:00:00. > :00:21.them. Now on BBC News, all the latest business news live from
:00:22. > :00:28.Singapore. We talk to the head of Sony at the Las Vegas Consumer
:00:29. > :00:39.Electronics Show. You are stephen macro 2014, which will be the best
:00:40. > :00:42.and worst performers. We start off with technology and from televisions
:00:43. > :00:45.that bend and smart socks that track data from your daily jog, some of
:00:46. > :00:49.the gadgets on display at an international tech exhibition
:00:50. > :00:55.exhibition in Las Vegas. It is called the Consumer Electronics
:00:56. > :00:58.Show. This is where many of Asia's biggest electronics names have been
:00:59. > :01:01.gathering. Our correspondent is there and spoke with the Sony
:01:02. > :01:06.president to get an update on the electronic giant's developments. A
:01:07. > :01:13.tabletop screen showing live television, my calendar, my notes
:01:14. > :01:16.all on the kitchen table. It is a concept at the moment, but in Las
:01:17. > :01:21.Vegas, Sony has been unveiling a range of new products. I've been
:01:22. > :01:24.talking to the boss about where the technology is going. You have
:01:25. > :01:34.launched something that is quite interesting? I am wearing the
:01:35. > :01:44.wristband version. Inside the wristband, is what we call the core.
:01:45. > :01:47.It fits into the wristband. This logs all of your activities, whether
:01:48. > :01:50.walking, in the car, on the bicycle, all the physical activities you do.
:01:51. > :02:00.It allows you to log photos you have taken, music you listen to. It takes
:02:01. > :02:04.in your entire day. The big battle recently has been between the game
:02:05. > :02:07.consoles, the Sony PS4 has been seen seen as a great gaming box but the
:02:08. > :02:14.Xbox is leading for home entertainment? We were able to sell
:02:15. > :02:21.4.2 million units which is a very high number. Are you ready to call
:02:22. > :02:24.victory in the battle against Xbox? I have always seen the console
:02:25. > :02:33.business as a five to ten year propostion. How important is
:02:34. > :02:37.streaming video into the home going to be? Are you a big player? At
:02:38. > :02:42.Sony, we are one of the top five providers of screened video content
:02:43. > :02:44.into homes in the United States. The PS3 is the number one device for
:02:45. > :02:48.Netflix viewers over televisions, and PCs, we have a big presence here
:02:49. > :03:00.into US market and elsewhere as well. You had disappointment a few
:03:01. > :03:06.months back with the unexpected profit warning, that must have been
:03:07. > :03:08.a big disappointment? If you look at it from a quarterly perspective, it
:03:09. > :03:11.was a disappointment, again, one quarter does not make the entire
:03:12. > :03:15.business. Every quarter matters, it is making sure we have the best
:03:16. > :03:18.product, that we do it the most efficient way, there are some things
:03:19. > :03:21.we can not control like the exchange rates. We need to make sure that
:03:22. > :03:31.business is robust enough to absorb fluctuations in exchange rates. You
:03:32. > :03:39.will have to take some hard decisions eventually? If you talk
:03:40. > :03:41.about restructuring, we have undertaken that already many times.
:03:42. > :03:44.Some businesses are growing, those areas will have more employees.
:03:45. > :03:49.Other businesses where are we are shrinking, we may have to do
:03:50. > :04:04.restructuring. It is not something we suddenly decide to do one day.
:04:05. > :04:08.That was the president of Sony. For more on the cool gadgetry from the
:04:09. > :04:15.consumer electronics show, log on to the BBC website. Other business
:04:16. > :04:18.news, US officials announced that JP Morgan Chase would pay $1.7 billion
:04:19. > :04:21.for its role in the massive fraud carried out by Bernie Madoff. The
:04:22. > :04:24.country 's biggest bank agreed to the settlement because it failed to
:04:25. > :04:28.warn federal authorities about his schemes. JP Morgan Chase served as
:04:29. > :04:34.his bank for two decades before he was arrested in 2008. The
:04:35. > :04:37.International monetary fund is to raise its forecast for global
:04:38. > :04:48.growth. The managing director said the revision would come in the next
:04:49. > :04:51.three weeks but did not elaborate. In October it lowered its growth
:04:52. > :04:56.forecast, saying the global economy would remain in low gear. It reduced
:04:57. > :05:04.its growth forecast for 2014 to 3.6%. The simple phone has come a
:05:05. > :05:09.long way since it was first invented in the 1800s, instead of being used
:05:10. > :05:14.just for calls, they are now sources of information, social network and
:05:15. > :05:19.doing business. We spoke with an expert about the rise of mobile
:05:20. > :05:27.commerce in Asia. The Asia area is the first -- fastest growing area
:05:28. > :05:32.for global combos in the world. That is largely driven by the smart phone
:05:33. > :05:38.adoption across the region. It is being led by China, India and some
:05:39. > :05:42.of the biggest population countries. It is the arrival of the smart phone
:05:43. > :05:49.driving a lot of that mobile, as that we see. You talk about country
:05:50. > :05:52.such as China and India, the fact remains that in countries like
:05:53. > :05:57.these, smart phones are still very expensive, unlike the Western
:05:58. > :06:01.economies, the phone service providers do not subsidise them.
:06:02. > :06:06.Could that hurt future growth? That is true for certain -- certain
:06:07. > :06:11.markets. It depends what sectors you look at, did some research and
:06:12. > :06:16.looked at urban individuals in India. People over 18 who have a
:06:17. > :06:23.bank account and have a mobile phone. You get high smart phone
:06:24. > :06:28.penetration in that sector. It is 90%. These are the people that will
:06:29. > :06:33.be driving a lot of the transactions. If you talk about
:06:34. > :06:40.India in general, smart phone penetration is 20%. In the short
:06:41. > :06:43.term, it is not about all of India adopting smart phones, it is about
:06:44. > :06:49.people who drive transactions which becomes your growing middle class,
:06:50. > :06:55.driving these transactions. What about the security concerns, you
:06:56. > :06:58.store it a lot of your sensitive financial information on your mobile
:06:59. > :07:02.phone and use that to make payments to another mobile phone or another
:07:03. > :07:13.Alec Tronic device. How safe is that? The security is not as
:07:14. > :07:15.vulnerable as one might think. There has been some very good
:07:16. > :07:27.technological advancements. If you look at mobile banking, 3-D secure,
:07:28. > :07:32.two weight checks, for loading up your phone is to the mobile wallet,
:07:33. > :07:40.there is something called trusted service management. These are all
:07:41. > :07:45.very good technologies. It is about influencing and really getting the
:07:46. > :07:54.consumer to believe it is not as risky as he or she may think. For
:07:55. > :07:58.decades, China's economic growth has depended on trading physical
:07:59. > :08:02.products. To do this it has had to import large amounts of natural
:08:03. > :08:05.resources to feed factories, leading China to become one of the most
:08:06. > :08:18.powerful players in the global commodities market.
:08:19. > :08:25.I spoke with a commodities analyst at Barclays and I asked her whether
:08:26. > :08:32.the South Sudan conflict was affecting oil prices in China's oil
:08:33. > :08:35.supply. The conflict in South Sudan is a reflection of similar types of
:08:36. > :08:41.geopolitical conflicts around the world. This is putting eight law
:08:42. > :08:46.under prices even though production is rising rapidly in North America.
:08:47. > :08:52.We see in South Sudan and see Dan account for two or 3% of Chinese
:08:53. > :08:57.imports. A significant portion of the Chinese oil supply. We think oil
:08:58. > :09:00.prices are being caught between these geopolitical conflicts that
:09:01. > :09:05.put a floor under prices and higher supply elsewhere. For China, they
:09:06. > :09:11.are looking here to terms of energy security. We will see them and best
:09:12. > :09:18.in more African nations? China has been doing a lot of that. It has
:09:19. > :09:23.invested a overseas. They will seek to diversified, and best in in
:09:24. > :09:29.stable countries and regions and stable countries and regions. It
:09:30. > :09:33.will look to hook up more supply from Russia in the future. China is
:09:34. > :09:41.definitely going to go out and diversified to places. As China also
:09:42. > :09:46.behind the rise in copper prices recently? The short-term rally we
:09:47. > :09:51.saw in recent weeks was driven by short-covering. The Chinese market
:09:52. > :09:56.was relatively tight. They have been importing more and more copper in
:09:57. > :09:59.2014. Because China has a very strong demand things like copper
:10:00. > :10:05.wiring and China needs to import copper to turn it into financing. We
:10:06. > :10:09.do see copper prices in the near to recent term? Supply is driving
:10:10. > :10:22.copper prices more than Chinese demand. We forecast prices to come
:10:23. > :10:26.off $700. Most Asian stocks are trading higher in Asian trade. After
:10:27. > :10:48.there was a slump over the New year. Four US Air Force crew members were
:10:49. > :10:49.killed when their