03/08/2017 BBC Business Live

This is Business Live from BBC News with Ben Thompson and Sally Bundock.

Tesla shows us the road to the future.

The world's leading electric car maker cut its losses and pushes

into fifth gear with a big jump in sales.

Live from London, that's our top story on Thursday

Elon Musk's company says it's had more than half a million

orders for it's Model 3, but how long will it take for Tesla

Delivering a blow to Australian retailers?

Internet shopping giant Amazon says its going down under

to open its first warehouse in the country.

And as the Dow surged through 22,000 off the back

of those Apple earnings - attention today on the Bank

of England's rate decision and forecasts for growth.

We speak to the boss of Cirque du Soleil on how to walk the tightrope

of balancing finance, safety and magic tricks

And as Brazilian footballer Neymar looks set to become most expensive

footballer in history - moving to French club

Paris Saint Germain for a record breaking 262 million dollars -

we want to know what's your most expensive purchase?

Let us know, use the hashtag, BBC Biz Live.

A lot of suggestions coming into us already, including your university

education and your house, chances are it is one of those two. Let us

know, use the hashtag. Let's begin in the United States, with Tesla.

Tesla is the car company that's promising to change

Investors have been taking a huge gamble on the electric car maker

and it judging by its latest numbers that appears to be paying

off, the share price has risen even higher.

Here's why: In the three months to the end of June sales hit $2.8bn.

That's more than double the same time last year.

It's still losing money though - over $336 million in the same three

month period which is more than last year - but not as bas

And it's paying off - Tesla delivered nearly 26,000

vehicles in that time, 40% more than the same

And that number could soon rise even further because its taken more

than half a million orders for the Model 3.

It started delivering what's being described as its first mass

Tesla hopes the Model 3 will keep it at the top of the market

But two Chinese rivals are already in the top five -

Plus the German car giants are investing heavily

as they try to put the 'dieselgate' emissions scandal behind them.

But the Model 3's design is transforming the industry.

It has less than 7,000 parts, which compares to 30,000

That might sound like a lot. But it isn't much compared to the

traditional car. That makes it simpler to build -

and less likely to suffer Jeremy White, Product Editor

of WIRED is with me. Thank you for coming in. So, Ben is

talking through some of the statistics and numbers. These are

pretty good earning figures for Tesla, aren't they? Which is good to

deliver, considering how the share price has been going up and up over

the recent weeks and months? They are impressive figures and they show

the appetite for these vehicles, they are getting 1800 orders per day

for the new Model three. It is whether they will be able to deliver

those, they have had difficulty delivering on the previous models,

getting sales delivered. It is whether they do that, that is

interesting. Talk us through what could be bumps in the road. They are

more simple for the manufacturer but it is the supply chain, the plants

to build the cars, they do not have that at the moment. They are

building a battery factory in Nevada with Panasonic and they are trying

to compete with the traditional manufacturers, with the supply chain

which is already set up, it is going to be difficult. And it is true that

Elon Musk has cast a spell over Wall Street and the numbers help him, it

shows that he is delivering on his enormous promises but, in the

meantime, his rivals in the car industry are catching up very

quickly, and they are busy working on those similar vehicles, and there

is momentum behind this now. We have government policy coming into line,

we had the meeting in Berlin yesterday and announcements from the

UK Government. The appetite is that? Yes, and the regulations coming in

for 2019 require higher restrictions on emissions, that is why we had

an announcement from Volvo that they will be making electric only cars

from 2019. Car makers are making cars and government is trying to

push policy but when it comes to the nuts and bolts of it, or whether you

can charge what you want, and the batteries need to get better so they

do not take so long to recharge? That is right, the Model three has a

range of 500 kilometres. Jaguar are working on a car with a similar

range, as are Bentley. It's what you do when you run out of power after

that distance. The gamble is you will only use the car for less than

that per day and then come home and charge it up. What if you are on the

road and you do not have charge left? Battery technology is

relatively in its infancy in electric vehicles and it needs to

get much better to allay these fears and allow for fast charging. Thank

you for your time this morning, fascinating. So much more about

Tesla on our website, including if you dig deep and find the interview

with Elon Musk that Rory Kevin Jones did not so long ago.

Let's take a look at some of the other stories

The food delivery company Deliveroo is introducing

new safety measures to protect its riders from violence.

It follows acid attacks in London last month,

where the victims included riders delivering by bike or moped.

Among the measures are a new app feature that allows riders

to raise security concerns, plus a trial of helmet cameras.

Australia's Commonwealth Bank has been accused of massive

breaches of money-laundering and counter terrorism regulations.

The case against the country's biggest mortgage lender

is the biggest case of its kind in Australia and the first

Commonwealth Bank says it is reviewing the allegations

Toshiba says it's going ahead with the capital investment to build

a new memory chip production line without joint venture

partner Western Digital, after the two have failed to reach

Somewhat confusingly though, Western Digital has just said it

intends to invest in the new chip line along with Toshiba.

We will find out what is going on and let you know! You have that job,

OK? I am delegating! Amazon has announced it

will open its first retail logistics The online retailer says

that the 24,000 square metre "fulfilment centre" is "an integral

early step" in its effort to establish a retail

presence in Australia. That's management-speak if I have

ever heard it! Mariko Oi is in our Asia

Business Hub in Singapore. We heard the management-speak, what

is going on, a big change for Australia? Indeed. It seems that

Amazon is really investing heavily in Asia-Pacific, just last week we

told you that Amazon has launched its Prime Now service in Singapore

as part of the start of its aggressive expansion into Southeast

Asia and now the company has unveiled the location of its first

warehouse, in Melbourne, making sense due to its proximity to the

east coast were over 80% of the country's population lives. We still

do not know when the service is going to start but it is definitely

going to put a lot of pressure on traditional retailers whose shares

have been falling since the announcement was made. Absolutely,

thank you very much. Yes, Amazon's integral early step to establish a

retail presence in Australia. Asian shares were down on Thursday,

led by falls in South Korean tech shares, as investors locked

There was also some evidence of slowing activity

in China's service sector and weaker commodity prices.

On Wall Street though, the Dow Jones breaking

through the 22,000 barrier for the first time

I will get out of the way so we can talk about it better!

That was pumped up by those earnings from Apple we told

More earnings news in Europe for investors to digest -

but attention will be on the Bank of England - as it

A hike would be a big surprise - most assuming a rise

will come early next year, not this year.

And so Assuming rates remain on hold, the quarterly

inflation report - that we get a little

What does it make of Brexit, slowing growth, and rising inflation?

Don't pay too much attention to that, the FTSE 100 is actually down

a little bit this morning. More on that shortly -

but first Samira Hussain has the details about what's ahead

on Wall Street Today. Earnings continue on Thursday with

several more companies reporting, including Kraft Heinz, the changing

taste in consumers opting for more fresh and organic food will likely

have hurt the company in the last quarter. Also reporting earnings is

the health insurer Aetna, insurers will be looking for comments on the

company, with uncertainty. After the Senate failed to pass a health care

bill to dismantle Obamacare. Aetna previously. We will hear from the

dish network, they are struggling with the growing trend of cord

cutting where subscribers are dropping TV packages altogether for

cheaper online streaming services, such as Netflix.

Joining us is Jeremy Stretch, head of currency strategy

A familiar face to the programme, nice for you to be here. Do you want

to start? Let's begin with the Dow Jones. I said figures were

partly due to Apple but there are other factors? Yes, Apple was one of

them, but in terms of the Apple Store, people were bracing

themselves for slightly disappointing numbers as there was a

fear that tech savvy phone users were waiting for the next version of

the iPhone, that was not the case. Earnings are strong in a number of

industries, that is the underlying dynamic. And you could argue there

is a currency effect in some instances, as the US dollar has

continued to depreciate in recent weeks, as you translate foreign

earnings into US dollars, it enhances earnings numbers and boost

equity markets. And among market watchers there is a hot debate as to

what will happen next. Is there going to be a horrible correction or

will its tail off? Where are you in the big debate? It depends on what

policymakers do, and so... Are you sitting on the fence? The

valuations, if you look at them against his strikes, they look

stretched but we have seen a massive run, especially in US equities,

there should be some degree of correction but in that context it is

not necessarily unhealthy. Are you excited about Super Thursday?

Undoubtably, not that we are expecting a policy change but what

is most interesting is what the banks say about the growth, they

revised the forecast in February and were forced to take a little of that

in May, they may be forced to do more now, the first half of this

year has been rather disappointing and the consumer is facing

difficulties in terms of maintaining expenditure, so I think numbers will

be revised down which could impact how the markets consider monetary

policy outlets for this year and especially into 2018. We will be

watching closely! The reason I am looking at my phone... That is a bit

rude! We have been asking people for comments about Neymar... Oh, so it

is work? Jeremy is coming back in a moment. The Brazilian footballer is

moving to PSG for a record-breaking amount of money, we suspect.

A lot of the comments this morning. Will you share them or will you

tease us? Starbucks, there we go, I bought a $6 cup of coffee from

Starbucks, it didn't even taste good, it was the most expensive

purchase of my life. On my wish list is the Tesla Model three, says

Natasha. This is what you can spend your money on... A familiar theme...

Housing, cars and clothing. We will look through those later.

Still to come, we will find out how you balance the high wire act of

entertainment with demand for profit with the boss of Cirque du Soleil.

Stay tuned for that. You are with Business Live from BBC News.

High street fashion chain Next says sales fell by 7.4%

But sales at its Next Directory and online shopping

Theo Leggett is our business correspondent -

Next has had a torrid time, what was in these number is, talk us through

them. It is a mixed bunch, but full price sales, if you take into

account what is going on on the high Street, online and the catalogue

business were up 0.7%. Now, that doesn't sound too dramatic but it

was a lot better than the first quarter, which was pretty dire. At

11 and one third percent the share price. What is explaining that? Next

has said it still has a very large cash pile, still generating a lot of

cash and it intends to return a lot of it to shareholders, that is why

the share prices going up, that the fact that it was pretty mediocre, it

was a lot better than the first. Sales picked up in June and July.

Ten one says it wasn't down to any particular marketing genius, it was

the warm weather, remember that? It was summer. So the bits that are

doing well, we have mentioned the online side of the business, focus

through that. Next Directory was already doing well. In the second

quarter sales were up more than 11%. Overall, that is helping to massage

the entire business. The high-street business is down more than 7%. It is

what we have been seeing for quite a while, next is doing very poorly on

the high-street but doing rather well online. Thank you very much

indeed. Talking about this on the today

programme today on Radio 4, despite the rise in binge viewing, streaming

services, things like Netflix, and people say people are still -- Ofcom

said people are still watching traditional TV. Like Business Live!

I am sure it is Business Live, they just forgot to include us. All the

people watching -- older people watching more than younger people,

who I guess ten to watch it more on tablets. Full details on the

website. The top story today, shares in the

electric car company Tesla are pretty sharply after reporting a

doubling of sales and more than half a million orders of its model three

car. That has begun shipping right now. It has been pegged as the big

change for the electric car market. Now markets trading in Europe, the

Footsie down slightly, they are all edging lower just a little bit. Not

following on from the record-breaking night on Wall

Street, the Dow Jones closing down. Cirque du Soleil - or in english

the Circus of the Sun - it's one of the biggest theatrical

producers in the world. The company had its beginnings

in 1984 and now has almost 4,000 staff from more

than 50 countries. Known for its acrobatics,

the group is putting on 20 different And the Canadian

company is expanding, it's just bought the American

entertainment firm the Blue Man group,

and is looking to walk Sharanjit Leyl has been speaking

to Circue du Soleil's chief executive about the company's

expansion plans, and Now with the acquisition of blue man

group, we want to, so with the blue man group and the experience on time

square, Cirque will be looking at markets like London, Hamburg in

Germany, and all of the Asia, we still see a lot of growth, including

here, Singapore. When the private equity firm TPG first took over

sector to lay, -- Cirque du Soleil, there were lots of streamlining of

cost cuts, are those concerns still there? We have not seen any push

from TPG to do extreme cost saving. Obviously we managed saving, but it

hasn't changed the way we produce shows and we create shows. That is

what I told them from the get go. I said I am there to listen to all the

advice you can give me, from a business standpoint, but for

creation and production, you know, that's so important, please leave

our creators alone, and they just burst laughing, because as financial

people, they haven't had any ambition about the product itself.

And of course the Chinese company Folsom also has a stake. So have

they influenced your push into China? They are a great supporter of

us cracking the Chinese market, diving when we will look into three

years from now, and you will see the of Cirque in China. It will be

because of the support I got from them. Over the years though, Cirque

du Soleil has had its fair share of tragedy. You've heard three deaths,

including the death of the son of one of the founders. So what have

you done to improve safety? Obviously we are very sad of what

happened, but the reality is a lot of enquiries has been done after

those fatalities, and it was crystal clear that it was an accident.

Because we are recognised worldwide as having the best safety measure in

the world. And hopefully it will never happen again, but we are very

proud of our safety measures. Tell us a little of yourself, because you

have a really very different background. You started off as a

journalist, you were in television and now you are the Chief Executive

of the largest circus firm in the world. How did you get into it?

That's interesting, because I used to support guy in the early days of

Cirque du Soleil when I was in the PR business. And he was one of the

founders. Yes, then I moved to the TV business and started working with

guy again, and that is when the relationship was not between us, and

Monday he called me out of the blue and said you are going to join the

circus. And here I am running around the world for Cirque du Soleil. Did

you say yes immediately? No, for me, it was such a different challenge

than the TV business, I said let me think about it, and three weeks

later I was joining the circus. And it has changed your life ever since.

It did, it brought an amazing experience to travel around the

world, and to have the possibility to bring a Canadian company around

the world. And this is very, very rewarding. And the fact that you're

a Canadian brand, how do you use that as a potential selling point?

What is quite unique about Canada is that we are recognised worldwide as

a country that really bring a lot of people from around the world, and

everyone loves to come to our creative centre in Montreal. They

feel at home and hosted. If you were to come in our studio in Montreal,

you would have the feeling you are at the United Nations, not at Cirque

du Soleil, which is great, because we like this idea that everybody

feels at home when they come to Canada and they feel at home and

they come to Cirque du Soleil. Daniel Lamarre. Jeremy Ross back to

talk through some of the stories out there being discussed and there is

no doubt that this one about the footballer Neymar's possible

transfer fee, not confirmed, not sealed or signed by any means, but

quite phenomenal the same. This is where business and sport collide in

a very serious way because we're talking about enormous sons of

money. And also about geopolitics, because PSG, the owners of them are

the Qataris, and of course they are also trying to enhance their own

credibility internationally and they are suffering from a little bit of a

political blockade back home. And hosting the World Cup in 2022. They

say money talks, but some would argue this is like verbal diarrhoea,

it really is on another level and you wonder where it will end. We

have this discussion every year, whether the football profit news

comes out, Deloitte, with that on an annual basis. It just seems there is

no cap. The numbers continue to accelerate exponentially. In the UK,

we have seen new football rights, more TV cash coming into the game,

which invariably goes out of the game to agents and players. We as

viewers or supporters of course are one is forced to pay those prices in

order to facilitate these ever elevated salaries and transfer fees.

We asked the viewers what they might do with this kind of money. Chris

said, we asked what is your most expensive purses -- purchase, Chris

said it was his divorce. Alex says my degree. So I think it is houses

and education and maybe family matters. Someone on Twitter says on

returning from deployment in Afghanistan, I bought a Tag watch

for ?2000. That is an expensive watch. Let's talk about this other

story, which is interesting. FTSE 100 pay-outs is going down. Indeed.

What we have seen in the last ten or 15 years is that the earnings of

Chief Executive 's have risen stratospherically. We are now just

seeing a bit of a correction, partly due to the fact that shareholders

are becoming more vociferous and pushing back against... There have

been shareholder revolts. Indeed, and that is making businesses or

renumeration committee is a little bit wary of putting their heads

above the parapet and trying to give Chief Executive 's exceptionally

high pay packages for fear of investor revolts. It could be an

element of tokenism, but there was a realisation there had been a

dislocation between topics Vicky Gibbs and the rest of the workforce.

Thanks, nice to see you. -- between top executives.

Hello, good morning, a day of sunny spells and showers today, the

majority of those will be the north. They are making their way slowly

towards the East, twirling around an area of low pressure sitting