:00:00. > :00:08.This is Business Live from BBC News with Victoria Fritz
:00:09. > :00:22.narrows its losses as it largest producer of steel,
:00:23. > :00:23.of a collapse in worldwide demand for the metal.
:00:24. > :00:42.Live from London, that's our top story on Friday 6th May.
:00:43. > :00:43.ArcelorMittal's first-quarter profit dropped 33%, as the world's biggest
:00:44. > :00:49.steelmaker has contended with slumping prices of the material
:00:50. > :01:10.the markets where Japanese markets the markets where Japanese markets
:01:11. > :01:13.have seen investors turning their focus to the closely watched US job
:01:14. > :01:17.numbers later. I will gather myself to stop
:01:18. > :01:18.Our Economics Correspondent Andrew Walker will be here to give us stop
:01:19. > :01:23.the inside track on some of the big business stories of the week,
:01:24. > :01:23.including the latest on US jobs due out later today.
:01:24. > :01:26.And time is money as the old saying goes, Facebook has 50 minutes
:01:27. > :01:39.we want to know from you, do you give them 50 minutes? Let us know.
:01:40. > :01:53.The world's largest producer of steel, ArcelorMittal,
:01:54. > :01:59.has posted a 33% fall in profits in its first quarter to $416m.
:02:00. > :02:02.We'll have more on that in a moment, but the past few years has seen
:02:03. > :02:09.Here are the reasons why: As you can see from this graph showing one
:02:10. > :02:13.of the most commonly traded types of steel, rebar,
:02:14. > :02:19.the price has been hit by oversupply, cheap raw materials
:02:20. > :02:24.You will just have to trust me. There you are, the red line I was
:02:25. > :02:32.looking for. China produces half of the world's
:02:33. > :02:32.steel, more than the United States, the European Union,
:02:33. > :02:37.Russia and Japan combined. But demand for steel in China has
:02:38. > :02:40.shrunk for the first time in a generation as economic growth
:02:41. > :02:42.has slowed and policy makers have tried to steer
:02:43. > :02:50.the economy toward consumption. Declining sales at home have
:02:51. > :02:53.seen mills in China ship record volumes overseas,
:02:54. > :03:00.with China accused of dumping steel on foreign markets,
:03:01. > :03:00.or selling it for less than it Jason Kaplan is a steel expert
:03:01. > :03:20.with IHS Purchasing Service. Great to have you in the studio. Can
:03:21. > :03:24.I stuff, Victoria then with the graphics, making it seems we talk
:03:25. > :03:33.about the doom and gloom but that little Arctic, what was behind that?
:03:34. > :03:37.??HOTKEY craziness from China again. Everybody believes there is not
:03:38. > :03:40.enough stock and they are ordering materials and the first time you can
:03:41. > :03:46.buy it on an exchange. Not only is this not holding but in fact these
:03:47. > :03:54.steel mills are suddenly saying, we need more. It is craziness. I guess
:03:55. > :03:57.there were no surprises with the numbers from ArcelorMittal. When we
:03:58. > :04:09.look at the oil industry they are falling off a cliff. My own
:04:10. > :04:14.wandering what of the ones that are doing better than the ones
:04:15. > :04:18.doing worse are not doing? ArcelorMittal is actually one of the
:04:19. > :04:23.better ones. The US steel mills are doing considerably worse. Their
:04:24. > :04:32.success is really about geographic focus on India. One of the stronger
:04:33. > :04:37.markets. They also go back into iron ore. They are benefiting from
:04:38. > :04:43.low-cost throughout the supply chain. I want to ask about results
:04:44. > :04:51.we have seen today, losses narrowing slightly. The net debt in
:04:52. > :04:55.quarter has actually risen to over $7 billion. This seems to be a real
:04:56. > :04:58.structural weakness in the entire industry, the whole commodities
:04:59. > :05:09.sector really. Yes it is. That is the thing that is hampering and
:05:10. > :05:13.precipitating the Tata Steel demise. ArcelorMittal recently did another
:05:14. > :05:21.rights issue to keep things going. We have two wrap it up but is still
:05:22. > :05:27.price bottoming out? We think so. Upwards from now. Good on you.
:05:28. > :05:32.In other news... News Corp, the media giant
:05:33. > :05:34.controlled by Rupert Murdoch, has seen revenues fall 7.3%
:05:35. > :05:39.in the first three months of the year -
:05:40. > :05:39.amid a decline in advertising sales in the print media.
:05:40. > :05:42.It's the fifth drop in quarterly revenue in a row and was
:05:43. > :05:45.It's also been hit by the strong dollar which dented its
:05:46. > :05:52.News Corp lost $149m in the three months to March -
:05:53. > :05:52.after a big one-off charge to settle monopoly claims at its in-store
:05:53. > :06:06.The former owner of UK retailer British Home Stores,
:06:07. > :06:11.Sir Philip Green, has hit back at the politician responsible
:06:12. > :06:12.for looking into the collapse of the high street chain.
:06:13. > :06:15.Sir Phillips says that Frank Field, chairman of the Work
:06:16. > :06:16.and Pensions committee- should resign.
:06:17. > :06:22.His comments come after Mr Field recommended stripping the former BHS
:06:23. > :06:22.owner of his knighthood if he did not repay ?571m
:06:23. > :06:38.North Korea's ruling Workers' Party will open its first full
:06:39. > :06:43.Foreign reporters have been allowed in, to witness a display of national
:06:44. > :06:52.unity, but their movements are closely managed.
:06:53. > :06:58.Our Korea correspondent, Steve Evans, is among them
:06:59. > :07:02.That the building behind me, just across the square,
:07:03. > :07:11.In front of it, you probably can't see it, but there are rows and rows
:07:12. > :07:13.of buses which have bussed in the delegates.
:07:14. > :07:15.And right around the perimeter of the building there are men
:07:16. > :07:19.standing absolutely stock still, all with umbrellas.
:07:20. > :07:30.And those, we are told, are Kim Jong Un's personal guards.
:07:31. > :07:33.That is the way you tell he's in there.
:07:34. > :07:36.If you ask anybody what is going on they say, we don't know.
:07:37. > :07:38.What we assume is happening is that we are being called
:07:39. > :07:41.What we assume is happening is that we are being corralled
:07:42. > :07:44.here while Kim Jong Un is in there speaking and we presume
:07:45. > :07:47.we will go in and see the remainder of the proceedings.
:07:48. > :07:53.This thing is important because it is happening.
:07:54. > :07:58.Technically it is the body which runs North Korea but it is not
:07:59. > :08:08.Its significance we think is that Kim Jong Un is cementing his hold
:08:09. > :08:14.on power, it is his way of appearing to the nation,
:08:15. > :08:17.though it is not currently going out live on TV but no
:08:18. > :08:21.It is him cementing his position in the nation as the man in charge.
:08:22. > :08:27.What we don't know is whether there will also be some kind
:08:28. > :08:28.of policy announcement, a big signal of a change in policy,
:08:29. > :08:34.perhaps a liberalisation of the economy or something like that.
:08:35. > :08:36.Stocks in Japan dropped, and the yen strengthened as trading
:08:37. > :08:41.Caution dominated the mood in other Asian markets ahead
:08:42. > :08:51.They suffered their worst weekly loss since February.
:08:52. > :08:55.This is how the trading day is opening up across Europe.
:08:56. > :08:58.Markets have been open about 40 minutes now.
:08:59. > :09:03.Italian banks firmly in focus in Europe.
:09:04. > :09:08.Provisions for bad loans fell to a four year low.
:09:09. > :09:10.Michelle Fleury in New York has the details on those
:09:11. > :09:18.Has the US economy gained enough momentum to continue creating jobs
:09:19. > :09:25.We will find out in a few hours' time.
:09:26. > :09:30.The US Labor Department releases its latest
:09:31. > :09:36.Wall St will be watching closely to see how the
:09:37. > :09:42.data may influence the outcome of June's rate-setting policy meeting.
:09:43. > :09:44.Economists are predicting 202,000 jobs were created last month, and
:09:45. > :09:53.the unemployment rate is expected to remain unchanged at 5%.
:09:54. > :09:56.There are two things particularly to look out for.
:09:57. > :10:02.The first is the number of Americans searching for work,
:10:03. > :10:07.also known as the labor participation rate.
:10:08. > :10:11.The job prospects have improved and that figure has gone up.
:10:12. > :10:12.The other number to watch is wage growth, which, well, it's been
:10:13. > :10:15.Richard Jeffrey, Chief Investment Officer
:10:16. > :10:27.Always good to see you. Thanks for popping by. Let's stay with the US,
:10:28. > :10:30.not so much about the detail, what about the market focus? Earlier in
:10:31. > :10:34.the year it seemed like there was not so much focus on the markets, it
:10:35. > :10:43.was more inflation, salary growth, are the markets focused on these
:10:44. > :10:45.numbers today? Earlier in the year the markets were looking
:10:46. > :10:53.internationally because that is what was influencing the Fed. What tends
:10:54. > :10:57.to happen is that people initially look at the jobless numbers which
:10:58. > :11:04.hits the headline and then they start to analyse the detail. I think
:11:05. > :11:08.the detail is the labour cost, the average hourly earnings. I disagree,
:11:09. > :11:14.I think there is some sign of more wage inflation coming from the
:11:15. > :11:22.Saints. That is why the markets will be sensitive. That comes into the
:11:23. > :11:24.reaction function for the Federal reserve, it starts to think about
:11:25. > :11:29.wage infection picking up solution to warrant interest rates going up.
:11:30. > :11:33.The markets look forward and we have just had a whole slew of data
:11:34. > :11:38.surveys coming out from purchasing managers right across the world and
:11:39. > :11:44.they are fairly uniformly week. We are seeing rhetoric from central
:11:45. > :11:46.bankers that suggests things are a bit better. Why do we have this
:11:47. > :11:52.disconnect and who should we trust? You have to be careful about
:11:53. > :11:56.overanalysing monthly changes in any economic financial series. You love
:11:57. > :12:02.the purchasing managers surveys but actually I would say rather
:12:03. > :12:05.the purchasing managers surveys being week I would say they were
:12:06. > :12:09.dull. World growth is relatively dull but that is safe, when it is
:12:10. > :12:15.exciting, the stuff you like, it is unsafe cost of going too fast. I
:12:16. > :12:18.think the numbers are OK at the moment. I would not want to see them
:12:19. > :12:24.get much weaker but at the moment we are seeing a little volatility, some
:12:25. > :12:28.a bit weaker than expected, but I think the key is that after a poor
:12:29. > :12:32.first quarter in the US economy, which was probably related to some
:12:33. > :12:35.statistical seasonal adjustment problems, I think we will see a
:12:36. > :12:40.rebound in the second quarter and that is what visual banks are
:12:41. > :12:49.looking at. You are a glass half full bloke. That is the one. Best to
:12:50. > :12:50.be that way. You will come back and take us through the papers. Talk to
:12:51. > :12:54.you shortly. You Still to come: What is the future
:12:55. > :12:57.You for the Transatlantic Trade Our Economics Correspondent Andrew
:12:58. > :13:02.Walker will be here to tell us more. You're with Business
:13:03. > :13:05.Live from BBC News. Despite being surrounded by water,
:13:06. > :13:09.many people feel the UK doesn't currently make the most
:13:10. > :13:12.of its natural resources - Mark Shorrock says he's ready
:13:13. > :13:26.to change that and start building a tidal lagoon in Swansea Bay
:13:27. > :13:28.which could generate 8% I wonder how much power you think
:13:29. > :13:43.you can generate. What we can do, this island nation of ours gets a
:13:44. > :13:50.vast body of water coming out of the Atlantic notion into the Severn
:13:51. > :13:55.River and Liverpool Bay. -- Advanta Goshen. About eight metres- 12
:13:56. > :13:59.metres of tidal range, you could get 10% of our electricity by harnessing
:14:00. > :14:03.a series of tidal lagoons, filling and emptying man-made tidal lagoons
:14:04. > :14:09.around the coast. How does this around the coast.
:14:10. > :14:16.alternative energy generator compared to others already in play?
:14:17. > :14:21.One of the key things is, the way the water flows around Great
:14:22. > :14:27.Britain, the times change. When you have tidal lagoons in the Severn
:14:28. > :14:31.estuary, and they are off, tidal lagoons in Liverpool are on. So you
:14:32. > :14:35.have 24-hour generation, you always know when the tide will be rising
:14:36. > :14:40.and falling. They are stacked around the country. The big comparisons
:14:41. > :14:45.with wind and nuclear, but intervals of offshore wind and nuclear, tidal
:14:46. > :14:50.power will be cheaper than both. In terms of certainty, we know exactly
:14:51. > :14:52.in any year in the future when we will be generating for how long on
:14:53. > :15:00.any day. Price-wise we expect tidal power to be the cheapest possible
:15:01. > :15:04.source of power for the UK. It will last a very long time, if we build a
:15:05. > :15:11.tidal lagoon in Swansea Bay it will still be there in 120 years. Thank
:15:12. > :15:16.you for your time, Mark. This sounds fascinating. Did you know, one
:15:17. > :15:24.quarter of all UK workers not only want to take off for the weekend,
:15:25. > :15:28.they want out altogether? I am surprised it is just one quarter.
:15:29. > :15:40.Job satisfaction at the lowest for two years.
:15:41. > :15:49.People saying they feel very insecure.
:15:50. > :15:55.This is Business Live. ArcelorMittal's profit for the first
:15:56. > :16:00.three months of this year dropped 33%, with the slump in prices of the
:16:01. > :16:04.material, steel prices have gone straight down. Let's get more on the
:16:05. > :16:10.US jobs numbers, we've them all morning. They are coming
:16:11. > :16:14.out later today and implement is predicted to rise again and how will
:16:15. > :16:19.that affect the Federal Reserve's thinking when it comes to setting
:16:20. > :16:22.rates. One person with some insight into that is Robert Kaplan, the
:16:23. > :16:27.President of the Federal Reserve bank of Dallas and one of the people
:16:28. > :16:33.who sits on the big table of the Federal Reserve and
:16:34. > :16:34.least looks at what direction US interest rates should go and here is
:16:35. > :16:37.what he has to think. My own view is we know
:16:38. > :16:40.the consumer's capacity to spend in the United States
:16:41. > :16:42.is getting stronger. You know, their incomes,
:16:43. > :16:44.the job market is strong, wealth, home prices,
:16:45. > :16:48.so then the question is, is it political uncertainty,
:16:49. > :16:54.is it the financial turmoil Our own judgment is you will
:16:55. > :16:59.see a rebound at some point in the second
:17:00. > :17:01.quarter in consumer spending, and we still believe GDP growth
:17:02. > :17:10.will be 2% this year. Robert Kaplan is optimistic, Andrew,
:17:11. > :17:20.he is optimistic, reasonably. 2%, remember, in the context of a
:17:21. > :17:24.disappointing side in terms of disappointing side
:17:25. > :17:27.economic growth, it is OK, but over the longer period it is not grateful
:17:28. > :17:33.stop the US's economy long-term trend has been higher than that. Is
:17:34. > :17:36.he right to expect a rebound? Probably, yes. There is an
:17:37. > :17:41.expectation of a rebound, Richard mentioned seasonal adjustment
:17:42. > :17:45.issues, the US economy has had a pattern
:17:46. > :17:52.first quarter of the year, which raises the question, they do have
:17:53. > :17:56.the statistical techniques for smoothing out routine seasonal
:17:57. > :18:00.fluctuations and maybe there is a debate about whether the methods
:18:01. > :18:03.they are using are no longer up to the task and not capturing what is
:18:04. > :18:10.going on in the first quarter. Nonetheless, it was a weak figure,
:18:11. > :18:15.the signs are it will get better in the second quarter. Inters talk
:18:16. > :18:17.about what is going on with TTIP, the transatlantic trade investment
:18:18. > :18:24.love it on this programme, will it partnership. We love that! We all
:18:25. > :18:27.love it on this programme, will it happen, won't it? It has been a
:18:28. > :18:31.terrible week for the negotiators, first of all we had Greenpeace the
:18:32. > :18:33.environmental campaign group releasing documents which they
:18:34. > :18:40.the negotiations and they said it business in what they regard
:18:41. > :18:44.the negotiations and they said it pointed to their concerns about the
:18:45. > :18:50.deal leading to lower standards of consumer protection, environmental
:18:51. > :18:51.protection, health protection and so forth. So that was certainly a bad
:18:52. > :18:58.start to the week. French officials, including
:18:59. > :19:03.President Holland himself saying the deal potentially on the table as it
:19:04. > :19:07.stands would not be accessible -- President Hollande. You could argue
:19:08. > :19:11.Donald Trump's success is another setback because he has focused his
:19:12. > :19:21.trade rhetoric on other things, the transpacific partnership, Mexico,
:19:22. > :19:24.China, but it is a fair bet he would be at least a little sceptical.
:19:25. > :19:29.There are a lot of people in the states who don't like his trade
:19:30. > :19:35.deals but I'm along the lines of this is not going to happen, is it?
:19:36. > :19:37.President Obama wants to get it done before his term is over, the clock
:19:38. > :19:41.is ticking and the Europeans are not that much in favour anymore. If it
:19:42. > :19:45.doesn't get pushed before Obama is out, let's be frank, the way it is
:19:46. > :19:47.looking Donald Trump goes in, it is a done deal, not a done deal, it is
:19:48. > :19:52.out of I do think we can say that but we
:19:53. > :19:59.can save Hillary Clinton is also not a huge fan. Regardless of what
:20:00. > :20:08.happens. There are two questions, they get the legal agreement done
:20:09. > :20:11.before President Obama steps down, there are quite a lot of technical
:20:12. > :20:14.issues. Both sides have said they are committed to making the effort
:20:15. > :20:17.to get it done but both sides say it is important to get the right deal
:20:18. > :20:23.rather than just any deal by the deadline. Even if it is
:20:24. > :20:28.be ratified by the US Congress. With whoever is in Congress, with whoever
:20:29. > :20:31.is in the White House that is going to be really tough. I think perhaps
:20:32. > :20:36.little over doing it, something I to say it is out of
:20:37. > :20:40.little over doing it, something I would never normally accuse you of.
:20:41. > :20:47.Not me! But it is hugely challenging. Hugely challenging.
:20:48. > :20:51.know another challenge, Greece. It hasn't gone away.
:20:52. > :20:54.The IMF wants something, they want a lot of things.
:20:55. > :20:58.The Eurozone finance ministers will have a crack at getting the bailout
:20:59. > :21:03.were aiming to have a review were aiming to have a review
:21:04. > :21:05.completed and signed off back in the autumn and that didn't happen
:21:06. > :21:10.because of concerns about whether Greece was actually complying with
:21:11. > :21:15.the programme. They will try and get it done on Monday but the IMF was
:21:16. > :21:19.saying that it wants to have Greece having what they call contingent
:21:20. > :21:25.measures to reduce its borrowing needs. That's because the IMF is not
:21:26. > :21:30.at all convinced that the targets that... The measures Greece has
:21:31. > :21:34.already agreed will achieve the borrowing targets they have in mind.
:21:35. > :21:37.And they therefore want to have some additional
:21:38. > :21:43.in automatically if the targets are missed. And it has to be said, the
:21:44. > :21:48.Greek government is very unhappy about going down that line. And it's
:21:49. > :21:51.going to be... Talking about the struggle with TTIP, this will be a
:21:52. > :21:56.that the Eurozone finance ministers back on the rails
:21:57. > :22:01.that the Eurozone finance ministers are having on Monday. But, of
:22:02. > :22:04.course, with the referendum on EU membership in June and also the
:22:05. > :22:10.possible flare-up of the refugee crisis, the last thing Europe needs
:22:11. > :22:15.is a Greek drama, another crisis. Do you think the European
:22:16. > :22:17.may be in the mood for compromise? They maybe in the mood for
:22:18. > :22:19.compromise for precisely one of those reasons. The political
:22:20. > :22:26.background for the negotiations with Greece is such that you would like
:22:27. > :22:32.to be just part it for a long period -- like to be able to just park it.
:22:33. > :22:36.The agreement is between Greece and the International Monetary Fund, the
:22:37. > :22:38.Eurozone and the IMF, which thinks the targets as currently constituted
:22:39. > :22:44.commission's gift to do this. are not credible so it is not in
:22:45. > :22:47.commission's gift to do this. We appreciate your time, have a
:22:48. > :22:51.lovely weekend. In a moment we will take you through
:22:52. > :22:55.the business pages but first a quick reminder of how to get in touch.
:22:56. > :22:58.The Business Live page is where you can stay ahead with all of the day's
:22:59. > :23:03.you up-to-date with the latest breaking business news. We
:23:04. > :23:05.you up-to-date with the latest details with insight and analysis
:23:06. > :23:10.from the BBC's team of editors around the world. And we want to
:23:11. > :23:22.hear from you, get involved on the BBC Business Live web page at BBC
:23:23. > :23:31..co/ business. On Twitter we are BBC business. Whatever you need to know.
:23:32. > :23:36.get straight on with the papers. In get straight on with the papers.
:23:37. > :23:39.the New York Times Mark Zuckerberg has come out and said, those 1.6
:23:40. > :23:45.billion people who use Facebook regularly every month, give Facebook
:23:46. > :23:47.15 minutes a day. That is astonishing.
:23:48. > :23:53.Apparently it is more than measure activity, according to the
:23:54. > :24:03.bureau of labour statistics, with the exception of watching TV. And
:24:04. > :24:07.eating. That gets more time, doesn't it? What is interesting is not so
:24:08. > :24:11.much, crikey, spending 50 units on Facebook, it is that younger people,
:24:12. > :24:14.anybody younger than you and me, of course! Younger people are spending
:24:15. > :24:20.much more of their leisure time on things they don't have to pay for.
:24:21. > :24:23.That is quite interesting in terms of consumer spending, household
:24:24. > :24:27.spending and those sorts of trends. These things aren't actually free
:24:28. > :24:30.because they are paid for by advertising so they are paid for
:24:31. > :24:33.indirectly but consumers don't have to pull money out of their pockets
:24:34. > :24:37.to contemplate when we look at to contemplate when we look
:24:38. > :24:40.slightly dull consumer spending trends and they are going on a
:24:41. > :24:50.different way. We had some tweets. Caleb from my -- Nairobi says 50
:24:51. > :24:53.minutes is far more than enough. People are getting bored of
:24:54. > :24:57.Facebook. It doesn't look
:24:58. > :25:02.recent numbers. After the first flush, the
:25:03. > :25:08.technology is exciting, but maybe you want more faced time.
:25:09. > :25:12.I like that, Richard! We are running out of time.
:25:13. > :25:17.Financial Times, headline, most EU citizens in the UK would not meet
:25:18. > :25:23.That is absolutely right but the Even more so when the new rules come
:25:24. > :25:26.That is absolutely right but the Visa rules are set in the context of
:25:27. > :25:29.the number of people who can come in from the European Union. If there
:25:30. > :25:31.were tougher restrictions on people coming in from the European Union
:25:32. > :25:36.Visa rules might be relaxed so have Visa rules might be relaxed
:25:37. > :25:39.to look at those things in relation to one another. The fact is the UK
:25:40. > :25:42.has lots of demand for labour and it is sucking in workers and at the
:25:43. > :25:49.moment most of them come in from the EU.
:25:50. > :25:49.Richard Jeffrey, we appreciate your time,
:25:50. > :25:52.have a great weekend. Thank you, Richard.
:25:53. > :25:56.There will be more business news throughout the day
:25:57. > :26:00.on the BBC Live webpage and on World Business Report.