Record Claims, Fed Balance Sheet Explodes, Broken World: Eco Day

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

• The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits soared to a record 6.65 million last week. Here’s how to read Friday’s U.S. jobs data. Bloomberg Economics see an unemployment rate of 15%, which has been echoed by Cleveland Fed chief Loretta Mester
• The Fed took a step to avoid crowding out some commercial bank lending with its exploding balance sheet. The central bank’s balance sheet expanded to a record $5.81 trillion on Treasury and mortgage-backed security purchases
• In a matter of weeks the Covid-19 virus has turned the world upside down. In the start of a new season of Stephanomics, James Mayger and Zhu Lin report from China
• The coronavirus is plunging the world economy into recession, forcing central banks and governments to respond. But is it enough?
• Foreign official holdings of Treasuries stashed at the Fed fell $109 billion in March, the largest monthly drop on record
• France is preparing fiscal stimulus focusing on investment and financial aid for industrial sectors including the automotive industry
• Germany faces a deeper recession than in the financial crisis, as the coronavirus shuts down large parts of the economy
• Denmark just conducted its biggest currency intervention in over a decade to support the krone, after a wave of market panic
• As the death rate rises, Boris Johnson’s government is being hammered in the U.K. for failing to get the health service ready. Now what had been his saving grace -- a comprehensive economic package -- is coming under strain too
• Fed Watch: A wrap of interviews, comments and emergency actions
• President Donald Trump disputedly brokered a deal that would have Saudi Arabia and Russia ratchet down oil output, sending prices surging. Russia is planning for oil at $20 a barrel and will ramp up borrowing in rubles to make up for a budget shortfall

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