23/02/2016 World Business Report

Now for the latest financial news with

Digging itself into a bit of a hole, mining giant BHP Billiton sees its

And driving the future of mobile technology.

We look at how connecting your phone to your car could be one

Welcome to World Business Report, I'm Sally Bundock.

Also in the programme, we will be looking at a giant leap

The world's biggest miner BHP Billiton has released

its latest set of numbers, and they don't make for very happy reading.

BHP reported a net loss of $5.7 billion for the six months

That is the first loss in more than 16 years.

It is a huge reversal of fortunes for a firm that made

a profit of $5.4 billion during the same period in 2014.

Like many of its rivals, the Australian mining giant

suffered from the collapse in commodity prices.

BHP also took a pickaxe to the interim dividend,

abandoning its long-held policy of maintaining or increasing

dividend payments to shareholders, reducing the pay-out by 75%.

Rico, this is a stark reminder of how hard the current environment

That's right. Not only BHP Billiton but also its rivals. The world's

largest mining company has been under intense pressure as a slowdown

in China's economy has resulted in lower demand for its key commodities

such as iron ore and coal and you also had to add to the equation the

collapse in oil prices due to OPEC led Saudi Arabia's determination not

to cut production, leading to an oversupply plus slowing demand. So

this is really not a good mix for BHP Billiton. Earlier I spoke with

David Lennox, a research analyst based in Sydney, and asked if these

losses will pile up in the second half of BHP Billiton's financial

year from January to June. In the second half of the year we are

actually looking for commodity prices to improve only modestly, but

that modest improvement should be enough to actually see the

second-half result a little more positive than we saw for the first

so I would expect perhaps for BHP Billiton when it reports its full

year for 2016 that it is going to be a tale of two hubs. The first half,

which was very poor, and the second-half which will show some

recovery. And despite the disappointing numbers, Sally,

surprise, surprise, BHP Billiton's stock price is up around 3% in

Sydney trade as according to analysts traders are now focused on

the second-half bottom-line numbers, with improving prices for

iron ore and oil. OK, a glimmer of hope. Thank you very much, see you

soon. In other news: Leaders from some

of Britain's biggest companies say that leaving the European Union

would threaten jobs Bosses from 36 FTSE 100 companies,

including BT, Marks Spencer and Vodafone,

signed a letter published in the Times newspaper saying an EU exit

would deter investment in the UK. However, those supporting a Brexit

say that leaving would cut unnecessary regulation and costs,

boosting growth. The British pound continues to trade

a multi-year lows versus the US dollar, after sinking to its lowest

level against the greenback This is due to the uncertainty

about a possible British exit The steep fall adds to losses made

by the pound over recent months, which have been linked to

the outlook for UK interest rates. Lower oil prices have helped Qantas

post a record underlying pre-tax profit of $665 million

for the six months to December. The result is the best first-half

profit in the Australian Despite the positive numbers,

shares in the company fell by 5% in morning trading, in part due to

a recent spike in the price of oil. Fitbit shares dropped more than 16%

in extended trading in New York, after the tech firm released

a weaker than expected profit The company,

who are known for their wearable fitness devices, saw revenue nearly

double on the last quarter, but missed Wall Street profit forecasts

because of larger than expected The internet of things

and virtual reality - two big themes at this weeks'

Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The mobile industry believes

connecting everything to the internet is

its next big challenge, and many mobile firms are also hoping virtual

reality will take off this year. Our technology correspondent

Rory Cellan-Jones is there. It is an industry at zest with

getting connected, and having hooked up billions of people, the mobile

world is turning to things. Cars are already going online. SIM card

buried in this one turns it into a Wi-Fi hotspot and tells the garish

it needs a service. Agriculture is getting connected and farmers will

soon be able to replenish their feed silos by the phone -- garage. Even

this bike is online. It flashes when you are riding into danger while

feeding information back to make the city streets safer. And then there

is your dog, soon to be hooked up to the online world via a cheap sensor

in his collar. Is very lightweight collar means you know where your dog

is, you don't lose your job, it is a simple application. This new

technology will make that kind of thing affordable and available. As

well as connecting nearly every object on earth, they have another

of session this year, disappearing into a virtual world. Here we go.

Wow, virtual reality is everywhere at this show, providing all sorts of

thrilling experiences but it is the cheaper version where you slot a

phone into a headset which were first introduced many people to the

technology. What you are seeing now, especially at this conference, is

that for the first time you can take your phone everywhere with you in

your pocket, snap into a very affordable device and just like that

you can transport yourself anywhere around the world and get these

experiences that money can't buy. But it is augmented reality that

will have a bigger impact. Want to turn any space into a car showroom?

This app using Google technology allows you to do that. You can

change the colour, even get in and turn the Radio one. Virtual reality

is not for everybody, not everybody can weather virtual reality had

debts, many people feel dizzy. It is an experience which we can take to

everybody. Mobile phones used to be about something simple, making

calls. Now this industry believes the power of its technology can

change every aspect of our lives. Now, if you have ever struggled

getting hold of a spare part for an appliance, spare

a thought for the astronauts on the International Space Station, where

deliveries aren't exactly regular, Our North America technology

reporter Dave Lee reports on how 3D printing is about to revolutionise

the business of working in space. The International Space Station has

been in orbit for over 6000 days. And from time to time the astronauts

on board need something from Earth. And there has really only ever been

one way to get it to them, until now. Next month, NASA is going to

send up a 3D printer like this one to the International Space Station.

It is able to print object around this size but eventually NASA wants

to create huge structures like this and have them assembled in space by

robots. The pioneering scheme has been developed by a small tech

start-up, funded and supported by NASA at its research Centre in

Silicon Valley. Our ultimate goal in space manufacturing is to be able

to, in space, create and assemble large structures, like very large

spacecraft, or very large dishes and reflectors and those sorts of

things. Every ounce of weights and in the space can cost thousands of

pounds and so it is hoped this scheme can make things cheaper and

much, much quicker. You can actually bring us a USB stick with your file

and you can send it to space and via 3D printing you can make that object

in space and completely avoid putting it on a rocket. For now the

material for raw printing must be sent up from Earth but the team is

confident one day they can manufacture using what is already

out there in space, so we can live off the land in new worlds.

The mind boggles. A quick look at markets. You can see how the pound

is trading at the moment. A mixed picture, mainly downwards in Asia

despite the fact that they had a strong close to the day on Wall

Street. A lot more to come, we will be discussing the papers very soon.