5 things to start your day

[Bloomberg Markets]( [FOLLOW US [Facebook Share]]([Twitter Share]( [SUBSCRIBE [Subscribe]](  Forward Guidance  Markets are on the defensive, Amazon is under pressure, and Elon Musk is making joke about bankruptcy. Trade tensions The prospect of a trade war intensified after China urged [trade talks]( with the U.S. while saying that previously announced retaliatory measures on American imports took effect on Monday. The U.S. didn’t respond to China’s March 26 request for consultation on Washington’s steel and aluminum duties, according to China’s Commerce Ministry. Beyond the actions on metals, the Trump administration is preparing a proposal of other Chinese products to be targeted with tariffs and has until April 6 to release the list. In other trade-war news, President Donald Trump [threatened]( to pull out of the North American Free Trade Agreement if Mexico doesn’t stop people and drugs from flowing into the U.S. from Central America. Markets on the back foot Investors are entering the second quarter [on the defensive]( after the worst three months for global stocks in more than two years. Overnight, the MSCI Asia Pacific Index was unchanged, while Japan’s Topix index closed 0.4 percent lower. Most European markets remained closed for the Easter holiday. As of 5:50 a.m. Eastern Time, S&P 500 futures pointed to a drop at the open, while the 10-year Treasury yield was at 2.764 percent and gold was higher. With the start of the new month, investors will have a chance to focus on a bunch of incoming economic data – including U.S. payrolls on Friday, which are expected to show unemployment fall to its lowest level since 2000. Amazon in the crosshairs Amazon.com Inc. looks set to come under more pressure when U.S. stocks resume trading on Monday after Trump launched another attack on the tech giant over the weekend. In a pair of Twitter messages on Saturday, Trump said Amazon “must pay real costs (and taxes) now!” The president also claimed, citing reports he didn’t specify, that the U.S. Postal Service “will lose $1.50 on average for each package it delivers for Amazon.” Futures contracts for the Nasdaq 100 fell. Elsewhere in retail, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. [stepped up]( its efforts to expand in China’s fast-growing market for local delivery food with the purchase of startup Ele.me. Bankruptcy jape Elon Musk sought to lighten the mood after one of the worst weeks for Tesla Inc. in its 15-year history with a series of [April Fool’s Day tweets]( about bankruptcy. Despite his army of fans, Musk risks coming off as tone deaf to mounting investor concerns after a Moody’s Investor Service downgrade last week. In a more serious bid to disprove doubters, the company is racing to [deliver]( its mission-critical Model 3 sedan. Oil field discovery Bahrain said it [discovered]( its biggest oil field since the island kingdom started producing crude in 1932. The smallest energy producer in the Persian Gulf said it found the offshore Khaleej Al Bahrain Basin during the expansion of another field.  The discovery comes just days after Bahrain was said to have [reined in plans for more bond sales]( after the sale of $1bn in Islamic debt caused a spike in spreads on its existing debt. Crude oil capped a third straight quarterly gain last week and extended the rally into April, with a barrel of WTI for March delivery trading at $65.16. Here's what you should read today - Equities are [all that matters]( to bond traders in jobs week. - Goldman says watch how [Japanese stocks]( start the month. - Emerging markets get a [thumbs up]( after a tough quarter. - [Apple is ready]( for the tech backlash. - SocGen warns of late-cycle [volatility bursts]( in months ahead. - Behind the scenes of the [Saudi Crown Prince’s U.S. trip](. - Odd Lots: Economist explains why [losing weight]( is kind of like fighting inflation. - [K-Pop stars]( turn diplomatic envoys.  And finally, here’s what Joe’s interested in this morning The first week of the month is always exciting, if for no other reason than the fact that there's a smorgasbord of economic data to look forward to. Of course the big one this week will be the jobs report on Friday, and you can be sure that there will be a ton of attention paid to average hourly earnings, which are expected to grow 2.7 percent year over year (which would be an uptick from 2.6 percent last month). But all that's kind of of obvious in that we've been talking about that wage number forever. So in addition to that I'm keen to see what -- if anything -- this week's data tells us about U.S. investment spending, since that seems to be so key to the growth story right now. Today's Markit U.S. Manufacturing, Construction Spending, and ISM Manufacturing data will be worth watching on this front, to see if there are signs of capacity-increasing spending decisions made by corporations. Then on Wednesday we get the final February reading of Capital Goods Orders, which have slowed a tad in recent months, but are coming in at a high level. And of course, if the first week's data calendar isn't enough to get you enthusiastic about the week ahead, it's also the start of a new quarter. So to whatever extent the recent market volatility was exacerbated by end-of-quarter investor positioning, now is the time to start things fresh.   Before it's here, it's on the Bloomberg Terminal Find out more about how the Terminal delivers information and analysis that financial professionals can't find anywhere else. [Learn more.](   You received this message because you are subscribed to the Bloomberg Markets newsletter.   [Unsubscribe]( | [Bloomberg.com]( | [Contact Us]( Bloomberg L.P. 731 Lexington, New York, NY, 10022