronavirus slammed into the European Union’s fastest-growing region in the first quarter, with the bloc’s eastern members headed for the worst recession since the fall of the Iron Curtain
  • In addition to eastern Europe, Germany and the Netherlands also report first-quarter readings today
• The pandemic has revived all the worst-case scenarios about U.S.-China ties, edging them closer to confrontation than at any point since they established relations four decades ago
• The Fed bought $305 million of exchange-traded funds on the first day of its historic intervention in U.S. corporate debt markets. Here are the key features of Fed lending
• The cost of the coronavirus pandemic could reach as much as $8.8 trillion, or almost 10% of global gross domestic product, depending on how long the outbreak continues and the strength of government responses, according to the Asian Development Bank
• China’s industrial output increased in April for the first time since the coronavirus outbreak, adding to early signs of a recovery that economists cautioned would be slow and challenging
• The pandemic is hitting lower-income Americans especially hard, a new Federal Reserve survey showed, with almost 40% of those making less than $40,000 a year losing jobs in March
• Suspended factory production in many parts of the world is inflicting a supply shock on China’s economy, Maeva Cousin writes
• The WTO’s top official is quitting before his term ends, setting up a potentially contentious search for a successor at an organization caught between the U.S. and China
• Bali, whose beaches attract millions of foreign tourists, was seen as fertile ground for coronavirus. Now Indonesian authorities are touting it as a model in tackling the pandemic

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