17/11/2017 Business Briefing

This is Business Briefing.

I'm Ben Bland.

Tesla unleashes the Beast.

But will the electric truck

transform road transport,

or prove too heavy

a load for the company?

Plus - tax relief

for President Trump,

as his $1.5 trillion reform plan

clears the House of Representatives.

But it could be short lived

as the debate moves to the Senate.

And on the markets:

Asian markets have built

on the previous day's gains.

They head into the weekend

on a positive note, as traders

were buoyed by news from the US that

Donald Trump's tax cuts have moved

a step closer.

We'll take a look at that

and the other market moves later.

As a mentioned, it has proved

positive for the markets. President

Trump's plans for the biggest

shakeup of the country's tax system

since the 1980s took a step further

on Thursday.

The House Representatives voted

to pass a broad package of tax

reforms being pushed

by the President.

He says they will boost the US

economy, but critics

on the Democrat side call them

a give-away to big business

and the wealthy.

Some Republicans are also

concerned about the cost,

almost $1.5 trillion.

Well, the debate now

moves to the Senate,

where the Republicans have

just a narrow majority.

The BBC's Samira Hussain explains.

Taxes. Americans don't like paying

them and most agree that the tax

system is broken, but fixing it,

well, that's not easy. The president

says he wants a tax code that so

simple you could fire lit on a

postcard. The Republican Party has

control of the US Congress, which

means they could pass a new tax plan

with just a simple majority.

If

there's anything that unifies

Republicans its tax reform. We've

been looking for the opportunity to

do this literally for years.

The

problem? Republicans can't even

agree on a tax plan among

themselves. Lawmakers in the house

want to cut the number of tax

records to four and cut out just how

much people can write off for having

a mortgage. The Senate plan removes

the tax Americans pay if they don't

buy health insurance. That means

some 13 million Americans could end

up without any coverage. That plan

also means cut to the local tax rate

permanently. The tax rate for

individuals is temporary. So what do

they do now? Republicans in the

House and Senate will have to

combine their plans. But if the last

few months are any indication, that

won't be easy. One place that will

be watching the fight really closely

is the US stock market. It goes up

when tax reform might actually

happen and falls when those plans

hit a roadblock. So if President

Trump wants to keep dragging about

the rise of the stock market...

It

hit an all-time record high today,

over 20 2000.

And keep his promise

to supporters, his party is going to

be some -- to have to come to some

sort of agreement.

Switching to the west coast now.

In the last hour or so electric car

maker Tesla has unveiled

its latest venture.

Founder Elon Musk hopes to take

on the road transport business

as he has the car industry,

with this - an electric powered

big-rig truck it

calls the Tesla Semi.

There it is in the darkness.

It has four electric motors,

one for each rear wheel.

Mr Musk says it has a range of 500

miles when it's fully laden

at highway speed.

He says a 30 minute charge will give

it a range of 400 miles.

Range will be a big

concern for truckers,

who can get as much as 1,000 miles

out of a full tank of diesel.

Then there's the cost.

We don't have a price yet,

but reports say the batteries alone

cost $100,000,

making this a much more

expensive proposition.

But Mr Musk says it will work out

20% cheaper per mile to run

than a diesel truck.

Michael Coren is Technology Reporter

for the online news service Quartz.

He joins me via webcam

from San Francisco.

Good to see you. You are an expert

on these matters. What is your

verdict on what you see?

Well, Elon

likes to surprise and always

overpromise and sometimes

overdeliver and I think this time he

did, in terms of the milage no one

expected 500. They also didn't

expect a 30 minute charge. So that

was quite a surprise. And the fact

that he's got the price down 20%

less than the average diesel, which

remains to be seen on the field,

would be pretty significant.

This

design is very sleek, probably the

nicest looking truck that anyone has

seen on the road. But is that really

where the focus should be, given

that people who should be buying

them, the companies, would be more

worried about the cost? And if the

batteries are $100,000 alone it will

be incredibly expensive.

Right. This

is an incredibly low market

business, maybe 5%. So what you are

looking for our lifetime cost. Can

Tesla essentially bring down the

costs over the five - six years, or

even longer. A sleek truck is not

going to impress a fleet owner with

a few thousand of these. What will

make the difference is that few

pennies for mile that he can save

for some of these owners and that

remains to be seen, if they can pull

that off.

You mentioned Elon Musk's

tendency to throw in a surprise and

this was about unleashing the beast,

as he calls it, but he also

unleashed the beast's little

brother, little sister, a little

roadster.

That was the original

Tesla car. This was the first

product that Tesla sold. They've

been promising that he would read

release it. -- rerelease. They are

already going through getting the

model out, so this could be more

marketing or it could be another

part to the industry. We'll see.

OK,

thanks very much indeed. Over to

Singapore now.

It seen a huge jump in exports and

that's Bose -- roads well for the

economy.

Mariko Oi is looking

at the story for us.

As you mentioned, a huge jump in

exports in October. In fact, the

biggest jump in 2.5 years, after a

surprising contraction in September.

I think economies are looking at

last month's figure as a 1-off blip

and this is definitely good news,

especially because shipments to

China actually jumped by more than

50%. That basically means of course

China is Singapore's big as trading

partner and it's a key trading

partner for many Asian economies and

that means demand from China for

those products remain strong.

Electronic exports remained wicked

and some other products. Some

economies are slightly sceptical

about that. -- remained weak.

Let me

brief you on other business stories.

There have been more takeover

approaches for media giant

21st Century Fox.

According to reports Comcast,

owner of NBC Universal

and the biggest cable

TV operator in the US,

has expressed interest

in buying assets,

as has Verizon Communications.

Last week it emerged that

Walt Disney had held talks with Fox.

Media companies are looking

at mergers as more people ditch

cable in favour of streaming

services like Netflix.

Norway's government has been

told its massive state-run fund

should drop its investments

in oil and gas stocks.

Norges Bank manages Norway's $1

trillion sovereign wealth fund

on behalf of the government.

It said the step would make

the country "less vulnerable

to a permanent drop

in oil and gas prices".

Norway is Western Europe's biggest

oil and gas producer.

German industrial group Siemens has

announced plans to cut around 6,900

jobs worldwide, mostly

in its fossil fuels division.

It said global demand for large

turbines produced by its power

and gas division had

fallen dramatically.

Half of the jobs will be lost

in Germany, while 1,100 will go

in the rest of Europe

and 1,800 in the US.

And now, what's trending

in the business news this morning.

Forbes is among those reporting that

Bitcoin reached an all-time high

on Thursday, surpassing

$7,800 for the first time,

despite the sharp fall

at the beginning of the week.

The Economist magazine says

we are facing a bitcoin "bubble".

In the Financial Times,

Japan business group chief calls

for more foreign workers.

The head of the country's Chamber

of Commerce says companies

are blaming poor performance

on lack of skilled workers.

From Bloomberg, UK Seeks help

from German business

for Brexit trade deal.

It reports how Brexit Secretary

David Davis has asked business

leaders in Germany to help force

the pace in the deadlocked

negotiations.

Don't forget, you can get in touch

with us via the hashtag

bbc-the-briefing. That's almost it.

Before we go, a look at the markets.

Asian shares rose on Friday. Strong

US earnings. That brightened the

mood, even though investors noted

that many more hurdles must be

passed to reach a final deal on the

tax cuts. The end of the week saw

heavy selling, fuelled by

profit-taking and dealers' worries

that may be a rally in recent weeks

had gone too far, pushing about --

evaluations to hire.

-- too high.