06/01/2016 BBC Business Live

This is Business Live from BBC News with Ben Thompson and Aaron

Top technology firms unveil their latest gadgets

for our cars, but is it enough to push their profits into top gear?

Live from London, that's our top story on Wednesday, 6th January.

Car manufacturers are also making moves to bring more tech

The latest innovations are being highlighted at the big

Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Also in the programme, North Korea says it has successfully

We'll cross live to our Asia business hub to see how

It is day three of the trading year and the volatility continues and we

will find out if the volatility in January is going to set the tone for

the rest of the year. We'll get the inside track

on how public transport is reshaping our cities

in an effort to cut pollution, and boost economic growth cities

are spending record amounts But can they keep up

with soaring demand? As reports suggest Twitter

is about to ditch its 140 character limit, we want to know -

will longer tweets ruin, Boss Jack Dorsey hints that future

tweets could be as long as 10,000 characters, so let us

know, good or bad? But please keep it brief please.

Use the hashtag BBCBizLive. Technology gets smaller

and smaller every year, but the future, apparently

could be much bigger. As the Consumer electronics Show

kicks off in Las Vegas later, it's the car makers that

are stealing the headlines But rather than hand over control

of the new gadgets and gismos to tech companies, car markers

are doing it themselves, In an attempt to link apps

to the car dashboard, Google has developed

the Android Auto whilst Apple But on the eve of the CES opening,

Toyota has decided to snub Instead it plans to use a technology

originally developed by rival Ford Ford has said Google

and Apple's offerings will be available in its 2017

models but it will also Reportedly Peugeot, Honda and Mazda

are all investigating whether they should adopt

the SDL standard or go Martyn Briggs leads the Mobility

team at Frost and Sullivan Good to see you. Aaron running

through the issues there and what, I think, is so important is the way

this divide is opening up. Previously everyone has been

embracing the tech giants and say make your technology make our

industry easier. The car firms are saying, we welcome you, but to a

certain extent. We are not going to give away too much of our technology

to let you come in and steal the lead. Traditionally car companies

have been worried that they will lose the touch point with their

customer, the H MI, the machine interface, they have realised they

are not the dominant players anywhere with regards to consumer

electronics and that's why they are at the CES in Las Vegas this week.

They know you want to use your smartphone in the vehicle and they

need to adapt. Google and Apple have their platforms already. Car firms

are concerned if they prioritise one, you're going to end up with one

smartphone that you have to choose that for the vehicle. Of course,

vehicle manufacturing is a mass market game. They want to provide

services for everyone. What's the slippery slope, I suppose, that

those manufacturers are worried about, at the moment we are talking

about in car entertainment, music systems and navigation systems, but

there will be a time when we are talking about robotic cars and

automatic vehicles and all of that thing and then we are getting into

the meat of a car, the way it works and that's what they are not willing

to hand over? Indeed. There is short-term and long-term issues to

that. The short-term is that I guess, initially they need to make a

lot of partnerships to make this happen. They need to make the right

decisions today and as cars become more autonomous, the kind of

partnerships they are making today to give away data on the vehicle,

they are not sure whether they are safe to use these services in the

vehicle itself and they have got to make sure firstly, it is safe for

the customers and secondly, it is making the long-term business

decisions that are right for the company. Google and Apple are

reported to make their own autonomous vehicle. Can I just jump

in here? Is it reasonable to think in the next few years this is going

to happen? The attitude of us, right, the driver, I mean, we're

happy to get into an aluminium tube or a plane and 80% of the flight is

controlled by computers. We are uneasy about our cars being, you

know, driven not by us! In the short-term, yes. There is so many

uncertainties at the moment regards to regulation and of course, the

consumer acceptance of this, but in the long-term, it is coming and you

know, there is already some semi autonomous features, parking the

vehicles and the most interesting thing that's happened this week is

that GM with their investment in Lift a ride sharing company, a ride

hailing company like Uber means they have said publicly this will lead to

partnerships around autonomous vehicles and it is the first time

they have made an announcement and it is getting a lot of buzz in the

industry. Yes, one we will watch closely. Martyn, thank you.

Some of the other stories making the news.

Activity in China's services sector grew at the slowest pace in 17

months in December, according to new data.

China's services sector has been one of the few bright spots

in the economy over the last year, helping to offset the slump

Changes to Twitter could be on the way.

The site's co-founder and boss has hinted that it may lift

the 140 character limit, to allow much longer tweets.

It's reported the social networking site may now allow users to tweet up

the 140 character limit, to allow much longer tweets.

It's reported the social networking site may now allow users to tweet up

Chinese tech giant Huawei has just posted its latest set of numbers

Strong smartphone sales led to revenue jumping by 70% last year

with sales topping $20 billion worldwide.

The firm said it shipped 108 million phones in 2015,

attributing the growth to strong sales in China and Western Europe.

The company's growth figures come as it launched its latest flagship

We have been asking for your comments on Twitter. We have got a

lot already. It is mixed your view on whether it is good news or bad

news for the social networking site. I want to take you to the Business

Live page. Two stories that caught our attention this morning. Shares

in the UK chip designer has fallen. Apple reported that it might cut

back production of the latest iPhone during the quarter. Firms that

supply parts of it understandably worried. Their shares down this

morning. News from the European Central Bank in an era where we are

talking about the cost of borrowing rising perhaps in America.

Certainly, the Fed Reserve firing the starting gun to raise interest

rates there and speculation about when the UK may follow suit, Europe

keen to point out low interest rates are there to stay until inflation

starts to rise. We had inflation yesterday, the European, pretty much

the same. Pretty flat. US jobs numbers this Friday. That's a key

indicator for any decision. Again, another decision from the US Fed on

whether it will continue to raise rates.

Let's return to one of our breaking stories this morning -

news that North Korea says it has successfully tested a hydrogen bomb

which, if confirmed, would be its fourth nuclear

Mariko Oi is at our Asia Business hub in Singapore.

What impact has this had on the financial markets?

The biggest impact has been on the South Korea market. Not even before,

not even waiting for the official confirmation by the State news

agency in North Korea just after that man-made earthquake was

detected, the South Korea markets started to fall sharply and shares

ended the day in the red. That's despite the authorities reassuring

investors that this would have very limited impact on the markets and

the economy. One sector bucking the trend is the companies making

defence products and their shares have been surging. I should say

though that the markets reacted in a similar manner following previous

nuclear tests by North Korea, but the impact was weak at most. As for

other regional markets, Japan's Nikkei fell after this potential

nuclear test in North Korea. Good on you, we will talk to you soon. I'm

ready to go. I have got a new battery in!

The Nikkei in Tokyo down again, for a third straight session,

as exporters were hit by a strong yen after North Korea said it

In fact all of this compounded by the worries about China's economy

It's all happening - not a great start to

We'll find out shortly if this volatile January will set the tone

Europe keeping its eyes very closely on the China story.

And also Beijing today announcing it will not lift that trading ban

That was supposed to be lifted this Friday,

Let's head over and find out what should be making the business

America's Central Bank raised interest rates for the first time in

nearly a decade. Investors lob looking for clues about the path of

future rate rises. On the jobs front, we will get the ADP national

employment report and it is forecast to reveal US employers added 198,000

jobs in December. This is ahead of the official monthly jobs report

which is due out this Friday and Monsanto releases results. The

agriculture giant is expected to report a 16% drop in sales. Among

the problems, foreign currency swings and falling prices.

Tom Stevenson is Investment Director at Fidelity Worldwide Investments

First week of January and the markets not doing anything exciting.

You have got interesting figures about how this will shape out for

the year. In your crystal ball, looking at what January means, a

dire January, and how it will shape up for the rest of the year. There

is an old adage about January setting the tone for the rest of the

year. So I went back and had a look to see whether it actually worked. I

went back until the start of the FTSE 100 which was 30 years ago now

and in that period, 19 out of 30 times the FTSE 100 has risen in

January and in 15 of those 19 times, it has continued to rise between

February and December. It looks more than just chance and so it is a

guide, but interestingly when it goes the other way, when the market

falls in January, then it is much less clear cut. It is a coin toss as

to whether it works. What will it take to turn around the fortunes? We

are looking at the year and there is not a lot to get excite abouted it,

we are talking about maybe interest rates creeping up in the US, a

slowdown in China, there is nothing for us to get our teeth into, to

think that 2016 is an exciting year for the markets? There is always

stuff to worry about and plainly, there is lots to worry about, we

have got the Middle East and North Korea, that's a problem, but if you

look at the general outlook, if you look at the alarm bells that would

normally ring towards the top end of the market, you know, things of

sentiment, interest rates, earnings growth, most of them are not ringing

at the moment. Yes, I think, you know, we are at the back end of this

bull market. We have been going for six years now. This is a maturing

bull market, but I don't think it is over yet. Briefly, going back to

China. That seems to be the key focus. Beijing announcing today they

will suspend lifting this ban which was supposed to be on Friday.

Beijing is more interested in economic growth than really the

stock market. If Beijing is between a rock and a hard place it has to be

careful as to what it does to help its markets, right? I think they

were probably stung a bit last year. I think they thought we will go into

the stock market, we can prop up the stock market and they are realising,

actually it is more difficult. It doesn't work. So yes, I mean, this

latest announcement suggests that they are still trying to under pin

the market, but I think they will probably back off and concentrate

more on economic growth. OK, Tom, great stuff, thank you. You

know the routine, you will be back, taking a look at some of the papers

with us. Thank you very much. Keeping growth on track as cities

expand, how can they keep up with growing demand

for buses and trains? We'll speak to one expert

about the role public transport You're with Business

Live from BBC News. The decorations are down,

the cards have been recycled and it's time for the retailers

to tell us how Christmas Yesterday, there were disappointing

figures from Next, and this morning Overall sales were up

over 5% in the six weeks to January, with a big rise

in people shopping online. Sir Charlie Mayfield is Chairman

of the John Lewis Partnership. What we are seeing is the way

customers are shopping More sales online, but shops

have a really important A lot of our customers are not

just shopping online, a lot are going to our shops first

to have a look at products Some are going online first and then

going into the shops to buy there. A big strength for us is we have

both of those channels has paid real dividends for us

over this Christmas. Simon Jack has the figures -

how have the markets been reacting? It's privately held, owned by the

employees, so no share price reaction. A pretty good performance

at the department stores with sales up 5%. It also owns Waitrose where

sales were down 1.4%. It sounds bad, but consider food prices are

falling, a 1.4% decline is not bad, especially compared to the

competition. He mentioned getting the clicks and bricks mix right. He

said Black Friday was primarily an online affair. Christmas was a bit

of both. The Christmas clearance sales saw a strong store turnout.

John Lewis look like they have got that mix right.

bid for Argos owner Home Retail has been rejected -

Home Retail Group's shares closed up 41%, while Sainsbury's fell 5%.

Try to take on the online rivals. They want to have a multichannel

offering. Argos, potentially with city centre stores and click and

collect, it offers that choice. The markets were a surprise, Sainsbury's

coming to buy Home Retail Group. Shares up 40%. Home Retail Group

turned the offer down and Sainsbury is now have until February two to

come back with an improved offer. -- until February the 2nd.

You're watching Business Live - our top story - the world's top tech

firms unveil their latest moves to try to integrate their devices

into our cars, as the consumer electronics show gets underway

Full coverage from the team there, and full coverage on the website of

the announcements made there. In many parts of the world,

cities have become real economic They produce 80 per cent

of the world's output - and more than half the planet's

population lives there. It's thought that in ten years' time

80% of the world's middle classes will be living in cities in Africa,

China, India and a handful of other Keeping people moving will be

a major priority if cities So do cities need to invest more

in public transport? It's thought that capital investment

in the sector can spark economic activity worth up to four times

the initial investment. Alain Flausche is Secretary General

of the International Association of Public Transport and he joins me

now from our Brussels bureau. Welcome to the programme. Here's the

challenge. Given that the Paris climate agreement recently, can you

grow public transport systems around the world while keeping within those

agreed emissions targets? Good morning. I think the first thing, as

you know, the national commitment today wouldn't leaders to the -1.5

degrees which is the target. If we want to reach those targets then we

have to develop public transportation. Transport is one of

the big emitters of CO2. Private transport is a large part of this.

Public transport has the advantage of being extremely efficient in

terms of CO2 emissions. The job for the years to come is to convince

governments they should keep investing in public transport and,

to some extent, restrict using private cars in cities. A valid

point, but another challenge, in your job your organisation is to

promote public transport systems around the world. With what we are

reading, 20 years ago 80% of the world's middle classes lived in OECD

nations. In 20 years' time they were believing in China, India, Asia,

Africa and Latin America. Many of those people will want to buy a car.

-- they will be living in. The car is some thing of a status symbol.

But our job is to convince governments that what happened in

Beijing, in Delhi, miserable lives because of the conditions, it's

because they've got too many cars. The only way to make their cities

attractive and liveable is to develop public transport. The

Chinese have understood this. In Beijing and Shanghai they have been

making a new metro line every other year. In India they are still

in India is doing it. In Delhi, I in India is doing it. In Delhi, I

have been there a futile and is, and on one day the level of fine

particles was about ten times the authorised level. The Supreme Court

in India issued a judgment saying to the state of India they had to take

further measures. We are heading more in that direction and we will

over the next few months and years. Just to talk about the capacity

issues. Looking at many developed cities around the world like Paris

and London, they are struggling with larger and growing populations. But

the infrastructure has been in place for decades. How do you deal with

that demand for extra infrastructure and capacity when you are dealing

with age old infrastructure will around an environment that is not

conducive to putting in extra rail lines and bus routes, because cities

are already very congested? I agree it's a challenge. But some well

backed people have said the Western world misses about 1000 billion in

investment in infrastructure. We need to go that way. Looking at the

infrastructure, it looks expensive, in terms of the money, but looking

at the wider economic benefits in investment, you can see it's the

only way to continue keeping growing cities and making them liveable and

wealthy. Looking at the example of Crossrail, for instance, you might

remember the best advocate for Crossrail, the first Crossrail, and

already the second, was the business community. I'm so sorry, we are

running out of time, but we appreciate your input. Thank you for

joining us. But luck with public transport around the world. Tom will

be back with us to talk about the papers. It's all about Twitter in

the business pages. Twitter might soon ditched the 140 character limit

to allow 10,000 character posts. Really? It's a pretty appalling

thought. The beauty of Twitter is that it's short and snappy, it

forces people to attempt to say something witty and sharp. 10,000

characters, as if there wasn't enough information on the Internet,

we will drown in it. So many people get in touch, one viewer says that

the 140 characters is part of the novelty. Who needs another Facebook?

Paul says it's good to be concise, who needs these massively long and

dribbling tweets. Many people pointing to the politicians will

stop brevity is great when politicians treat, and if it's not

140 characters they will take advantage. It was the unique selling

point. Twitter does have a problem though. You only have to look at my

twitter, none of my children are on twitter, but I am. They don't want

to target people like me, they want to get to the younger generation and

are failing to do that. We are told the younger generation wants text

speak, brevity, has a short attention span. So this would fly in

the face of that. You would think so, but the short attention span is

catered for better by Instagram and that's where they are going. Bad

driving and how insurers plan. I had to re-ensure this year, and they

offered cheaper rates if I put a box in my car. The technology involved

in cars, this can be used to monitor what we do. It does sound great, and

these things are presented as a consumer benefit, put the box in

your car and we'll cut the cost of insurance. But the flip side is a

massive intrusion into our privacy. We are giving away huge amounts of

information about how we live our lives. I don't like that. I don't

even like insurers! They are so nasty sometimes. That's it from

business life today and we will have more throughout the day.

Only six days into the month and parts of Scotland have had their

wettest January on record. Clouds gathering out of the