31/10/2017 BBC Business Live

This is Business Live from BBC News,

with Sally Bundock and Ben Bland.

Facebook says nearly half

of all Americans might have seen

divisive Russia linked posts

ahead of last year's

presidential election.

Live from London, that's our top

story on Wednesday, 31st October.

The tech giant is due to tell

politicians in Washington

about Russia's impact on the poll,

amid fears that it will face

tighter regulation, along

with Twitter and Google.

Also in the programme....

The Bank of England warns that

Brexit could mean tens of thousands

of financial services jobs are lost

in the City of London.

Kamal Ahmed will fill you in on what

he knows. And markets in Europe are

mixed. Bucking the trend in Asia

were losses were right across the

board.

And trick or treat -

we'll be getting the inside track

on how one fancy dress company

is cashing in on the growing

appetite for Halloween that

will see Britons spend more

than ever before.

As the big tech firms, Facebook,

Google and Twitter, face

a grilling over Russian meddling

in the US election, we want to know

- how much do you trust

social media for news?

Just let us know.

Use the hashtag BBCBizLive.

Hello and welcome to Business Live.

Do get in touch with your comments.

So much to get your teeth into. We

are starting with Facebook, Twitter

and Google.

In a few hours' time Facebook,

Twitter and Google's parent Alphabet

will answer questions

about how their platforms

were exploited during last year's US

Presidential election.

Their lawyers' testimony

to Congressional committees

in Washington could eventually lead

to tighter regulation

of online advertising.

One example of what's

being questioned is the 80,000

adverts which Facebook said

were focused on "divisive

social and political

messages" around the election

and were bought in Russia.

Facebook has shared

them with Congress.

In terms of their influence,

Facebook estimates that they were

seen by about 126 million people

before and after November's poll.

Tech firms are concerned about

the prospect of new regulation,

and in the last week or so both

Twitter and Facebook said

they will improve advertising

transparency, especially when it

comes to political ads.

Some leading Senators are proposing

the Honest Ads Act, to regulate

online ad sales for sites with more

than 50 million US

visitors each month.

Technology Correspondent Rory

Cellan-Jones is with me.

Sally went through the numbers. As

the story has developed, they

interchange. We heard 3000 and

80,000.

What is important today is

until now we have been hearing about

paid advertising on these different

platforms, Facebook, Twitter and

Google. This time we are hearing

about free content. That is reaching

far more people. Accounts that no

turn out to be from a particular

Russian organisation spreading

across the Internet. The Washington

post is reporting yes, 126 million

Facebook users saw this material.

Also, 1100 YouTube videos connected

to Russian sources. And 36,000

Twitter pops. What we are seeing

here is free. This must be a

nightmare for these companies. The

impact of this material is coming

through free post on their

platforms. That is what they will be

deserving in front of Congress.

It

is quite interesting how the

attitudes to it has -- have changed.

Facebook initially dismissed the

idea of Russian meddling as crazy

talk?

Exactly. That was Mark

Zuckerberg's quote a day after the

US presidential election when the

subject became hot. Yes, it is

crazy, why would you can -- think

this would happen? He has had to

apologise for that remark. Facebook

is coming to terms with just how

dangerous a position it is in. It is

a major media platform. It doesn't

want to be a media platform.

Facebook experimented with pushing

news stories out of its main news

feeds so people just saw baby

pictures, party pictures, the sort

of stuff associated with Facebook.

It is a difficult time for these

social media companies. They don't

want to be the media bit. They want

to be social. Media companies get

regulated and that is what they are

frightened.

They face this gruelling

by US lawmakers. Do you think we

will see any regulatory changes?

It

is quite difficult in the US with

first Amendment protection to see

what exactly might be done. That is

obviously the fear for these

companies. That is what they would

be wary of in these two days' of

hearings.

There have been many warnings

about the potential impact of Brexit

on the City of London's role as one

of the world's leading

financial centres.

But now the Bank of England

is warning tens of thousands

of jobs are at risk.

Our economics editor

is Kamal Ahmed.

Tell smack more about this and what

you are hearing?

I'm hearing that

the Bank of England asked all the

financial institutions around the

United Kingdom to come up with what

they describe as contingency plans.

Those plans were delivered over the

summer. From that, this figure of

75,000 possible job losses over

three to five years has become

clear. That number is connected to,

if there were a no deal break with

the European Union and Britain went

to World Trade Organisation

relationship with the rest of the

EU. In the bank's mind that would be

the most negative outcome, because

it would mean the biggest hurdles

between Britain and the rest of the

European Union. It would mean that

banks and financial institutions in

the UK would have passporting writes

to tread across the EU. That doesn't

mean that the bank believes that is

what will happen. The government is

saying they want a good trade

agreement. In the case of financial

services, despite this morning, the

European Union needs London as much

as London needs the European Union,

for business finance, for government

finance. Yes, this is a warning. If

there is no deal. But it is not the

only option the bank is looking at.

Kamal Ahmed. Lots more on our

website.

Let's take a look at some of

the other stories making the news...

Ryanair has said it still expects

to make record annual

profits this year -

despite disruptions

to its schedules that led it

to cancel 20,000 flights.

The airline said it made profits

of $1.5bn in the six months

to the end of September,

and forecast a full-year

profit of up to $1.68bn.

Advertising giant WPP has cut sales

forecast for the second time in two

months. Like-for-like net sales and

profit margin growth would be flat

this year, it said. WPP says the UK

remains it is best performing

region.

Growth in China's manufacturing

sector cooled more than expected

in October, in the face of tighter

pollution rules that

are forcing many steel mills,

smelters and factories to curtail

production over the winter.

However, the figures also show that

newer high-end manufacturing

industries are continuing to grow.

We have had a slew of earnings today

from all sides of companies around

the world, including Samsung, the

electronics giant. It announced new

leadership of the company as well.

It has handle an ongoing management

crisis.

It comes amid record profits

for the South Korean conglomorate.

Mark Lowen is in Seoul.

Just talk smack through these new

figures and these new characters who

have appeared on the scene?

Profits

in the third quarter of this year.

$10 billion worth. That is 148%

increase year-on-year. It is largely

down to the success of the memory

chips that Samsung makes. The

company is the biggest maker of

memory chips and a smartphones in

the world. Extraordinarily

resilient, particularly after major

setbacks. The former Aero Samsung

was convicted in August of paying

money for political favours which

brought down the leader of South

Korea. The Samsung seven had to be

recalled last year after the battery

exploded. The CEO decided to step

down. Amid fears of a crisis in

leadership that the group, three new

people have been appointed as CEOs

keeping that triple management

structure. They are all long-term

insiders at some song. Open to

continue very much the resilient

performance in the third quarter. --

they are hoping to continue. The

group says it is glad it performed

in a robust performance given the

difficulties the group has faced.

Thank you. South Korea was the Mark

Abbott buck the trend in Asia. Most

markets in Asia or down. Let's

quickly look at Europe. A mixed

picture in Europe. The standard

market is actually the Spanish

market. Spain up 2.4% of the close

of play yesterday. Higher today.

And Michelle Fleury has

the details about what's ahead

on Wall Street Today.

Is it trick-or-treat for Wall Street

this Halloween? The Federal

Reserve... Data released on Monday

show inflation expectations remain

low. With a recovery on firmer

footing, many economists expect the

central bank to raise interest

rates. But not of this meeting. They

think it may happen at the next one

in December. Pfizer reports its

third-quarter results this Tuesday.

It is under pressure from investors

to pull off a large deal to spur

growth. Shale oil producer Devon

energy is likely to post an increase

in profits. Also watch out for

results from Kellogg's and

electronic art. As we have already

heard in the programme, executives

from Facebook, Google and Twitter

are Washington for two days, to

testify about Russian attempts to

influence the US Judge presidential

election.

Joining us is Justin

Urquhart-Stewart, co-founder

and director of seven

Investment Management.

As Sally mentioned, the Spanish

IBECs doing pretty well amid this

political turbulence?

You have to

put it in context. Overall the

European markets have recovered this

year. What you saw last week was the

market is falling away. They are now

bouncing back again on the basis

that maybe it's not going to be such

a disaster. The concern was, would

this be the Balkanisation of Spain?

Would some of the other areas think

they could break away as well? So

far, so good. Nothing has been

resolved. It is almost a relief at

this stage.

Talking of the worries

out there, I would imagine traders

don't know which way to turn at the

moment. There is so much new store

about different things. Whether it

is Trump or investigations into his

campaign. The Bank of England

warning about thousands of jobs

going in the City of London. What

are you thinking about?

There is

supposed to be a discount mechanism

in 18 months to two years saying

what is going to happen. There are

things you cannot factoring. The

overriding issue is interest rates

are low. Where else do you put your

money? People don't like the bond

market, the equity market looks

fully valued. There are various

alternatives. People say, we will go

with it for a the time being. When

things change and interest rates are

raised, things may start to change.

We are only halfway through

quantitative easing put up the

scaffolding increase the value of

assets. What happens when you strip

that scuttling away? Is the global

economy strong enough to stand it?

One of our guests yesterday was

saying, just cut through this stuff

going on, the politics and

everything else, and just look at

the banks of what they are doing.

Yeah. The global economy still doing

quite well. Also underlying company

is not doing too badly. On that

basis you are still there. Probably

take a little bit of profit, thank

you.

We will talk about -- we will talk

through the papers later.

Still to come - trick or treat?

We'll be getting the inside track

on how one fancy dress company

is cashing in on the growing

appetite for Halloween that will see

Britons spend more than ever before.

You're with Business

Live from the BBC.

Let's get more on Ryanair now.

The carrier announced today that it

made profits of 1.14 billion

in the six months to

the end of September.

And that it still expects to make

record annual profits this year

of up to £1.28 billion,

despite disruptions to its schedules

that led it to cancel 20,000 flights

in September and October this year.

Theo Leggett joins us now

from our Business Newsroom.

We are all expecting awful numbers

from Ryanair, but they have

confounded their critics once again?

Well, let's divide the figures in

two to start with. The first six

months go to the end of September.

So that was kind of before the full

impact of the cancellations came in.

So we wouldn't expect the results to

be particularly badly affected and

in fact they were very good. The

summer period was a strong one for

Ryanair. Had it had high load

factors on its planes and not too

many empty seats. The first-half

numbers were strong. It is

benefiting from lower fuel prices. A

lot of old hedges where it was

paying too much for its fuel are

expiring and it is paying less. The

intriguing bit, the second half of

the year which will include the full

brunt of the cancellations still

looking very strong and that's

despite the fact that 25 million

euros, that's what it cost to

compensate passengers and another 45

million euros for putting in a pay

rise for pilots. Yes, this has been

a resilient period for Ryanair and

it thinks it can weather the storm.

It is quite interesting, isn't it,

their forecast is robust still and

yet you would assume that its

rivals, the likes of easyJet and so

on would have been mopping up all

the passengers who are fed-up with

Ryanair because of the

cancellations?

Well, don't forget

the wider picture here is the budget

airline sector in Europe has been

overcrowded in recent years. There

has been too many seats and too many

seats on particular routes such as

holiday routes to the Mediterranean.

Over the past year we have seen the

collapse of Air Berlin and Monarch

which has reduced the element of

competition and Ryanair reckons it

can profit from that.

Theo, good to

see you. More on the website.

The Business Live page is updated

throughout the day. BP's third

quarter profits double. They came in

at $1.87 billion.

You're watching Business Live.

Our top story:

Facebook has said that over 120

million Americans may have seen

Russian back propaganda on its site

over the past two years. It comes

ahead of congressional hearings in

Washington which may possibly lead

to tighter regulation of online

adverts.

A quick look at how

markets are faring.

Not tee excited or under whelmed.

Flat right now as markets continue

to trade and digest the earnings we

have had from many, many companies.

Let's talk about the spending frenzy

that revolves around Halloween

with consumers on both sides

of the Atlantic set to spend

more than ever before.

In the US, it's expected to hit

a record of $9.1 billion

for this 31st October.

Of that, $3.4 billion

will go on costumes,

clothes for fancy dress.

In a survey, 38% of people said

they'd go to a specialty shop

to stock up on all things spooky.

Here in the UK, Angels Fancy Dress,

in operation since 1840,

is hoping to cash in

on the increasingly popular holiday.

Jeremy Angel, director

of Angels Fancy Dress is here.

I have to say, I was hoping you

would be dressed up!

Sorry to

disappoint.

Never mind. We will get

over that. We'll get over that. I

mean we are saying you are hoping to

cash in. You have been doing it for

years, but you have noticed a

massive surge in the whole

Hallowe'en...

Yes.

Bonkersness.

About 20 years ago, we started doing

fancy dress and that was just hiring

the normal costumes from film and

TV. Then probably about ten years,

eight years a we started doing the

packet costumes and the accessories,

the wigs, the rings and the fake

blood and it has gone crazy and

especially in the last five years it

has grown and grown. I think Mintel

have it at £325 million the spend

will be this year.

People, you know,

I know friends of mine, they love

making their own. How do you stand

apart from the rest of the market?

Price and range is always going to

come into it. We have got one of the

largest collections online and in

store, if you go to our shop, there

is hundreds of thousands of costumes

for kids and adults and the same

with the website. You have got to

have new ranges and come up with

clever ways of making a simple

costume more different and allowing

it to stand out.

What's the most

extravagant costume you sell?

It is

a racy costume. It is almost, they

are about £400 or £500.

£500 on a

costume?

We can hire you one.

Ben is

figuring it out. Have you got a

costume?

It is hard work. That's the

thing.

I went for the simple Beetle

Juice this year. Teen Wolf and

Beeetle Juice and you can go as the

Jocker from the Batman film.

Film is

one of the big areas for you and the

period tra dra mas that we have seen

like the Queen on Netflix, the

Crown, sorry, get that right. The

Crown, but game of thrones, you have

seen a big surge in that side of

your business as well?

We have,

Netflix and Amazon changed outside

TV and film is being approached.

There is more bigger productions

happening. So the Crown is a huge

success on TV as well as it is for

the industry. They have been some of

the biggest projects we have had for

the past few years and you notice a

trend. There is more costume dramas

being made and if you look at the TV

that you are seeing, people are

trying to emulate.

How can you cash

in on that surge? Netflix make a lot

of their own stuff, don't they?

Netflix, they are still hiring a lot

of the costumes.

The makers of game

of thrones?

Game of thrones make

their own costumes. You have to put

deals and work with them and if you

have got the stock and we have got

8.5 miles of hanging rails and 2.5

million items of clothing so we have

a lot of original period costume and

it is expensive to make, things that

like like the 1920s and cameras are

in HD so everything will be so clear

and it needs to be accurate it might

be more appealing to the producers

to higher more accurate and original

costumes than make their own.

You

say you have got a shop in the

centre of London. Do you still think

it is with your while having a

bricks and mortar shop?

No, bricks

and mortar will stay. With avenue

presence in shafs bury Avenue. We

have been in that building since it

was opened. So that's part of our

history as well, but people know

we're there. They know the store is

there and it is a go to location and

we will be staying in bricks and

mortar as well as online.

If anyone

knows Mr Ben, it is important.

Have

you got a Hallowe'en costume sorted?

That makes two of us.

I'm not doing

it.

If you can't bear busy airports then

brace yourself because the world's

hubs are about to get more hectic.

Estimates suggest the annual number

of air travellers will reach

7.2 billion in 2035 -

more than double the current number.

Singapore's Changi Airport has just

opened its latest terminal

with new technology to make

the journey smoother.

Karishma Vaswani was there.

This is what air travel typically

looks like these days.

A lot of people, a lot

of waiting, not a lot of fun.

Singapore's Changi Airport has

launched a new terminal where a key

feature is contactless travel.

Now, in theory that means you go

from check-in all the way

to boarding and never have

to interact with anybody.

So how does it work?

Maybe I'm old-fashioned,

but the use of so much technology

in an airport does raise security

concerns for me.

What if one of these

machines were to be hacked?

Airport officials say they have been

put through numerous tests

and for all the hype that this

process being people free,

there will still be staff roaming

around so I'm going to go check it

around so I'm going

to go check it out.

See you!

I wish my experience at Luton Bank

Holiday weekend was similar to that,

but it wasn't. It was awful.

Justin Urquhart-Stewart is here.

France saying it proposed taxes on

US tech companies?

They think they

want to focus on I think smaller

tech companies and they can try and

develop them. The problem is when

you have got the tech companies that

are becoming so vast and the same

thing is happening in the States,

they are running into antitrust

rules and you have to go back now

over a century to the days of the

big steel combines, to the days of

Carnegie and Standard Oil. So the

likes of Google is dominant. It has

a monopoly, it buys up competitors

if it is anti-competitive. You are

seeing a different way of going

about it. Europe maybe leading a

similar way and America may copy, in

order to have more competition we

have got to break up president

giants.

I want to talk about...

Ten

seconds, Ben.

We were asking this

morning about do you still trust

social media for your news? Quite a

few of you got in touch, Steve says,

"You can't trust social media. Paper

headlines are mess leading. ." Jez

says, "I treat the internet like a

stranger in a dark alley." What's

your view

People are fussy over

their different groups and they are,

very, very cynical over what is

happening and right too. Be cynical

and find out where the truth is

really coming from.

Traditional news

media, maybe. Thank you, Justin.

Good to see you. See you soon.

Thank you for your company. Enjoy

your day. Even if you are dressing

up, send us a picture.