21/01/2016 World Business Report

Jimmy Savile on BBC premises. It says managers were too deferential

to him. Those are the latest headlines.

Now for the latest financial news with

The bear necessities: Investors seek safe havens as the global

Plus: The view from the top - how concerned are global business

leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos?

Also in the programme: Italy's third biggest bank is in trouble.

We start with the turmoil on financial markets,

US shares plunged again after steep falls in Europe.

At one point the Dow Jones industrial average was

They did stage a recovery later in the day to wipe out some

Asian shares that had a torrid session on Wednesday are now mixed.

So far, the damage to global share prices has been enormous.

Here's the big number - around $15 trillion is the amount that has been

wiped off stock markets around the world, according to Bloomberg.

The fears of many investors are now being realised: We are entering

That's when an asset slumps 20% or more from its peak.

It signals a serious loss of confidence and usually means

Well, on Wednesday, London's FTSE 100 entered bear territory.

It's now down 20.5% from its peak in the summer.

And the index of global shares known as the MSCI is just a whisker away,

In fact, global shares as a whole are having their worst

month since October 2008, just after the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

It's all down to fears over the economic slowdown in China and the

collapse in the price of oil, as Nada Tawfik in New York explains.

It is the continued concern over the slowdown in China and concerned

about global growth. But if we look at the start of the year, it really

has been the plunging oil price that has specifically been driving

markets a lot. The Dow Jones has tumbled more than 10%, along with

the SNP in 2016. One trader was telling me today it is like a

bloodbath. Not exactly a sense of panic yet, but this volatility that

we are seeing continually day by day with oil plunging is really causing

concern for investors. They are fleeing the markets, we are seeing

trillions of dollars fleet of markets. Many traders feel we won't

see the kind of end of this volatility until we get a bottoming

out of this oil prices. Not great news when it considered the

International Energy Agency is warning that in 2016 week would be

drowning in an oversupply of oil. That was our correspondent in New

York. Let's talk to our business correspondent in Asia. Can you bring

us up-to-date on how today is going in Asia? Markets in Asia have fared

better today than most expected. Most Asian shares are higher,

including in China. The Nikkei closed slightly lower. You've got to

put this small bounce, that's all that it is, into perspective. Oddly

speaking, the economic fundamentals that investors are concerned about,

including the slowdown in Chinese growth, low oil prices, those

factors haven't gone away and it is likely that shares in this part of

the world will continue to remain volatile. Many investors are feeling

extremely jittery and it takes another piece of bad news or bad

economic data that will tip them over and start selling again. We are

looking at a pretty glum picture, with many of the worlds's biggest

stock markets, including Japan's, now in bear market territory. That

means they are more than 20% of their peak. One thing to take heart

from this is the fact that stock market volatility is usually just a

reflection of the underlying sentiment among investors and

doesn't always mean we are headed for a massive economic downturn.

Barber has been grim economic data out of China Britain, no one says

there is evidence of a major collapse any time soon. -- although

there has been grim economic data out of China recently. And markets

are anything but rational! You are telling me! Thanks.

All this will be high on the agenda for global leaders who

are gathered in Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum.

Today they will also be keeping one eye on Frankfurt, where the

European Central Bank is holding its policy meeting.

Could slumping oil prices, the slowdown in China and turmoil on

financial markets mean there's more economic stimulus to come in Europe?

Inga Beale is the chief executive of Lloyds of London insurance market.

Thanks for getting up so early for us. If I can start with the European

Central Bank, do you think more stimulus is what Europe needs right

now? Yes, we need something to boost... Do you know what it is? It

is a lot about confidence. For people with confidence, you go out

and do things. What we've got ourselves into is a sort of

self-fulfilling prophecy of June and gloom. I think we do need some

confidence building. One of the reasons that we are actually here,

because we are from the insurance world, the world of risk, is we are

looking at a much broader range of things that are happening in the

world. I refer to things that have been highlighted in the global risk

report, things like climate change, we've also got all of the

geopolitical uncertainty. There's so much else going on in the world and

that's one of reasons why we are here, to try to get our arms around

all of the things that are changing and affecting all businesses,

economies, people around the world. Talking on their -- of an event that

could make a significant change for the UK and for Europe is that issue

of whether we stay within Europe or not, the UK as a member. David

Cameron is speaking in Davos today. It is thought that there could be a

referendum in June. How will you be voting? Well, Lloyds has a big share

of business that comes from Europe. So the European market for us is a

really important market. By being part of the EU, we actually have

access to one of the world's largest insurance market, $1.6 trillion

worth of business. So it is actually one of the key reasons why London is

seen as such an important not only financial centre but also insurance

and centre. Lloyd has a unique addition, in that we are the only

specialist insurance market in the world. Part of the reason for that

as part of the reason for the success of London is that we can be

very much part of a big EU trading bloc, which means we have the

ability to, if the UK stays in, be part of those negotiations when we

are talking about trading rights with other nations and other regions

in the world. So, for us, we would like to see the UK remain in EU

because of business opportunity that it brings and the strength of London

being part of a large trading bloc. And you, personally, you are very

high profile for many reasons, one of them being that you are the first

boss of Lloyds in London in its lengthy history, 327 years, I hope I

got that right. Why has it taken so long? Well, the world is changing

rapidly. I am actually delighted with what we're seeing. If you think

about the situation years ago, we weren't really in the workplace as

women. The world has moved on. Lloyds is showing that we are up

there and we always have been up there and pioneering in all of the

products and innovations we've been doing, especially around following

the changing landscape, the latest product, whether it insurance around

protection for businesses or cyber attacks. And putting a woman at the

helm is another sign of how modern and innovative Lloyds is. One of my

emissions is to really make sure that Lloyds is modernised enough to

be able to be around for at least another 300 years. -- one of my

emissions. We have a huge modernisation programme. With

modernising and making sure you are innovative, you need some diverse

talent. It is proven that the more diverse talent base is the more

innovative you will be and the more successfully will -- successor Bill

having new markets. Thank you. We appreciate your time.

The chief operating officer of Facebook is also a high-profile

woman. We will be discussing what she had to say in a few minutes.

The boss of Italian bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena has admitted some

customers have been pulling out their savings.

More on that later and more on that story online. See you soon.

Strictly Come Dancing, Doctor Foster and Eastenders were amongst the