04/08/2017 BBC Business Live

Sunday, the ridge of high pressure building from the south-west but

this next weather front approaching brings outbreaks of showery rain so

it will be a fairly fresh start to the day on Sunday, plenty of

brightness across England and Wales first thing, one or two isolated

showers not out of the question, outbreaks of rain feeding from the

West into the afternoon with highs of 21 Celsius.

This is Business Live from BBC News with Ben Bland and Jamie Robertson.

Getting caught in the traffic - Toyota's profits are down

as the Japanese car-maker fights to get back into pole position.

Live from London, that's our top story on Friday 4th August.

Toyota's finances are hit by a huge drive to catch up with its rivals

on electric and autonomous cars, so can it be

The ride-hailing company admits it should have acted quick to fix

overheating parts on cars it gave its drivers.

A softer open across the main European indices, softer start to

the trading day. However, across the water in the US, the Dow has hit yet

another record high. We will look at what is going on a little later in

the programme. And we'll be getting

the inside track on Germany's diesel problems and Fairtrade chocolate

as we discuss all the big stories of the week with our business

correspondent Jonty Bloom. Using water to way down washing

machines instead of using concrete? Simple. But what a simple solutions

have you found to everyday problems. We have already had a tweet, David

saying, if I share my ideas, will you go 50/50? Smart man!

Toyota was once the company that sold the world more

And as it struggles to reclaim that number one spot,

As it released its latest number, the company behind the best-selling

car the world has ever seen, the Corolla, says its spending more

on what is called the "crucial" areas of self-driving cars

Toyota has reported a sharp fall in operating profits

It made $5.2 billion, a drop of 10.6% on the same period last year.

That's partly because of a big increase in research

Last year, despite "dieselgate", Volkswagen sold more cars,

and in the first half of this year they were both

overtaken by Renault-Nissan, after it added Mitsubishi

So Toyota is spending big to attract new customers.

Last month it committed another $100 million to develop

That is on top of the $1 billion it's already spending to develop

self-driving cars and other tech at a new research centre in the US.

But all of that research needs top engineers and scientists.

And to try and save on Silicon Valley's pricey talent, Toyota

recently launched a recruitment campaign on Tokyo's Nambu railway

line, along which many of the country's tech

James Batchelor, editor-at-large for Auto Express and Car

The picture there and has painted is of a company where profits are down

but for a very good reason, spending huge amounts of money on RMT. Is it

spending it in the right places? What kind of things is its spending

on? It needs to spend more money on R because Toyota fears of being

left behind by big tech companies, companies like Tesla, for example,

producing autonomous cars, so Toyota is spending the money in the right

area, because it has to. Has it been left behind, do you think? They all

are, in a way. They had the previous, which was a byword for the

next big thing, and now it is historic. It is not being left

behind at the moment, but the Prius is 20 years old, they have sold 3.5

million of them since 1997. Toyota is spending a lot of money in terms

of the hydrogen fuel cell car as well. If that's the future? It is

not what everybody else has been talking about recently, is it? It is

one way to the future. We are all looking at electric cars and hybrids

at the moment. Hydrogen fuel cell car could be a

step far because it involves huge amounts in terms of infrastructure.

What about in terms of Electric, is it going down that route? Toyota is

going down the hybrid route, they have always gone... Not pure

electric? Not at the moment, they championed the hybrid because they

see that is the technology most people want to buy and especially as

we look at the 2040 ban on petrol cars, hybrid seems to be the best

way out for most customers. There is some talk of a merger with the

company, possibly muster, eight press release due in a couple of

hours? There definitely seems to be a tie-up looming between Mazda and

Toyota, probably to build a new factory in America because a lot of

car companies are having to tie up with each other to try to get ahead

of their competitors. So that is the way the industry is going, these

alliances between like we have with Nissan and Renault? Absolutely, that

is the only way a lot of car companies can spread cost in terms

of platforms and new technology. OK, we will cover that when we hear what

happens with that press conference. James, thank you very much indeed.

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

The Royal Bank of Scotland has made its first half-year profit in three

years. The bank, which is majority owned by the British taxpayer, made

$1.23 billion in the period. It has said it will relocate some stuff to

Amsterdam after Brexit as it looks to maintain European operations.

The cost of damage from a cyclone which hit Australia in March is one

of the main reasons profits are down at Swiss Re.

It cost the world's second largest re-insurer $360 million.

The company says it made $1.2 billion in the first

that's a third less than the same time last year.

It's seeking to move into new areas to grow its business.

A British computer expert credited with helping to shut down

a world-wide cyber attack earlier this year has been arrested

Marcus Hutchins stopped the WannaCry virus

from spreading further, after it affected thousands

The arrest is not linked to that attack.

There is more to that story than meets the eye!

We should follow it. Let's go to Asia now,

where there is more It says it has taken action to fix

cars it was using in Singapore A spokesman has told the BBC that

the company could have done more to fix the problem with these SUV 's in

Singapore. The Wall Street Journal reported that the company got

100,000 Honda Vezels even though they had been recalled due to

overheating. One of the drivers explained an incident where flames

burst out of the dashboard, melted the interior and cracked a hole in

the windshield. Luckily no one was hurt. This is a challenging time for

the company, it is also in the midst of battling sexual harassment claims

in the US and dealing with an exodus of executives. Earlier this summer

its chief executive resigned and is now on the hunt for a new CEO.

OK, thank you very much, Monica Miller there for us.

Let's look at the markets, that is a picture on the Asian markets, Tokyo

closing low on Friday with exporters pulling it downwards as the yen

strengthened against the dollar. A weakened dollar against the yen

makes Japan's exporters less competitive. The dollar weakened

after the new report on the probe into the Trump administration's

alleged ties with Russia and also a survey which showed growth in the

American services sector slowed sharply in July, so analysts are not

expecting the US jobs and wages data out later to offer much relief. On

Wall Street, although the tech focused Nasdaq, it has just

disappeared, edged to a record high for the second straight day. Here is

how the European market started the day, opened in the red but the FTSE

100 picking up, as we mentioned a moment ago, feeling a downward pull

from Swiss Re after it missed its profits estimate. Benefiting a bit

on the RBS share price which has gone up after it announced its

profits. And Samira Hussain has

the details about what's ahead It is the first Friday

in a new month and here in the US it can only mean one

thing, jobs numbers. The Labor Department will release

the latest employment figures Back in June, the US

economy added 222,000 jobs. Analysts are expecting non-form

payrolls to decrease They are also expecting to see

the unemployment rate fall to 4.3%. This number will be closely watched

by the Federal Reserve, America's central bank,

as it considers the next rise Now, there has been a flurry

of earnings coming up this week and those earnings helped push US

markets to record-breaking highs. Before the week comes to an end,

there are still a few more companies that will report,

including health insurers, Cigna, and Newell Brands,

the maker of Sharpie pens. Joining us is Mike Bell,

global market strategist 22,000 is terribly impressive,

should we be impressed or is it just another number? If you look in the

Dow there are lots of tech companies, some parts of the tech

market are pretty expensive at the moment so we would favour rotating

into some of the cheaper parts of the market, particularly the

financials, which should do well. But the financials are boosted

because everyone is expecting regulatory reform, basically taking

away the regulations, but is that going to happen? We have seen since

the start of the year a lot of that has been priced out of the

financials. The market is expecting the Fed to put rates up, that would

be a positive background. You don't get worried about the market at

22,000? Bits of the market look expensive, but the key for your

return is what you pay in terms of the multiple and if you look at some

tech stock trading at over 30 times, that is risky, we would favour 12 to

13. Jobs data due out later, not expecting great things? About

180,000 jobs added in the month, anything over 150,000 will be enough

for the Fed to announce in September they will reduce the balance sheet.

Why not put your money into the European stock markets? That is

where the growth is at the moment Europe as a continent is growing

faster than the United States, prices are undervalued, we have seen

a fall away in some stock prices over the last three or four months,

that is where you will get value? I agree with that. There is more

upside here, we have had a bit of a pull-back, quite an attractive

buying opportunity because the Eurozone economy is quite broadly

across the economy growing quite strongly at somewhere around 2.5%,

Spain close to three. Any particular countries? Don't mention Germany

because we always talked about Germany, but places interesting in

terms of growth prospects? What is interesting is nearly every economy

in the year resident is doing well. Even Greece?! Crease less so! We

have seen survey data improving in the last month suggesting even Italy

is showing signs of acceleration. You mentioned Spain, particularly

attractive at the moment? Spain is leading the great story with growth

of 3% whereas the rest of the economies are more like 2% so Spain

looks pretty positive. And what about the poor old UK? The UK is

really the LANguard... Is it really, in a European context? The rest of

Europe is growing about twice as fast as the UK, 2.5% in Europe,

about 1.2 in the UK, so uncertainty around Brexit really is hurting the

UK economy. Thanks very much indeed. We will discuss all of the big

stories of the week with our business correspondence including

Germany's diesel problems and fair trade chocolate.

You're with Business Live from BBC News.

Royal Bank of Scotland sees its first half-year

It earned ?939 million - that's compared with a ?2 billion

Theo Leggett is in our business newsroom.

Looking through the numbers, what do you make of it?

They are very strong numbers for the first top of this year and I think

that reflects what RBS has been doing, which is consolidating its

attention on its UK and Ireland -based retail and corporate banking.

Trying to focus more on its core businesses. The comparison with last

year is a bit misleading because last year, for example, RBS made its

final dividend payment to the UK Government, which was more than ?1

billion. It also had a big amount of money set aside

for payment protection insurance payment and so on. So there were a

lot of one-off items that made the figures seem worse than they were.

It is moving its headquarters? It is talking about moving them if it

loses its European passport rights of the Brexiter. It already has a

Dutch banking licence acquired as its legacy of another purchase in

2007. That was the deal that pushed RBS into such trouble and

necessitated, eventually a bailout from the UK Government. It wouldn't

be radical in terms of jobs, it would mean about 150 jobs would need

to be set up in Amsterdam and some would be moved over from London. But

in symbolic terms, it would be important. Thank you very much

indeed. On the business live page, it is updated throughout the day.

There is a story on there now about the Institute of directors, one of

the UK's biggest business lobby groups urging the Cabinet to stop

bouncing around the edges of Brexit. It is because of the arguments

within the Cabinet, apparently had within the Cabinet, about how to

smooth the move from the EU two out of the EU, which is commonly known

as I understand is Brexit? Indeed, you are not wrong.

You're watching Business Live, our top story...

Toyota has seen a sharp fall in profits. Partly thanks to big

spending on self driving cars and also technology which it hopes will

make it the world's bestselling car brand, which is what it used to be.

A quick look at how markets are faring...

That is what the pound will get you against the dollar.

And now let's get the inside track: This week German carmakers have

agreed with top politicians to cut harmful emissions by

updating software in five million diesel vehicles.

And Sterling has fallen sharply against the Dollar and the Euro

after The Bank of England downgraded the UK growth forecast

for this year and next, warning that the economy

Let's get more with our business correspondent Jonty Bloom.

Let's start with the Bank of England. A huge amount of

information yesterday. Some it all up, what have we learned? We have

just heard we want the Cabinet to introduce a transitional arrangement

for leaving the EU. The Bank of England was talking about much the

same thing, it is Brexit and the uncertainty about Brexit which is

damaging the British economy at the moment. That is what the Bank of

England is saying. It is happening at the moment? It is saying

businesses are not investing at the rate they would expect and it is a

benign area. You would expecting companies to be investing more and

they art and and it says it is down to uncertainty. The other end, it is

looking like less moving towards any rate rises soon, the split is not as

sharp as it was? We had one person in favour has just left on the new

person who has joined isn't interested in increasing interest

rates. Compare that with the rest of the Western world, the ECB is

talking about easing off on bond purchases and we're expecting the

Fed to do something about that in September. It is already putting

interest rate up. But the Bank of England is kicking the can down the

road because it is worried about the underlying strength of the economy,

it is seen growth, which it says is sluggish and has downgraded the

forecast for this year and next. Let's move on cars. They have their

backs to the wall and they have to do something about their emissions,

but a lot of people saying they are not doing enough? People are

comparing it to Nokia. Remember the phone company that dominated the

market and was virtually annihilated by the iPhone and new developments.

It was the leading company. Mobile phones, everybody wanted a new one

every six months every year, every two years and it couldn't keep up

and was overtaken by technology. Some said the German car industry is

like that. They backed the wrong horse, they went green by backing

diesel and then they fiddled the tests to make it look greener and

now they have talks with the government out they will crack that.

And the new cars we were talking about our electric cards or hybrids.

BMW is heavily, all its products will have a electric elements within

them? Which is why I think the analogy is wrong, cars last longer

and they have put a lot of money and research into this and they will

have time. People are still buying petrol and diesel cars, it is not

like everyone is going electric. Only 5% of cars are hybrid or

electric in the UK at the moment, so they have time to turn it around.

Writing of the German car industry is a huge mistake. Want to talk

about chocolate, Green Black's dropping the Fairtrade? Yes, big

companies often by specialist labels, which are organic fair trade

or environmentally friendly, ethical. You have to ask, why do

they do that, they have to pay a premium. Look at what has happened

now. Green Black's was taken over by Cadburys, that was taken over by

craft and now are dropping the Fairtrade label. They had brought

their own in, Cocoa life. Yes, it is not Fairtrade but it is ethical. You

are paying a premium for something you bought because it is ethical and

the brand that built itself up saying it is unlikely. You are

taking it over and undermining it. Be pushing the Cocoa life brand to

all of the Cadbury stuff. Very large companies think we are being

outmanoeuvred by these ethical companies so they buy them at a

great price, and people say, it is not ethical any more because it is

owned by you. Ben and Jerry 's is like that. Body shop is another one.

I didn't know you were quite the Cocoa connoisseur. I wrote the story

on the website. Good to see you. Last day, but all eyes were on Rio

but some of the real estate they bought remains unsolved.

What other business stories? We kick off with washing machines. Instead

of using concrete, put them in place and fill the base with water, it

seems so obvious? And the top. Because water isn't as heavy as

hungry. This is why I work in news and not construction. It is a

no-brainer? They will have to be a bit bigger and whether that will be

desirable from a consumer perspective. Every invention comes

along and it seems obvious in retrospect, but self-service

shopping only came around in the last 150 years, prior to that you

had to be served by someone. It is a real, why didn't I think of that,

story. We have asked people to come up with their own suggestions. One

tweet says used shipping containers turning them into affordable homes.

Solar power power, if I want to live in a shipping container. Put a bit

of air conditioning in, and the window. But the other story which we

have, can you get it on the screen. Making Germany environmentally

friendly reducing carbon emissions by 80%. 1.4 euros trillion, how will

be a fallback? That sounds like a lot, but it is spread out over the

next 32 years so it is only 40 billion a year, if you compare that

to the German economy, it is about 1.5% of overall GDP, so it is pretty

affordable and for the future of the planet, it is money well spent. It

is not a black hole, it is being spent, people get it for doing

stuff. People will be employed and it will provide some stimulus. I

think it is money well spent. Thank you very much.

There will be more business news throughout the day

on the BBC live webpage and on World Business Report.

Hello, good morning and another day of sunny spells and showers is

thanks to this area of low pressure which has been