:00:01. > :00:11.BBC News. Now for the latest financial news with Alice Baxter
:00:11. > :00:15.and World Business Report. Hello and welcome to World Business
:00:15. > :00:17.Report. Looking for the shock and awe factor - investor hopes are
:00:17. > :00:21.high for today's European Central Bank meeting. And events in Europe
:00:21. > :00:31.are set to take another chunk out of profits from the American car-
:00:31. > :00:32.
:00:32. > :00:42.maker GM. There's a lot on the line at today's European Central Bank
:00:42. > :00:46.
:00:46. > :00:50.meeting. In the Milun sells a stake to a European Investment Group.
:00:50. > :00:53.Hopes are high that the ECB will act to help out eurozone woes -
:00:53. > :00:57.specifically by announcing that it may buy up Italian and Spanish
:00:57. > :01:02.bonds therefore bringing the countries borrowing costs down. If
:01:02. > :01:05.there is no action, some analysts have warned of market chaos. The
:01:05. > :01:15.head of the ECB, Mario Draghi, lifted expectations at a conference
:01:15. > :01:17.
:01:17. > :01:25.last week. Here's what he said. Within our mandate commander the
:01:25. > :01:31.CBD is ready to do whatever it takes to preserve the euro. It will
:01:31. > :01:34.be enough. Believe me. So what are the options open to the ECB? Well
:01:34. > :01:37.there is some speculation that interest rates could be cut again
:01:37. > :01:40.by a quarter of one percent - from 0.75 to 0.5% - although most
:01:40. > :01:44.analysts expect a cut later this year What markets really want to
:01:44. > :01:54.see is the central bank re-start its bond buying plan - as we
:01:54. > :01:57.
:01:57. > :02:00.mentioned earlier - but that is not without its problems. The
:02:00. > :02:04.Bundesbank is against the idea. Germany's Bundesbank is against the
:02:04. > :02:08.idea - with the head of the central bank warning that the ECB must not
:02:08. > :02:16.overstep its mandate. I'm joined by Tom Rogers, senior economic advisor
:02:16. > :02:19.at Ernst and Young. Many analysts saying this is the most exciting
:02:19. > :02:24.meeting and a long time. Expectations running high following
:02:24. > :02:31.his comments last week. There was a rally on the market. Using the
:02:32. > :02:36.expectations have been wrapped up to high? There is a danger that
:02:36. > :02:40.people have interpreted his comments too literally. If you
:02:40. > :02:43.think about the the first of what he might say, difficult to imagine
:02:43. > :02:51.him not saying they would do everything to preserve the
:02:51. > :02:57.stability of the euro. We have been saying for some time that the SNP
:02:57. > :03:04.rien -- reactivated would find it fun solution to the crisis going on
:03:04. > :03:10.with the eurozone. There are some other options open to the bank.
:03:11. > :03:15.Another cut in interest rates, is that likely? Reading nothing there
:03:15. > :03:19.will be a cut in interest rates. All the signals from the previous
:03:19. > :03:25.meetings and press conferences suggest they want to wait and see
:03:26. > :03:32.how previous interest rate cuts will impact be, the before cutting
:03:32. > :03:37.rates again. The other option open to the bank is the resumption of
:03:37. > :03:44.its bond buying programme. We already know Jimmy's Bundesbank
:03:44. > :03:50.feelings on that. How likely is that as an option? It is the most
:03:50. > :03:54.likely option. The Bundesbank published the interview on its
:03:54. > :04:00.website this week, with the Governor of the Bundesbank rarer it
:04:00. > :04:07.raided his opposition to that. The compensate -- the conversations
:04:07. > :04:13.that they have behind the scenes and policy makers may its move over
:04:13. > :04:20.some of the objections. Some people have taken his comments last week
:04:20. > :04:29.too literally. What it out the third option about giving the
:04:29. > :04:34.rescue fund licence to borrow money from the CBD? They will be an
:04:34. > :04:40.option for the EC it to take the 500 billion US it has and use that
:04:40. > :04:48.as collateral to borrow from the CBD. And expand the money it has.
:04:48. > :04:57.There is a measure that would needs to be approved by leaders. Cannot
:04:57. > :04:59.be done by the CBD in isolation. General Motors, which last year
:04:59. > :05:04.regained its position as the world's largest car maker, is
:05:04. > :05:06.expected to report a drop in quarterly profits later today. The
:05:07. > :05:16.firm's biggest problem is its business in Europe which is losing
:05:17. > :05:18.
:05:19. > :05:21.money. But perhaps more worryingly, this week GM reported a six percent
:05:21. > :05:24.slide in July sales as high US unemployment and weak consumer
:05:24. > :05:29.confidence kept would-be buyers on the sidelines. So is GM's revival
:05:30. > :05:34.under threat? Mark Gregory reports from New York. GM nearly went under
:05:34. > :05:39.in the global financial crisis. It was saved by a huge government
:05:39. > :05:43.bail-out. Since then, it has gone back to health, leaner and more
:05:43. > :05:49.efficient with lower costs and fewer deaths. Sales are up and up
:05:49. > :05:54.profits restored. But recently, the clouds have appeared. Here at this
:05:54. > :05:59.GM Chevrolet branch in Brooklyn, the business environment is like
:05:59. > :06:04.the weather. Damp and gloomy and overcast. Sales are holding up
:06:04. > :06:09.reasonably well. But with the US economy on the slide, this is not
:06:09. > :06:12.an easy moment to be selling expensive items like new cars. It
:06:12. > :06:18.is getting more difficult because people are conscious about losing
:06:18. > :06:22.their jobs, how can they make the car payments. If their car is
:06:22. > :06:27.running, they would rather spend a few hundred dollars to get it
:06:27. > :06:30.maintained then go through the transection of buying a new car.
:06:30. > :06:36.Thanks to cost-cutting and efficiency gains, GM does not need
:06:36. > :06:40.to sell as many cars in its core US market as it once did. The
:06:40. > :06:45.company's biggest problems are at its factories in Europe we are it
:06:45. > :06:52.has yet to wield the axe on costs and sales have slumped due to the
:06:52. > :06:58.economic crisis in the region. There is a lack of demand in Europe
:06:59. > :07:04.and it has come bounding oversupply. What we have seen from Ford and
:07:04. > :07:11.other auto makers deep discounting going on and it's a direct hit to
:07:11. > :07:17.profitability. We would expect similar results for GM. Also some
:07:17. > :07:22.anxieties that home. The latest US figures show GM and Ford sales
:07:22. > :07:28.slightly down what Japanese rivals like Honda and Toyota have seen big
:07:28. > :07:31.gains. A few more months of data like that could be deeply worrying.
:07:31. > :07:41.China is getting into the olympic spirit - it's investing in an
:07:41. > :07:42.
:07:42. > :07:48.Italian football team. Sharanjit Leyl is in our Asia business hub in
:07:48. > :07:56.Singapore. Sharanjit, why the interest in Italian football?
:07:56. > :08:01.Football of all sorts is huge in Asia. Asians love European football.
:08:01. > :08:07.We're seeing a group of Chinese set to become the second largest
:08:07. > :08:13.shareholders in the top Italian football club into an alarm. They
:08:13. > :08:20.have many fans and will parts of Asia. They are holding the parent
:08:20. > :08:30.company and the group would require a stake but the main family would
:08:30. > :08:36.
:08:36. > :08:44.retain control of the team. The Italian said the club wants to
:08:44. > :08:54.increase its presence in Asia. Three players would become members
:08:54. > :08:59.
:08:59. > :09:04.of the board of directors. It wants to enhance its future development
:09:04. > :09:09.and future perspectives. This is not the first time Asians have
:09:09. > :09:17.taken stakes in soccer clubs. A former Thai Prime Minister had a
:09:17. > :09:27.founder of air Asia took over another English club, Queen's Park
:09:27. > :09:31.
:09:31. > :09:34.Rangers earlier this year. In other news - the New York stock exchange
:09:34. > :09:36.is investigating trades in at least six stocks after a technical glitch.
:09:36. > :09:40.An electronic trading system is thought to have malfunctioned,
:09:40. > :09:43.causing prices to fluctuate wildly in the first 45 minutes of trade.
:09:43. > :09:46.The Japanese electronics firm Sony is expected to report a sharp drop
:09:46. > :09:50.in profits this morning - hit by the on going eurozone problems and