08/01/2016 BBC Business Live

This is business life. After a tumultuous week, Chinese shares jump

and close high but concern now growing about a looming currency

war. That is our top story on Friday eighth January.

After the week we have had since August it has been a terrible time

the markets, Chinese shares ending slightly higher but currency

concerns cast a shadow over the week ahead. Copyright laws in China in

question is a firm sees its merchandise confiscated in Las Vegas

after claims of eight and infringement. The latest from the

markets where European shares have edged higher after that rebound in

Chinese stocks. And we will be getting the inside track on the US

jobs market, it is that time of the month, one of the key barometers of

the health of the world biggest economy will be released in a few

hours but will it support the American central back? It raised

rates last month, will the numbers support that? We will discuss that.

And the European Space Agency has announced funds to put humans on the

moon again. Would you be interested in signing up? Would it be money

well spent? Please reply using the hashtag.

Hello and welcome to the programme. So goes January, so goes the year

and that is a worrying thought this week. The Chinese market has

stabilised today, closing slightly higher but no celebrations yet

because concern about growth in the Chinese economy still is alive and

kicking and the strength of the Chinese currency is also causing

concern and that is something that the Chinese authorities are wanting

to change. In fact, the yuan hit a five-year low as the People's Bank

look and to weaken the currency in the hope of sparking export growth

but it sparked Alnwick and the central bank intervention led to an

emerging market currency sell-off. Malaysians and South Korean

currencies have both weak and while the South African rand is down more

than 3.5%. The falls are not just reserved for emerging markets, the

Australian dollar is more than 4% lower this week. But not all

currencies are weaker, safe havens like the Japanese yen are moving in

the opposite direction. Visit the start of a currency war?

All of these central banks looked to be

fighting to the bottom. We got our correspondence back from Singapore.

Let's talk about that. A couple of days ago, we saw the China Central

bank allowing the yuan to devalue. That makes Chinese stuff cheaper but

you look at the other Asian manufacturers in the area,

commodities, they don't want the currency to be more expensive. They

are between a rock and a hard place, especially in the face of what we

anticipate to be higher US interest rate this year. When the yuan

effectively depreciates as a result of the central bank's movements,

forced to make a decision, other forced to make a decision, other

central banks, whether they allow their currency to weaken, as some

have, for example the ringiit. Or do they strengthen in the face of a

weakening yuan? They have to be competitive and remain competitive

to try to export their way out of their own slowdown. Can we just

explain? Let them all have weaker currency, what would that do? It

means it's difficult to buy raw materials and make the stuff you

need to in order... Like in US dollars. It makes it difficult to

import goods into your country because that becomes more expensive

and it puts pressure on ordinary consumers like you and me. Thinking

about sending our kids to university, many Asians in the

region have those ambitions, a lot of Asian corporates and companies

have their debt in US dollars and that gets harder to pay off and

becomes troublesome for the economy is on the whole. We have been

talking about these so-called currency wars but can we accuse the

People's Bank of China of deliberately stoking this? In the

last month we have seen money escaping from the Chinese economy.

They are just trying to stabilise their own currency. That is very

fair. What we have seen in the last week is the Chinese trying to

stabilise the yuan as this massive capital outflow you were describing

is taking place and that is happening because there is this

sense of pessimism and anxiety about the way the economy is going and

that is being reflected, a metaphor we have seen in the volatility of

the Chinese markets this week. What does the central bank, what

mechanism does it have left? This is the only way it can try to stabilise

the yuan but it is having a knock-on adverse effect, partly because these

actions are not being particularly well communicated to the markets. We

are running out of time. Thank you, great to see you.

Let's take a look at some other news. Saudi Arabia is considering to

sell shares in its vast state oil company.

That's according to the kingdom's deputy crown prince Mohammed bin

Salman in an interview with the Economist magazine.

We will be talking about that at the end of the show.

Saudi's public finances have been hit hard by the 70 per cent plunge

in the price of crude oil over the last 18 months.

Analysts estimate Aramco is worth over a trillion dollars,

Saudi's public finances have been hit hard by the 70 per cent plunge

even selling off a minority stake of 20 per cent could fund

Samsung Electronics says its operating profit is likely

The preliminary figures indicate that that sales are likely to be

affected by weak demand in China and currency woes.

Analysts believe the smartphone market is becoming saturated

and the tech giant will face another year of weaker sales as a result.

Samsung, Apple, they are all victims of their own success a saturated

market! Let's talk about VW. Everybody knows about their problems

with the diesel engines. It is suggested they made buy-back cars in

the US because they say it will be cheaper to buy back the cars as

opposed to fixing them. Around 50,000 cars could be purchased from

their owners. I wonder how much that will cost. Let's see what else we

have got. Samsung talking about those weaker numbers and the Apple

share price, it has lost something like $20 billion of its value

because it is cutting back production of the iPhone because

everybody has got one! Let's take a look round the world

at what's business stories This is an interesting one, a great

story. A real controversy going on at CES in Las Vegas. There was quite

a stir when a couple of US federal marshals turned up and started

removing merchandise and pulling down signs belonging to a Chinese

company. A silicon valley start-up called Future Motion accused this

Chinese company of copying its design for an electric, board which

it invented a couple of years ago. The Chinese version was on display

at the show. It is also for sale on Ali Barbour for about a third of the

price of the American company. The US start-up is not happy and the

case will be in court next week and so far there has been no comment

from the Chinese company. Fireworks in Las Vegas, thank you. The markets

in China finished eight tumultuous week. -- a tumultuous week. We can

see that the Dow Jones fell almost 400 points on Thursday as the

Chinese turmoil spilled over to the local markets. But Europe,

tentatively positive this morning. Oil prices moved around 1.5% higher.

And now Nada can tell us us what will making the headlines

in the business world in the United States today.

Wall Street will have its eyes on China but the big domestic news is

December's jobs report. Those figures will be released before the

start of trade in New York and it is expected to show that employers kept

hiring with non-farm payrolls increasing 200,004 the month and

unemployment unchanged at 5%. That would point to continued strength in

the labour market despite the pain being felt by US manufacturers who

are suffering off the back of a strong dollar and weak global

growth. It is also key data for the Fed to digest while considering

future rate hikes. Investors will also get to hear from two federal

Conservative committee members. -- Federal reserve.

We were talking about this earlier, we have been covering this story all

week. People might think that Armageddon is here! So much money

off the markets. It is not necessarily that exchange. Give us

something positive. It's not. Stock market tend to move quite sharply in

short periods to factor in new news but when you stand back and get a

broader perspective, the economic background is still pretty

reasonable with reasonable growth in the UK, the US, things are improving

in Europe and even in China growth is quite positive so when you have

settled down and adjusted to this news, the background is pretty

reasonable and we should seek market stabilising. I know you want to ask

about US jobs, but we mentioned how January typically, set the tone of

the market. This can't be the tone for the rest of the year! I hope

not! We have to bear in mind, because of how the Chinese have

handled the sale of state and companies, the currency and stock

market interventions, those are pretty unusual events. I don't think

January should necessarily set the tone. However, what if we see US

jobs data coming out and disappointing? We have been looking

to them to take up some of the slack. It's a fair comment. That

data has been a fixed point, we have been quite confident that

unemployment is reducing and things are improving in the States so we

need that number to be close to what we are expecting otherwise it could

upset everybody. We will leave it there, you will be running through

the papers with us. It's seen as one of the most

important economic releases in the world,

but will today's US jobs number verify that the American's central

bank did the right thing You're with Business

Live from BBC News. And now a look at some

of the stories from around Britain. And UK household debt has

increased to a record high. Tanya Beckett's here to tell us how

worried we should be. What is interesting about this is

the fact that debt levels are now above where they were just before

the financial crisis. The instability we saw as a result of

that did not start because of UK debt but the fact we were heavily

indebted as a nation and personally added to the pain of the aftermath.

What the TUC is saying, this is a trade organisation, it is

complaining that debt levels are high again and they are back to

about a quarter of household income, and that is too high and the reason

for that, they are saying, is that we are not earning any more fulsome

if you adjust for inflation can we are earning less -- we are not

earning any more. Full it says the government needs to act.

It seems like we are going back to square one, we have people... You

can't spend more than you earn or you shouldn't because it will come

back and bite you, right? I think that is right, but what the

TUC is saying, people are having to run up the debt because the income

is not rising as inflation is. Therefore they cannot afford to pay

their rent or mortgage is because the property values have gone up as

well. That is the argument of the TUC. You are right in saying that

maybe also you would have to dissect exactly why people are running up

debts. People might be tempted to take out loans because interest

rates are so low, and not look at the amount they have to pay back,

just look at what they have to pay back every month. Very interesting,

thank you. Have a great weekend! This is Games Workshop, fantasy

model games were not so high up on the Christmas list this year, it has

warned that sales in September were below expectations. It also holds a

licence to sell Lord of the rings and the Hobbit battle games. We also

had a comment from the biggest and most successful investor in the UK

but we have no time to tell you! Chinese markets calm after circuit

breakers are scrapped but currency concerns loom over

the global economic outlook. And it's a Friday and so time

to speak to one of our esteemed With the health of the global

economy making headlines this week, investors in Europe and the US

are nervously waiting for one of the key barometers

of world economic growth, In December, 211,000

new jobs were created. A bumper number that meant America's

unemployment rate held at 5%. This month a reading

of 200,000 is expected. Andrew Walker, our economics

correspondent, joins us now. You know what, this is all over the

place! All I know is that, I do not know what that 205 was, 200,000 is

what is expected. 211,000 was November. And they had written

December, we will take that out later on! Everybody watches these

numbers, and the US Fed does as well, if we have got something less

than 200,000, apart from being a shock for the markets, with that rub

it into the American central bank saying, you should not have done

that weight rise? -- rate rise? I doubt they would say it was a

mistake to raise that rate the small amount we saw in December. It is

more how it would affect their rate rise plans in the course of the

year. Weak numbers could lead to them thinking carefully about

whether or not to pull the trigger a second time. We know from the

minutes of that December meeting, the one where they did make the

decision to make the first rate rise, we know every member of the

committee involved expects there to be a further rise of interest rate

of at least three quarters of a percent by the end of the year. That

is not a commitment, that is the expectation. If the data, including

most notably the jobs figures, where to disappoint, then of course they

would be willing and very keen to restrain themselves a little bit and

wait longer than they have been expecting to before they make these

further rises. Can I jumped in, and asks, we were talking about the

currency depreciation at the beginning of the show. Could this

disrupt the Federal reserve's plans for this year when it comes to

deflationary pressure and what that means for us? Yes, and going back to

those minutes, the committee did agree that there is likely to be

some sort of restraining effect on exports from the US as a result of

the weakness in emerging economies and I guess all tied up within that

very much is what is happening to the dollar, the strength of the

dollar which apart from affecting American exports does ring

deflationary pressures into the US. They do not expect their target of

2% is going to happen very quickly for inflation, they think it will be

a couple of years, but there is certainly a possibility of weakness

overseas leading to them pushing back the expectations of when the

rates will move. Let's talk closer to home. Do you think 2016, are we

going to continue seeing those two very different tales, the US and its

gross, -- the growth, raising interest rates and a lag in the

Eurozone? Is the recovery on track for jobs? There was certainly

encouraging stuff in these jobs figures. If you look at the company

's most exposed to Financial Times, Italy, Spain, Greece even, set in

and Portugal, -- exposed to the financial strain, there have been

quite substantial increases in employment. There is concern about

the low inflation, it has come up from negative levels we have had in

some stages, but the ECB is still concerned about that. They will not

be in a hurry to raise rates. There is a striking contrast in the

employment figures, we had encouraging news in the crisis

countries, but if you look at Finland, they are moving in the

opposite direction and there is a distinctive story there, partly to

do with the import and export market in Russia, so they have got some

real problems in Finland. Also the decline of Nokia, so they have got

real problems. Thank you very much. He is esteemed! Not just ordinary

editors on this show! Let's take you back now

quickly to our top story. Following a torrid week

on the markets in Asia, Chinese stocks have closed the day

slightly higher after regulators removed their new circuit

breaker mechanism. Earlier our UK team spoke

with Neil Woodford, one of Britain's most

successful investors. He thinks the real issues in China

are only just starting to emerge. What is in stark relief is that the

problems in China are beginning to surface. The Chinese

administration's ability to suppress all of that is getting more

difficult. I think it is becoming much more obvious globally and

domestic league, within China, that the economy is weaker than they

admit to, there is probably a banking crisis around the corner. I

have been saying for some time that I think that China's economy will

have a hard landing. Much of what we are panicking about now is what we

have been talking about as an investing institution for some time.

You have been on twitter today, thank you! This one says, fixed the

economic problems in Europe before we worry about the moon. This one

says, I would like to see people, it is lonely on the moon. This one

says, there should be a rescue mission bringing back that lonely

old man. There was a UK advert at Christmas about the moon. James

says, the mood has been done, let's go to another planet. And Ben

Thomson, our own Ben Johnson says, can we send our into the moon! Very

naughty! -- can we send Aaron! Let's start with this story in the

Economist, this was the news that Saudi Arabia is considering selling

to the public Aramco, possibly the world's most valuable company, but

it is the secret that we know nothing about it. We can assume it

is huge, because Saudi Arabia is the world's largest oil producer. The

estimate is that ten times the reserve that Exxon Mobile have, so

that is an enormous company. The Saudis need to improve their

finances and this gives them an opportunity to do that. The price at

which they sell the shares, if they do, will have to be something which

is carefully thought through given the pressure that oil markets are

currently under. Isn't this a sign of what is happening at the moment?

The Saudi is having to sell some of the family silverware at the worst

possible time. Exactly. They have got a lot of US Treasury bonds which

they have already had to redeem, they will want to balance up where

they are realising funds from this is of that process. This story, from

the Financial Times, another Chinese billionaire has gone missing. Where

are they going, Jane? We do not know where they are going and we do not

know why. I think we can assume it is all part of the government's

anti-corruption process. We do not know any more detail than that. I

just want to tell you this, this is the guy who has gone missing, he

went bankrupt twice before the age of 18. He cracked relaunching

businesses until they were successful. He has not forgotten his

roots, he has recreated part of his village inside the headquarters of

his Shanghai business, complete with vegetable fields which are tilled by

his farmer. Extraordinaire, only in China. This Powerball lottery, $75

million in the US. I will get my tickets later! Always a pleasure,

have a great weekend. That is it from us, plenty more

business News throughout the day and on the BBC website.

Good morning. After a week of continuous rain,