18/07/2017 Asia Business Report

Some head-teachers have warned of staff cuts to make ends meet.

Labour's welcomed the extra money, but says it's not enough.

Now on BBC News, all the latest business news live from Singapore.

Netflix beats expectations by adding more than 5 million new users, but

what about the bottomline? And, Grexit talks. The European Union is

asking for one thing, clarity. Good morning, Asia, hello, world. I'm

glad you could join us. Netflix beat Wall Street expectations after

adding over 5 million new users, mostly from overseas. It has been

put down to including non- English Netflix Provisionals are alongside

its Western popular television shows. It's shares have jumped

nearly 9%. Our North American technology reporter told me why

investors are so up the. This is typically not a great quarter for

them, normally it is quite slow and they told investors as much. But we

have seen a huge growth in users, particularly in the US. You

mentioned overseas subscriber growth, but hearing the US, they

over 1 million new subscribers, much more than analysts had thought. They

will be very pleased. It is a sign that their strategy of creating lots

of original shows does seem to be working. But they must keep on

making those, and to keep them very popular, they are investing $6

billion in making original programmes over the next year. They

need to keep up the quality to keep people coming to Netflix, rather

than any of the other video streaming services. 104 million

subscribers now for Netflix. Have these subscriber numbers peaked, or

are there still more on the way? I think we will see a saturation here

in the US. Many people think we have reached that already. It's's about

international expansion. They are investing a lot into non-English

programming. They are also investing in feature films, while they have

the bench watching the side of television under wraps, they are

looking at longer form films. They are working on about 40 films at the

moment. I think that is where they will see their future growth come

from. But the competition is huge, especially from Amazon, who are

investing just as much in their original programming because they

think they can muscle in on Netflix. When you compare the amount of

people watching Netflix, subscribing, it is more than the

number of people that subscribe to traditional cable television. That

is a milestone I don't think we will see goal in the reverse direction.

Everything is heading towards this new industry of video streaming,

right now, Netflix was in front. But it may not be for the rest of time.

Rio Tinto have aborted one of its primary areas of production. I nor,

a major contributor to its earnings, matched last year's levels, but

shipments were down by 6%. That has followed a typhoon in the first

quarter of the year. This resource analyst told me that there were no

surprises that that would affect their upcoming earnings report. I

and all was down about 2% on the same half last year. That is on the

back of what we would call cyclones here, which affected magnets on

their rail network. Rail maintenance can be made up, but some of its

kindly. We have now seen production for 2000 and 1714 and about 30

million tons. That is at the bottom end of the range they were

forecasting. From an iron ore perspective, a fairly satisfactory

result. Copper was down about 21% at 209 million tons, that was primarily

on the back of a strike. Not such a good result for cop. 12 weeks to go

before the year ends, figures coming out in August. Could we see some

exceptional numbers? With the half-year result, the operational

side will not impact significantly on their half-year result,

financially. We do think that when you have a look at the commodity

prices, that is where they are going to get significant leverage for

their first half results. We are expecting some very good numbers.

Unfortunate, volumes will take a little bit away. Pricing is going to

be the reverse of what we have seen in many years.

In other headlines, the Trump administration has outlined calls

for renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement. Getting access

for American products to Canada and Mexico to improve the trade deficit.

They are worried that too many Americans have been hurt by closed

factories, exported jobs and what they call broken political promises.

Formal talks to renegotiate the deal are expected to begin next month.

Ministers from the EU and the UK have been getting down to business.

Wretched negotiations continue in Brussels. The clock is ticking for

the deadline in March 2019 for Britain to leave the EU. Several

issues are on the agenda. Number one, the rights of more than 3

million EU citizens, currently living in the UK, and about 1

million living in the EU. -- 1 million Britons. The British

chancellor confirmed that Britain would honour its's debt. And

finally, how they will address the traffic of people across borders.

So, a mixed bag. You can see hear how that has affected the markets. I

asked why this response has been so muted. Investors don't really like

uncertainty, so until we get a resolution, you always have this

hanging over the market. The UK is an outstanding geopolitical issue.

We still have the US and potentially, trade tax against the

Chinese. GDP was up yesterday, and the UK, EU and US markets shrunk

back. We look at flows, there is still a somewhat negative sentiment

towards China. That is correct. A lot of factors for investors to

digestive. Even though we had better than expected growth. What could

really turn the tide in these Brexit negotiations? Perhaps some kind of

trade agreement. We saw a trade agreement in terms of the Japanese,

but that took years to be finalised. We need some agreements like that

from an economic perspective to alleviate some of the tension and

perceived stress. Why are we seeing is doubt about the Chinese economy,

despite 6.9% growth? I think it is concerned about the underlying debt

situation. The people's Congress is going to be important to the

Chinese. Investors did not take the news positively. And liquidity

access in China and Hong Kong? Yes, it is a wait-and-see approach. Given

all these landmines in the investment landscape, where do you

tell your investors to put their money? The Chinese consumer, it

makes a lot of sense, companies that can access strategies in China.

Chinese companies are becoming more innovative. Some very good

opportunities in that part of the market. Uber is facing more trouble,

they are halting business in Macau as of Saturday because of local

regulations. It faced problems in Taiwan earlier in the year, it

suspended operations but resumed after setting up a partnership with

a local company. Another recap of the markets. Japan and Australia are

in negative territory because Chinese markets are depressed. We

will watch how that welfare when it opens in about 45 minutes. Black

Monday yesterday, nearly 500 shares suffered steep falls. The plunge

came after regulators flagged an extended crackdown on the financial

system. Investors were rattled even though China had better than

expected growth numbers, 6.9% in the April- June quarter. The rest of

Asia is currently in negative territory. Having a look now at Wall

Street. The NASDAQ continues to break record highs for an eight

consecutive session. Thank you for investing your time with us.

Senior Russian and US officials have been locked in talks,

over whether to hand back two diplomatic compounds seized

by the Obama administration last year.