19/01/2018 BBC Business Live

This is Business Live from BBC News

with Alice Baxter and David Eades.

The US Congress has until midnight

to agree a budget deal -

or see government services

shut down.

Live from London, that's our top

story on Friday 19th January.

All eyes will be on

the US Senate today.

Hundreds of thousands of government

employees could be sent home

if the two major parties

fail to overcome their differences.

Also in the programme...

The controversial founder of Uber -

Travis Kalanick - becomes

a billionaire after the ride-hailing

company completes a massive

round of funding.

And we'll keep you up to date

on all the latest market

action where over in Asia,

stocks shook off losses

on Wall Street and edged up

to record highs on Friday.

Whilst Europe looks to be heading

for a muted finish to the week.

And it's been a busy few days

for the likes of Apple,

Emirates and Blackrock.

We'll be taking stock

with our business guru Theo Leggett.

Today we want to know, why

are millennials not playing golf?

The popularity of the sport is

falling all around the world.

Is it to expensive or does

it just take too long?

Let us know.

Just use the hashtag BBCBizLive.

Hello and welcome to Business Live.

The government running the world's

biggest economy is staring

a shutdown in the eyes.

That's what will happen

if the United States Congress

doesn't agree a budget deal

by the end of Friday.

Late on Thursday, the House

of Representatives passed a short

term bill to fund the government

until February 16th but getting it

through the Senate is proving

much more difficult.

One major sticking point is the fate

of 800,000 so-called Dreamers -

people who came to the US illegally

as children and face

the prospect of deportation.

Democrats are using the budget talks

as leverage to try and stop that.

Then there's the Children's

Healthcare programme -

which provides insurance

for millions of low income kids.

It cost $16.9 billion last

year and President Trump

wants it reformed.

So what if Congress can't agree?

Last time the government was forced

into a partial shutdown was in 2013.

850,000 staff were sent home,

museums and parks were closed,

and services from visa processing

to mortgage approvals

were disrupted.

The potential economic

damage is also very real.

The 2013 shutdown lasted just 16

days, but knocked a third

of a percent off US growth

for that year.

That's why the US dollar has been

falling as the stalemate continues.

Jacob Parakilas is Assistant Head

of the US and the Americas Programme

at the international affairs think

tank Chatham House.

Thank you for coming in. These are

pretty high stakes. We are getting

down to the 12th hour. A simple

question first, what's your gut?

I

think it might turn into a shutdown.

The Democrats are clearly trying to

use it as a leveraged point. They

have minority in both houses. Areas

where they have influence are

relatively few, but this is one.

They can defend the dreamers

programme, which everybody agrees

needs to be extended. And the

children's health insurance

programme, massively politically

popular. They are standing on

relatively solid ground on those two

points, but it's not clear how the

politics will play out with midterms

coming up in November. Everybody

playing a bit of brinksmanship.

It's

interesting because President Trump

went so far is to say it could

happen, and I wouldn't say he was

sanguine about it, but he was ready

to let it happen.

He was recorded as

saying, we need a good shut down, at

one point. He doesn't see it with

the same kind of fear as other

presidents. I don't think he

necessarily has the same

appreciation for the breadth of what

the federal government does and the

impact of how the federal government

works and how it places into

different sectors of the economy.

For another thing, I think he is

willing to make threats and put

things on the negotiating table that

other presidents haven't been. He's

expanding the scope of possibility.

Alice was just explaining that one

third of 1% was lost from growth

last time around and that was just

16 days of. That's the last thing

the president would want in terms of

trumpeting the value of his

presidency and boosting the economy.

One thing he has been very regular

about is saying the stock market is

up, there are jobs, and that's

because of my presidency. If he

allows the shutdown, if he doesn't

intervene or make it possible to

reach agreement, then those numbers

will fall off and he will have to

find a new thing 2.2.

We should

point out it is only a short-term

fix.

-- fight a new thing to point

to.

Let's take a look at some

of the other stories

making the news...

Google says it's agreed

a patent licencing deal

with the Chinese tech giant Tencent.

It's being seen as a way

of expanding its presence

in the country where many

of its services are blocked

by the government.

The firms haven't said

which products are covered

or released any details

of the financial terms.

Europe's biggest bank HSBC has

agreed to pay $101 million to settle

a US criminal investigation

into rigged currency transactions.

The bank admitted its traders twice

misused confidential information

provided to them by clients

for its own profit.

The tech giant IBM has

reported its first rise in quarterly

revenue in nearly six years.

The company brouught

in a higher than expected

$22.5 billion as it saw

a turnaround in its fortunes

after investing in markets

like cloud computing, AI,

blockchain and security.

However the October to December

period brought a $1.1 billion loss

because of a one-off tax charge

related to President

Trump's tax reforms.

Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick has

officially become a billionaire

after the ride-hailing app sold

a stake to a group of investors

led by Japanese firm Softbank.

Leisha Santorelli is in

Singapore with more on this

More developments at Uber, as well

as the expanding wealth of its

founder.

That's correct. Travis is

being paid handsomely to cede

control of the company he built up.

The deal is complete, it's been

going back and forth for about seven

months. Japan's Softbank is now the

majority shareholder of Buber in a

$9.3 billion deal. Dubai is one of

the most valuable is start-ups in

the world. -- Uber is one. At one

point it was said they would invest

in the Uber rival, Lift, if the deal

fell through. After a series of

scandals that hurt Uber's

reputation, they were pushing for

more reforms. All of this has been

agreed and Uber will create some

additional board seats and also do

something quite interesting,

eliminating super voting stock

rights. These are held by early

employees and backers of the company

and it also means early backers like

Travis Kalanick will no longer have

a significant say in how the company

is run. We also seen reports that

the new owners, Softbank, wanted to

focus on the US and European market

and avoid costly battles for the

market share in India and Southeast

Asia.

Thanks Leisha.

Staying in the region where Asian

markets mostly rose on Friday,

edging up to record highs,

after another positive week

across trading floors but,

as we saw in Hong Kong,

investors' appetite was being

tested by profit-taking

and worries about a possible

US government shutdown.

Wall Street came off record highs

to end lower as Washington

lawmakers bicker over that

federal funding deal.

China's announcement

of faster-than-expected fourth

quarter growth saw

Shanghai climb 0.4%.

That unease over Washington's

uncertainty is adding

to pressure on the dollar,

which is down against its major

peers as well as most

high-yielding currencies.

Languishing at a near

three year low.

Meanwhile here in Europe,

at the end of what has been

a fairly directionless week,

stocks have opened with marginal

gains but there's a general feeling

that markets lacking a clear

direction and could move sideways

through the session.

Those marginal gains are only in

some quarters, and not here in

London.

And Samira Hussain has

the details about what's ahead

on Wall Street Today.

Fresh consumer sentiment numbers

will be released on Friday and it's

expected to have brightened.

The University of Michigan surveys

of consumers is likely

to show its preliminary January

consumer sentiment index rose to 97,

from December's reading of 95.9.

In earnings news, oilfield services

provider Schlumberger

will release results.

The company is expected to post

a bigger quarterly profit

as North American shale keep

outpacing international growth.

Despite some early warnings

about growth flat-lining,

shale production is poised to push

US oil output at more

than 10 million barrels per day,

toppling a record set back in 1970.

Joining us is Simon Derrick

from the Bank of New York Mellon.

Good to see you, as ever. It's the

ailing dollar that catches your eye.

It is. On the face of it, it looks

like it looks like it's about the

shutdown. You'd expect moderation in

the dollar and interest rates. When

you start to dig into it, it looks

like there is more going on.

Interest rates are still rising in

the US. Markets are doing extremely

well and the dollar has been falling

for 12 months. You start to look for

other answers. What you see,

particularly over the last month, is

a sharp acceleration down since

mid-December. It looks like it might

be connected to the tax deal, it

might be connected to people being

concerned about growing fiscal

deficit and at the same time you

still have a huge trade deficit in

the US. You have to go back to the

mid-19 80s, the last time we saw

these worries in the dollar.

Yields

are high, growth in the US, and it's

a conundrum. The dollar is still

falling in value. And it's a reserve

currency so who is suffering around

the world?

The Australians and

Canadians have complained, no

surprise. But Europeans have also

complained, the head of the European

Central Bank in France, it's gone

through a level of 120, that's the

area where Airbus becomes

uncompetitive. I wouldn't be

surprised to see more out of them.

Whether they can do anything about

it, a different matter entirely.

A

quick yes or no, will it fall

further?

Yes. What

We'll be taking a look back

on a busy week in business.

The world's biggest money manager

says that companies need to focus

on more than just profit-

we'll bring you all the details.

You're with Business

Live from BBC News.

Construction firm Carillion

collapsed on Monday,

leaving a question mark hanging over

thousands of UK jobs.

Last night, business

secretary Greg Clark met

with representatives from businesses

and trade unions to figure

out what happens next.

Our business correspondent

Jonty Bloom joins us now.

good to see you.

What does happen

next then?

We have some details from

the meeting. We know representatives

from the construction industry are

desperately trying to take over

apprenticeships Carillion was

running, training young people up in

the industry. There is a skill

shortage in the UK in that sector.

We also know the tax collector,

revenues and customs, it will

basically allow customers to defer

some of their tax if they have been

hit by Carillion. We know the banks

are putting significant amounts of

money aside to be available to

companies, subcontractors, for

instance, who have a shortage of

cash at the moment.

How supportive

can the government task force be

seen to be, because it's a private

company but with lots of public

sector contracts.

Yes, and those

contracts tend to be continuing.

Government and local government have

provided the money to keep employing

people. Some companies like

nationwide, the large bank and

building society in the UK, our

drinking staff into the company to

continue cleaning their offices and

so on. It's not all down to

government. -- are bringing staff.

This was the second largest

construction company in the UK and

its collapse brings out the huge

capacity in building and service

providing. Probably what will happen

is the government will have to

renegotiate all the contracts

Carillion had, find other people to

do it and probably pay them more.

Let's not forget, Carillion was

running the contracts and went bust.

Thank you. And Carillion has been

the domestic business story of the

week. Much more on the BBC website,

including some other stories that

have caught our eye, including this

about a huge ATM shake-up that many

are fearing could leave communities

across the UK without a cashpoint.

That's thanks to a report from

consumer group Which? They want to

reduce the amount they charge banks

and building societies to use their

machines with Link.

You're watching Business Live.

Our top story.

Late on Thursday, the US

House of Representatives

passed a short term bill to fund

the government until February 16th

but getting it through the Senate

is proving much more difficult.

Hundreds of thousands

of government employees could be

sent home if the two major parties

fail to overcome their differences.

And it's been another week of big

stories in the business world.

The boss of the world's largest

investment fund, Blackrock,

called for all companies to do more

than just make profits.

Meanwhile Apple says it's

going to be paying the US

government the largest tax

payment it's ever received.

Our business correspondent

Theo Leggett is here.

Where shall we start, maybe Black

Rock? It struck me, on the surface,

haven't they got the message yet

that you have to do more than just

make money?

Blackrock writes to the

large companies every year to

encourage them to invest, but this

time it's different, he is saying in

so many words that governments are

not doing what they should in terms

of preparing for the future. So

companies have to do it and

therefore CEOs don't just have to

look at their financial performance

but at the social impact of what we

are doing. Not only the benefits to

shareholders, for employees, but for

society at large.

How much clout as

the CEO of the major company

actually have in terms of reforming

corporate governments?

Blackrock has

enormous influence over these

companies. When it comes to how

companies operate the criticism has

been and major shareholders like

Blackrock don't use the influence

that they have over boards. So for

example when it comes to chief

executives's remuneration or climate

change policies and so on asset

managers tend to vote in favour of

the board, and not to promote

restructuring, or promote better

corporate policies. So now he says

they should consider doing this and

chief executives and directors

should pay more attention to these

issues throughout Europe, not just

at the annual general meeting.

We

should have a quick word about

Apple. A lot of money going into

government coffers, Mr Trump will be

pleased.

It's a huge amount of

money, these tax changes have been a

flagship of the Trump presidency.

Although it is a lot of money it is

much less that Apple would have paid

if it hadn't parked all this money

offshore facility. Because what they

can do now is pay a flat tax rate of

15.5% and then they can bring the

money back at will. If they'd

brought the money back before these

reforms they would have paid a much

higher level of tax. So in fact

Apple has done rather well out of

this. Other companies are likely to

be significant amounts of tax,

companies like Google and Microsoft.

When it comes to aeroplanes what you

don't know is not worth knowing.

What is your take on Emirates

butting in this order for the Airbus

380, it wants 36 of them. A lifeline

for the planes?

Definitely and in

the interests of the company, they

set its business model, which

involves transporting huge numbers

of people over long distances. From

the point of view of Airbus they

need another order to keep

production going because they don't

have a great backlog. This order

allows them to keep producing the

Airbus 380 for another ten years. In

that time the aviation market is

expected to grow enormously and by

that time airports will get more

congested especially in Asia and the

business case for the Airbus 380

which isn't really that at the

moment, will begin to look more

logical.

That's interesting because

I thought perhaps it was a tapering

off of its best years.

There's an

argument that the A380 was ahead of

its time.

Thank you. Now we are

going to talk about golf.

When it comes to golf

Donald Trump has thrust the game

into the headlines like never before

since he became US President.

But the number of Americans playing

golf has been falling

steadily in recent years.

And it's a trend also being seen

in the rest of the world.

So what's going on?

Mariko Oi is at the Singapore Open

on the island of Sentosa.

Some of the world's top golfers are

here at Sentosa Golf Club for the

Singapore Open which is sponsored by

it as NBC, a bank that has announced

it is going to extend its

sponsorship for another three years.

Great news for the organisers, the S

M BC. The tournament used to be

sponsored by Barclays but when they

pulled out in 2012 the tournament

couldn't find a sponsor

straightaways at the event was put

on hold for several years. But even

though the extension of sponsorship

is good news, the prize money is

down to $1 million. Which is of

course a lot of money to you and me

but not for the golf industry. It

used to be $6 million with Barclays

so companies have been under a lot

of pressure, whether it is a wise

idea to keep sponsoring sporting

events. This comes at a time when a

number of golfers has been falling

around the world. The decline in

Asia is not as sharp as in Asia or

the UK but it seems as if millennial

is simply not picking up the sport,

partly apparently because they can't

be on a smartphone on the golf

course. I am not sure how accurate

that is but at least golf is now an

Olympic sport, since 2016, so the

world of golf is something that

would give it a boost. Thank you,

Mariko. Mariko's husband is a golf

professional but she's never picked

up a club in her life! We wondered

why millennial is seemed to have

switched off the game. An avalanche

of responses on Twitter. This one

from aerial rows. We are shunning it

because we're not 80 years old.

That's a good start! Someone has

just said that is factually correct

and very unfair. Someone else says,

expensive, not fun, elitist. Pretty

negative stuff. Many in a similar

vein. Neil says most clubs are still

in the dark ages so any millennial

's will walk in, walk out and never

return. We should remember that our

producer is a millennial and he

likes golf. A few more of that age,

the clubs themselves cost more than

just getting everybody's golf on PS

four. Not going out costs much less

money! That's one approach! Very

sad.

Simon is with us again. Your

thoughts on golf?

Clearly I like the

stupid trousers and the site is! I

gave it a go. I wasn't great but I

found it boring. Sorry to all the

golfers. A good walk spoiled.

Apology accepted. I am boring enough

to love golf. Let's have a quick

look at some of the stories that

took our eye on the business pages.

Starting with the Telegraph. This

hugely important summit taking place

between the French president and the

UK Prime Minister. But the person

stealing the headlines is Boris

Johnson. He's called for bridge

across the Channel.

Hardly a shock

that our Noble Foreign Secretary

would steal the limelight from the

Prime Minister at a moment like

this. Clearly not the first time.

You get the sense that this is more

about domestic politics than

anything else, just a reminder that

Boris is constantly there. Roy Wood

business perspective the markets

will take this as a reminder of the

fragile nature of UK politics. To

any of us believe bridge will be

built? Probably not.

Interesting

that the French president said that

was a good idea, and said let's make

it happen or words to that effect.

Another throwaway line?

Serra two

parts to. From the perspective of

infrastructure spending that could

be a boost to the economy, and

perhaps just a bit of sterling with

regards to the Brexit negotiations,

a little aside to Boris rather than

Theresa May. I suspect he was just

having fun and stirring the pot.

Probably the best line that came out

of it all. Enjoyed that one. And the

focus is on China's economy, which

has gone up 6.9% from last year,

against expectations. Your

expectations?

In fairness, against

mine as well, I would have placed it

lower than that. Questions can

always be asked about Chinese

numbers, the economy is doing better

over the course of the last 12

months. But in spite of the threat

that the government has been doing

its best to put constraints on it.

What is particularly good is about

this is that it gives the Chinese

authorities greater flexibility in

their drive towards liberalisation.

Comfortable accounts, interest

rates, foreign exchange, or things

they have been aiming to deal with

through the second half of the

decade. This gives them the

opportunity to push ahead with that

because relatively speaking the

economy is in a reasonably robust

place.

Is it tenuous to draw a link

between this accelerated growth in

China and the fall in value of the

dollar, the fact that China has

reduced its stockpile of dollars.

I

think it's fair to say that since

2014 China has been moving towards

liberalisation. I think what is true

again is in the second half of this

year China has been pulling back, it

is liberalisation. That is a good

thing. The US president would

support that view.

Simon, we will

leave it there, have a good weekend,

get out your diamond sweater and

those trousers, have another go on

the golf course.

That's it from Business Live today.

Thank you for watching. Bye bye for

now.