:00:02. > :00:09.country. Those are the latest advice from
:00:10. > :00:16.BBC World News. Now it is time for World Business Report. -- latest
:00:16. > :00:24.headlines. Welcome to World Business Report.
:00:24. > :00:29.The headlines: European leaders promised a more disciplined future,
:00:29. > :00:38.but what will happen to Portugal? Weak results are expected from
:00:38. > :00:43.Amazon as it fails to tap into new businesses.
:00:43. > :00:47.European leaders who are keen to talk up their achievements but last
:00:47. > :00:50.night's summit under the new treaty known as the fiscal compact,
:00:50. > :00:55.countries will not be able to wriggle out of sanctions if they
:00:55. > :01:00.run up big deficits. But that agreement does not help resolve
:01:00. > :01:04.Europe's more pressing problems. Leaders discussed one of those
:01:04. > :01:08.problems, Greece, late last night. There is still no agreement on
:01:08. > :01:11.reducing its debt, although it is thought that could come by the end
:01:11. > :01:15.of the week. Meanwhile, fresh fears about Portugal have emerged. Its
:01:15. > :01:23.borrowing costs had soared, and there is concern it will have to go
:01:23. > :01:28.through a painful reorganisation of its debt, similar to Greece. It is
:01:28. > :01:33.the 16th summit in two years, they did agree on some things, but what
:01:33. > :01:38.was missing? And well, of course, we did not get the final agreement
:01:38. > :01:41.on Greece. That is the most obvious thing that was missing. They say it
:01:41. > :01:45.will be here by the end of the week but these deadlines keep moving,
:01:45. > :01:53.and they have still not sorted out the funding issue. I think that is
:01:53. > :01:58.why Portuguese yields have risen, we have not settled for markets.
:01:58. > :02:02.Really, I think it is that they're the implementation of the European
:02:02. > :02:06.stability fund, but that is supposed to start in July, they are
:02:06. > :02:13.not even talking about whether they have got enough adequate resources
:02:13. > :02:16.and they won't start until the summit in March. This has giving
:02:17. > :02:20.Europe a bit of time, but not enough. It is quite tricky, because
:02:20. > :02:24.in terms of what is ahead for Greece, it is hard to know what is
:02:24. > :02:28.around the corner. Portugal looks like it is coming back into the
:02:28. > :02:33.forefront, certainly with its interest rates at 70% on ten-year
:02:33. > :02:38.bonds. That is incredible, isn't it? There is a fear that they will
:02:38. > :02:41.have to be a restructuring of Portuguese debt. We are just
:02:41. > :02:45.getting Greece sorted out but now it looks like it will be Portugal.
:02:45. > :02:52.So nobody wants to hold Portuguese debt, in fact, they want to sell
:02:52. > :02:57.LED. We mentioned does two. We have not even look at Italy and Spain.
:02:57. > :03:01.But in the meantime, at the end of February, the ECB is going to
:03:01. > :03:06.auction money at a fairly cheap rate to balance again. There is a
:03:06. > :03:11.lot of talk of whether there will be a huge take-up of that? Well, in
:03:11. > :03:17.December when they did it, we had 489 billion euros taken up by the
:03:17. > :03:23.banks. It is very cheap funding. But of course now they will all be
:03:23. > :03:27.looking for more funding. One of the big problems is the banks in
:03:27. > :03:35.Europe, and to whether they can be kept on track. They have got a lot
:03:35. > :03:39.of exposure to the Sovereign's in Europe and bad debt. So looking for
:03:39. > :03:44.more money to take up, in fact the expectation is that it could be
:03:44. > :03:48.three times as much as last time. We will have to leave you there,
:03:48. > :03:55.but we will talk some more about this when we look at the day's
:03:55. > :04:00.newspapers. Amazon has been busy pushing into
:04:00. > :04:04.new markets, but investors are concerned the expansion is coming
:04:04. > :04:08.at the expense of profit. The world's largest internet retailer,
:04:08. > :04:13.which reports its figures today, is expected to have made barely any
:04:13. > :04:17.money in the final months of last year.
:04:17. > :04:20.Amazon has transformed the way we buy books. Now it has set its
:04:20. > :04:25.sights on the publishing end of things. Its goal is to publish
:04:25. > :04:27.best-selling books by big-name authors. And, like local
:04:27. > :04:34.booksellers before them, not everybody in the publishing world
:04:34. > :04:38.is happy. Let me put it this way. Americans are devout capitalist.
:04:38. > :04:42.And American capitalism is rooted in competition. If we only have one
:04:42. > :04:46.entity, at the end of the day, not only selling the books but only one
:04:46. > :04:52.entity making the books - well, what have we got them? No
:04:52. > :04:58.competition. I feel that that is the death of the culture. These
:04:58. > :05:01.days, Amazon's ambitions are not just limited to books. There is the
:05:01. > :05:04.new kindled tablet, which is meant to be a portal to many of its new
:05:04. > :05:09.services. As well as video streaming and cloud computing
:05:09. > :05:13.services. But these ventures not only require lots of cash. But they
:05:13. > :05:17.are also squeezing profit margins. This came to a head in October,
:05:17. > :05:23.when Amazon want it could make a loss of as much as $200 million in
:05:23. > :05:28.the final Mods of last year. That sent its share price down more than
:05:28. > :05:33.10%, and it has continued to fall since then. This technology analyst
:05:33. > :05:37.warns that some investors in Amazon are losing patience. They are
:05:37. > :05:42.investing in tablets, mobile phones, and in content that does not
:05:42. > :05:48.necessarily have a clear pale. So I think convincing investors why that
:05:48. > :05:53.is important is a challenge for the company right now. And if holiday
:05:53. > :05:57.sales of the Kindle Fire disappoint, Amazon will face even more
:05:58. > :06:01.questions about its ability to make money.
:06:02. > :06:11.Two Japanese auto parts companies have been dealt a hefty fine in the
:06:12. > :06:16.
:06:16. > :06:22.West for price fixing. Who is in trouble? Yazaki Corporation will be
:06:22. > :06:28.paying 470 million US dollars, while Denso Corporation will be
:06:28. > :06:31.paying about 80 million US dollars. There are also four Yazaki
:06:31. > :06:37.Corporation executives serving two years each in the US prisons as
:06:37. > :06:41.part of this plea bargain. According to the US Justice
:06:41. > :06:45.Department, the companies sold parts in Canada, Japan, the US and
:06:45. > :06:49.Europe at inflated prices over a decade. At this point it is not
:06:49. > :06:57.immediately clear how many auto makers are could -- are affected by
:06:57. > :07:01.this conspiracy. Nor is it clear how inflated the price is worth.
:07:01. > :07:05.The charges are part of an ongoing federal anti-trust investigation in
:07:05. > :07:08.the US into beat Reading, price- fixing and other anti-competitive
:07:08. > :07:14.conduct in the Auto parts industry in the United States. So it is an
:07:14. > :07:22.ongoing investigation. Let's look at Honda and to she but now, both
:07:22. > :07:27.are coming out with their earnings in about an hour. What is expected?
:07:27. > :07:31.Well, numbers are expected to look die out for two of Japan's leading
:07:31. > :07:37.companies. Honda is forecast to unveil a double-digit profit
:07:37. > :07:43.dropped during the October-December quarter, and the forecast is for an
:07:43. > :07:47.even larger fault for full year earnings, which ends this March. --
:07:47. > :07:53.larger fall. The company has it been hit by a range of issues,
:07:53. > :07:58.ranging from the Japanese tsunami to be floods in Thailand. As for
:07:58. > :08:03.Toshiba, it is forecasting a 10% fall in profit for the financial
:08:03. > :08:07.year ending in March, compared with a previously expected 25% gain.
:08:07. > :08:13.Falling sales of LCD television sets, this demand for their memory
:08:13. > :08:22.chips, the appreciating yen and the effect of the Thailand floods have
:08:22. > :08:28.had a big drag on the profitability of the electronics giant.
:08:28. > :08:31.Let's take a look at some of the stories in the news today. British
:08:31. > :08:36.computer chip company to sign up armed is expected to report a surge
:08:36. > :08:39.in fourth-quarter profits. Its technology is found in mobile
:08:39. > :08:45.phones, washing machines and digital televisions. It is a big
:08:45. > :08:53.day for results in the pharmaceuticals industry. Both
:08:53. > :09:02.Pfizer and Eli Lilly are due to update us of what they're doing.
:09:02. > :09:07.And Exxon Mobil will is releasing its quarterly results.
:09:07. > :09:10.Markets today are slightly up. They are seemingly powering ahead
:09:11. > :09:15.despite the lack of visibility about what is going on the increase
:09:15. > :09:25.as far as debt restructuring is concerned. Fears about the future
:09:25. > :09:33.
:09:33. > :09:37.of Portugal also do not seem to be having an effect as yet. Of course
:09:37. > :09:47.there is a lot of sensitivity about the breach structuring in Greece
:09:47. > :09:48.