30/11/2017 BBC Business Live

This is Business Live from BBC News

with Jamie Robertson

and Sally Bundock.

Nervous energy in Vienna.

The oil producers cartel Opec looks

set to extend the supply cuts that

have pushed up prices.

Live from London, that's our

top story on Thursday

the 30th of November.

But with oil prices now above $60

a barrel can Saudi Arabia and Russia

do much to stop US shale producers

taking their market share?

Also in the programme....

Google searches for answers.

The tech giant is accused

of illegally collecting the data

of millions of UK iPhone users

And we'll be getting

the inside track on how the organic

food revolution began with the woman

behind one of Britian's first

healthy supermarkets.

And with Brexit Theresa May heading

to Brussels next week to try

and break the Brexit deadlock we'll

have a special report from the Irish

border on one of the key sticking

points.

We'd love to hear your views

on the stories we cover today..

Get in touch by Twitter -

just use the hashtag BBCBizLive.

The price of oil matters.

That's because it drives so much

of the world economy

whether its used for transport

people and goods or heating our

homes and workplaces.

And it's why the focus is on Vienna

today because that's where the oil

producers cartel Opec

and non-members are meeting and seem

to have agreed a deal to extend

supply cuts that have helped push

prices to their highest

in two years.

It's exactly a year since Opec

and Russia first struck

a deal to cut production.

Brent crude has soared

from 45 dollars a barrel

in the summer to over 63.

That deal is due to expire

at the end of March.

But there are signs of a split.

Russia is happy with

oil at $40 a barrel -

some of its oil bosses have been

questioning why cuts should continue

now prices have recovered.

But the Saudis need much higher

prices to balance their economy -

they want oil at $60.

Meanwhile the continuing recovery

of the global economy has

helped cut stockpiles.

In September they fell to just under

3bn barrels in the OECD group

of advanced economies.

Our correspondent Bethany Bell

is at Opec headquarters in Vienna

Nice to see you, Bethany. So we are

hearing from some in the media that

they have agreed a deal before this

meeting kicks off. What are you

hearing?

We are waiting to see. At

the moment, I don't know if you can

see behind me ministers are arriving

here for the beginning of this

meeting. The big question of course

is whether to extend and how long to

extend for. The indications are, at

the moment, that the suggestion

seems to be that they'll decide to

extend the cuts to the end of 2018.

But we also have been hearing

rumours that perhaps that would be a

decision that might be reviewed

midyear because, as Jamie said,

Russia can deal with a lower price

of oil than say countries like Saudi

Arabia and it's questioned the

wisdom perhaps of maintaining cuts

which could open the door for other

non-OPEC, non-alliance groups,

notably US shale oil producers to

seize the moment and spike their

production.

And Bethany, there's also the

question of whether OPEC members and

the non-OPEC members that are

involved actually still to the

promised cuts. There's always the

issue of policing this?

Indeed.

Although it's been quite interesting

recently in the past, many OPEC

members didn't stick to the quotas.

In the last few months, OPEC says

there's been much more sticking to

the cuts in oil production. OPEC

senior officials recently saying

they proved the nay Sayers wrong by

showing that they could show

discipline in this way and they said

this had a clear impact on prices.

The question is, what will happen

though, if we start to see a spike

in US shale oil production and

whether people don't see the wisdom

of keeping cuts in place. But as I

say at the moment, the meeting

hasn't begun yet, we'll wait to see

how the negotiations pan through

today and see whether those, how

long if those cuts are extended for.

Bethany, you mentioned there the

shale oil producers. In many ways

they are the ghosts of the feast,

they are the people everybody is

worried about, at $60 a barrel, it's

worth coming into production and if

they do that, they are going to take

away Saudi's share, aren't they?

Very much so. OPEC with its alliance

of non-OPEC members here are in a

bind because they want to rebalance

the market. The Saudis say there is

still work to be done before they

are happy with the rebalancing of

the market. On the other hand, if

they continue to extend these cuts,

then that really opens the door for

the US shale oil producers, you

know, that companies may start to

push for more production after Moshe

balling and that could Brive prices

down again, so a paradox in the

sense for the OPEC and non-OPEC

members meeting here today. They

have to decide how long they can

continue with this policy at the

moment.

Thank you very much indeed Bethany.

That official meeting will start in

around about 25 minutes. Bethany is

there, as you can see. She'll update

us.

Let's take a look at some

of the other stories

making the news...

American Airlines is facing

a shortage of pilots over Christmas,

after a computer glitch gave

too many of them time off.

An estimated 15,000 flights don't

have an assigned pilot due

to the software error.

Pilots are now being offered more

money to cancel their holiday plans

and work the shifts.

American says it expects

to avoid cancellations.

The supervisory board of Siemens

agreed on Wednesday to prepare

to list its Healthineers medical

equipment business

on the Frankfurt stock exchange

in the first half of 2018.

The move comes as the German

industrial conglomerate is seeking

to simplify its structure.

The Healthineers spin-off will be

the country's biggest share offering

since Deutsche Telekom listed

in 1996, potentially valuing

the company at 40 billion euros.

The Trump administration has

criticised China's bid

for recognition as a market economy

in the World Trade Organization.

The Trump administration

has recently started

to increase pressure on China,

which the White House has

called one of the world's

biggest trade offenders.

China is currently classified

as a nonmarket economy -

which allows countries

like the United States to decide

whether it is "dumping" its products

in other countries by selling them

at unfairly low prices.

A former executive at Which?

- Richard Lloyd - is taking legal

action to get compensation

from Google for users of iPhone -

who he says have had personal

information collected

without their knowledge.

The tech giant told the BBC the case

has no merit.

Our Technology Correspondent,

Rory Cellan-Jones is

here to tell us more.

Let us go through the allegations?

This relates to the iPhone. Apple's

iPhone, in its Safari browser which

a lot of people use to browse the

Internet on it, back in 2011 and

2012 had a default privacy option

which stopped you installing the

cookie softwares which attract

people across the Internet, they are

used everywhere, we are all using

them, all subject to them and

tracked by them. But apple was

keeping them off by default, the

browser on the iPhone. Google, it

appears, found a way around this,

found a way of installing the

cookies, so tracking users when they

didn't think they were being

tracked. That is the allegation,

that is why over five mill iPhone

users in the UK are being joined in

this lawsuit and seeking this

compensation.

So what is Google's

response to this?

Google are saying

this is not new, we have defended

similar cases before, we don't

believe it has any merit and we will

contest it. There has been cases in

the United States, in fact

regulatory action by the federal

trade commission who ordered a

record fine against Google for this

very offence, so this is a

continuing pattern.

Thank you very much.

Billions of dollars have been wiped

off the value of Australian bank

shares, after the government

announced a wide ranging enquiry

into the finance industry.

Australians deserve and expect the

highest levels of service and

accountability. For the vast

majority, that's exactly what they

receive. Since the financial crisis,

however, there have been examples of

misconduct by financial

institutions. Some of them extremely

serious. That's demanded a response

from the institutions themselves and

from government.

Banks stocks in Australia were hit

hard by this.

Tim McDonald joins

us from Singapore.

There's been a lot of pressure on

the Prime Minister to act?

There

certainly has. Even the banks came

out and climbed on I guess this

Royal Commission, something they've

resisted for a very long time. Many

commentators are cynical about this

saying it's an attempt to influence

the terms of reference for a

commission that was probably

inevitable. There are some very high

profile cases. It will certainly

receive some scrutiny. Most recently

it was the Commonwealth bank with

thousands of breaches of

anti-money-laundering legislation.

There is probably a bigger issue

here. Phillip Lowe came out saying

there was a mix of slow wage growth

and high debt. House prices are high

in Australia and if wages can't keep

up with the mortgage, there could be

big trouble and the real question

is, what extent the lending

standards contribute to this. This

is all a little ironic because these

are the same banks that reminded

people for years after the global

financial crisis that the subprime

crisis didn't really happen in

Australia and that was a sure sign

that standards there were very

robust. This will certainly be one

to watch.

The markets here. More falls in

China following on from what

happened in the US. The DOW rose 0.

4%. We are going to have a look at

that in a moment. On the US markets,

so let's... There we are, the UK

markets, that's how we start it off

this morning.

And Samira Hussain has

the details about what's ahead

on Wall Street Today.

Consumer spending accounts for more

than two thirds of US economic

activity so it's a really important

economic indicator. Consumer

spending is expected to have gone up

about 0.3% in October. Now, also in

economic news, the personal

consumption expenditures price

index, excluding food and energy,

will likely show a 0.2% rise for the

month of October. Now, it sounds

like it's a big name, but it's

actually really a key indicator of

inflation and in fact, it's actually

the Federal Reserve's most preferred

measure of inflation as well.

Finally, the biggest US supermarket

owner will be reporting earnings,

that is Kroger. The earnings are

heating up in America as Amazon's

now stepped into the game. Walmart

continues to aggressively push its

grocery offerings. As a result,

Kroger's profits will have been hurt

this quarter as it had to

aggressively discount items in order

to compete.

Joining us is Trevor Greetham,

head of multi-asset

at Royal London Asset Management

Always lovely to see you.

Good

morning.

There is a lot to discuss.

We wanted to focus on the rotation,

as they call it, out of technology

stocks in the US, so the fang,

Facebook, am zoning, Google and --

Facebook, Amazon and Google.

Yes.

People tend to take profits in

things that have done well during

the year. There is not a great deal

of fundamental reason for a pull

back in tech stocks. Put them into

context - most of the technology

stocks are up 50-60% this year and

down 3% in the last few days, so

it's not a huge set.

It's not a

correction.

They started the year

overvalued. They are a bit more

overvalued now. The thing is, it's

very like the late 1990s where we

had good grow but low inflation and

low interest rates.

That ended well?

!

The Nasdaq is at a higher level at

the peak of that bubble but the

earnings have come through massively

so the stocks aren't as high as they

were and the economic environment is

similar, suggesting there is more

upside.

When you look at the

companies, the FANGs, they're

companies that make profits that

have a proper business model. Look

back in the 90s, there is a lot of

.comes that were going up-and-up in

value?

The Bitcoin is the .com.

In

your opinion, some people say it's

not. And driverless cars is the

other one. You can't put those two

together, can you? ! All you have to

do is start a company that has

driverless cars and people give you

money.

There is a bubbly feeling

around it. Interest rates are

extremely low, there are new

technology ideas, it's hard to prove

someone wrong about how Bitcoin and

driverless cars are going to be so

you tend to get the euphoric rises.

If you extrapolate Bitcoin, the

electricity consumption, if it keeps

going up ten times a year, the

lights will start going off.

If we weave in the oil price, we

have got the Opec members...

It

looks like they are extending the

supply.

It looks like a nine-month

extension. Will that make a big

difference in terms of the price

fall and what we are spending?

I

don't think it will. The critical

thing with oil is what happens to

China in 2018. It feels like they're

tightening policy on growth will

slow down. Commodity prices will

remain under control. If China gets

stronger, the rest of the world

outside the UK is booming, by the

way, he could easily see commodity

prices surge, interest rates rise

rapidly. Then we are talking about a

big reversal in the stock markets.

China is critical. But we think it

will be cooling off rather than

blooming next year. As a result of

some relatively low interest rate

environment which will carry on for

a while.

Interesting. Trevor will

return to look at the papers. He

will be talking about the news

stories, including Alexa.

We won't have her onset.

Still to come...

How Brexit could lead to thousands

of people to rethink their everyday

lives on the Irish border.

You're with Business

Live from BBC News.

Here in the UK, the Government

is setting out plans to get

one million more disabled people

in work over the next ten years.

Ministers say that the new strategy

will not only help those

with disabilities get work,

but make sure they keep and

progress with a job.

Our disability affairs

correspondent, Nikki Fox, reports.

Probably a yellow banana.

Trying out new technology...

Left edge, 5 feet away.

A child consultant, Hannah

is testing face-recognition gadgets

which could help her at work.

She lost her sight five years ago

and is now registered blind.

During that time, she found

it hard to get a job.

I left uni with a first-class degree

in law and I've been turned down

from kind of basic admin roles

when I had quite significant

experience and that sort of thing.

Some of them, I might not

have got the job anyway.

Some of them, it was quite clear

from the questions they are asking,

it was because of my disability.

The employment gap between disabled

and non-disabled people hasn't

significantly changed for some years

despite a pledge back

in 2015 to halve it.

Today, the government has published

a plan that aims to see 1 million

more disabled people in work

over the next 10 years.

We are making progress.

We've got 600,000 more disabled

people in work than we did

four years ago.

What we want to do is continue

to work with employers,

to continue to exploit

the opportunities of new technology

and to keep testing and learning

to find out what works,

what are the things that actually

can make a difference

so that more disabled people can

fulfil their potential

and get a good job.

Today's announcement also includes

measures to provide access

to personalised

support for those with

mental health issues and an increase

in the variety of health care

professionals who are able to issue

fitness-to-work notices

but with employment

rates for people with

learning disabilities at around 6%,

charities are warning

the progreess is too slow.

Nikki Fox, BBC News.

We found something extremely

interesting. You are very excited

about it.

So basically, Morrisons has had to

recall a load of chicken and

mushroom pie is because they have

fish on them.

Why not just write fish on the

outside and then they could tell

them?! There is no health problem.

It is just a wrong. It has got

Mustard in as well! Delicious! Read

more on the business life page.

-- Business Live.

You're watching Business Live.

Our top story...

Oil.

A quick look at how

the markets are faring.

We will regain her composure. Sorry.

Apologies. As you can see in Europe

we have a mixed picture. The FTSE is

down. Our top story is oil. Opec and

Russia are meeting in Vienna at the

moment. Bethany Bell will update us.

There is expected to be an agreement

to keep supplies in place for

another nine months.

We are more calm now.

The Brexit negotiations have been

difficult over a number of areas -

and one critical issue

is what happens to the border

between Northern Ireland

and the Republic of Ireland.

At the moment there are no

restrictions on the movement

of people or goods.

But could that change.

Rachel Horne has been speaking

to people who live and work on both

sides of the border.

The Northern Irish border is 310

miles long. And every day around

30,000 people across it on one of

around 200 roads. This is one of

them. Just behind me is Northern

Ireland. Just over here is the

Republic of Ireland. We have come

here to find out if this bridge

joins or divides these communities.

Meet Fiona McGauran. She lives in

Northern Ireland that lives in the

Republic. When I say border to you.

What does it mean? Customs,

checkpoints, then there is work.

Will there be problems for me having

to work in the UK? Will I have to

get a Visa and maybe?

UK Government

have said there would be no physical

presence at the border.

They can say

that but there will be something. It

is the only land border between the

UK and Europe and the world.

Driving

from black Lion to beaucoup, if you

don't pay attention you could miss

the border. You will fill a bump as

the road surface changes. The border

is literally the bump in the road.

Hello, Margaret! Margaret was born

in this house and has lived here all

her life. What are your memories?

You were here when there was a hard

border.

When you cross the bridge,

getting a half quarter of hard plug

tobacco and whiskey, that was

smuggled, as it were. None of those

things were allowed out. Nobody

wants to return to that. It is

totally unnecessary. We are all the

same people. A bridge not separating

us, keeping us together. A bridge

joining us is how I see it.

Nobody

knows what Brexit will bring. There

are still investing in the future.

I

am open a few weeks. People are

wondering what will happen next. It

is this uncertainty that keeps

everybody wondering. That is not a

good thing for Northern Ireland,

Southern Ireland or Europe. Brexit

when it comes, I hope this will

remain.

Discussions continue

hundreds of miles away in Brussels.

People here are listening but they

are worried. Or the bridge which

today unites them be used to divide

them?

That was Rachel Horne.

Let's look-up Theresa May and her

agenda at the moment. She is in

Saudi Arabia. The press are giving

us their take. The hypocrisy of

Theresa May criticising Saudi Arabia

for using the weapons she has sold

them is staggering, says this

headline. That is because she has

raised the humanitarian crisis in

Yemen and the fact the Saudi Arabian

border is closed. It is a tricky one

for her, isn't it? She wants the

trade.

I don't think she could have

gone to Arabia without raising

Yemen. That is a good thing she did

that. But it is a bit of a tight

rope she is walking in many

different ways between her and Saudi

and her and America. You have got

the deal which both the US and the

UK are vying for. There is some sort

of concern, a race to the bottom in

terms of regulation in order to win

that listing. Some people are quite

happy with the fact there is a

potential new category in welfare

funds to list in the UK.

How

important is it?

To me it is

probably something that is a sign of

prestige. Britain is looking for

something to say we are very global

and we are open for business. In the

end I think it is hugely

significant. You have got all of the

far right stuff and the Tweets.

Trump trolling Theresa May this

morning.

It is an interesting space

to watch. Thanks for your time

today.

That's it from Business Live today.

There will be more business news

throughout the day on the BBC Live

web page and on World Business

Report.

web page and on World Business

Report.

We'll see you again tomorrow.