:00:02. > :00:06.BBC World News. What are America's economic prospects over the next
:00:06. > :00:14.four years? Now for the latest financial news with Sally and World
:00:14. > :00:18.Business Report. Hello and welcome to World Business
:00:18. > :00:22.Report. I'm Sally Bundock. President Barack Obama's second
:00:22. > :00:26.term begins and the economic challenges remain immense. We
:00:26. > :00:35.assess what another four years of his leadership will bring for the
:00:35. > :00:41.worlds largest economy. The world's second largest
:00:41. > :00:44.equipment maker reports a 30% decline in its profits.
:00:44. > :00:54.The increasing importance of rare earth minerals. How Japan is trying
:00:54. > :00:56.
:00:56. > :01:00.to free itself from its dependence As you have been hearing, President
:01:00. > :01:07.Barack Obama took the official oath for his second term on Sunday at
:01:07. > :01:10.the White House in a small, private ceremony. Later today, he will be
:01:10. > :01:14.sworn in publicly in Washington. When Obama first came to office in
:01:14. > :01:17.2009, the economy of the United States was in a shambles. Things
:01:17. > :01:21.have picked up since then but the recovery in the world's largest
:01:21. > :01:31.economy remains fragile. So what will President Obama's second term
:01:31. > :01:34.
:01:34. > :01:38.do to help boost the US and aid On election night in Chicago two
:01:38. > :01:42.months ago, a victorious President Obama pledged to fight for the
:01:42. > :01:47.middle class. I believe we can keep the promise of our founder. The
:01:47. > :01:53.idea that if you are willing to work hard, it does not matter who
:01:53. > :01:58.you are all will you come from. ritual of the inauguration can't
:01:58. > :02:02.disguise how difficult it is to live up to that promise. Struggling
:02:02. > :02:07.to make ends meet, more Americans are dipping into their retirement
:02:07. > :02:12.savings to pay the bills. They are basically robbing the future,
:02:12. > :02:17.rubbing their retirement years, to get through to pay their bills
:02:17. > :02:21.today. And the problems are too real. The middle class are poorer
:02:21. > :02:25.today than when President Obama first took office, even though the
:02:25. > :02:30.actions he took helped save the economy. You made the necessary,
:02:30. > :02:35.the hard, the politically perilous choices that saved the American
:02:35. > :02:40.people, saved American industry, saved the global economy. A view
:02:40. > :02:45.reflected in the performance of the stock market. But the Dow Jones
:02:45. > :02:48.industrial average is 60% higher today than four years ago. While
:02:49. > :02:53.Americans continued to struggle to reduce their household debt,
:02:53. > :02:57.President Obama faces a similar budget challenge. But coping with
:02:57. > :03:04.the country's ballooning debt, more than 16 trillion dollars, will not
:03:04. > :03:07.be easy. The motion is adopted and laid on the table! This was the
:03:07. > :03:12.moment in early January when Congress reached a last-minute deal
:03:12. > :03:16.to avoid automatic tax increases. But the battle doesn't end there.
:03:17. > :03:21.Hard spending cuts go into effect in March, unless there is another
:03:21. > :03:27.deal. America will heed its borrowing limit around the same
:03:27. > :03:33.time. He is confronted with and will be preoccupied with this
:03:33. > :03:37.fiscal problem. -- hit its borrowing. Debts are enormous and a
:03:37. > :03:45.clear disagreement between the President and members of his party
:03:45. > :03:50.and the Republicans in Congress over what to do with it. His first
:03:50. > :03:57.inauguration to massive cheering crowds. The second will be a more
:03:57. > :04:00.muted affair. He is no longer a single of hope but in the middle of
:04:01. > :04:04.a messy struggle to salvage America's economic promise.
:04:04. > :04:09.Japan is set to begin a survey of the Pacific sea bed today for
:04:09. > :04:11.potentially large deposits of rare- earth minerals. Widely used in
:04:11. > :04:18.electronic devices, securing their supply is seen as increasingly
:04:18. > :04:26.Hayes reports from Tokyo, the motivation is not purely economic
:04:26. > :04:32.but is political as well. Japan's new search for where earth
:04:32. > :04:37.is taking place around the tiny little island, which is actually
:04:37. > :04:42.part of Tokyo city but nowhere near I am standing here today on the
:04:42. > :04:47.edge of Tokyo Bay. Actually, 2,000 kilometres from here far out in the
:04:47. > :04:52.Pacific. Last year, Japanese scientists took samples from the
:04:52. > :04:58.seabed year that Ireland. Nearly 5,000 metres below sea level. They
:04:58. > :05:06.found what they think our deposits of a rare earth. They think they
:05:06. > :05:12.could be up to 200 years' supply of there could be. It is difficult to
:05:12. > :05:16.get to. Why is there so much fuss? Rare earths are very valuable and
:05:16. > :05:20.useful in many high-technology products, particularly in the
:05:20. > :05:24.production of mini-tour high production magnets used in things
:05:24. > :05:29.like hybrid cars, the electrical cars. Very valuable to Japanese
:05:30. > :05:35.industry. The other reason is because at the moment one country
:05:35. > :05:40.controls 95% of the world market in rare earths. That country is China.
:05:40. > :05:43.This is creating a monopolistic position for China and can set the
:05:43. > :05:47.prices and control supply. Many countries including Japan are
:05:47. > :05:54.concerned by that and it is setting off something like a gold rush all
:05:54. > :06:03.mad rush in the search for rare earths elsewhere in the world. --
:06:03. > :06:08.or marred -- might rush. And Japan and China are locked in a
:06:08. > :06:12.territorial dispute over these islands. Back in 2010, the last
:06:12. > :06:16.time they had an argument over those islands, China did in fact
:06:16. > :06:21.without warning cut off the supply of rare earths to Japan for several
:06:21. > :06:28.months and caused a lot of problems for Japanese industry. And so Japan
:06:28. > :06:31.understandably wants its own supply of this very valuable product.
:06:31. > :06:37.Sharanjit Leyl is in our Singapore bureau and has got results from
:06:37. > :06:42.telecoms equipment giant Huawei. Tell us more. How did they do?
:06:42. > :06:46.They did pretty well. This is a company that has been in the
:06:46. > :06:52.headlines quite a lot but this time for good reason. It posted a net
:06:52. > :06:56.profit of rise in some 33% in 2012 from the previous year, all thanks
:06:56. > :07:00.to new telecom projects and smartphone sales, they say. Of
:07:00. > :07:06.course it is privately held and ranks behind Eriksson in telecom
:07:06. > :07:10.equipment sales. It had some 66% of overall revenue coming from outside
:07:10. > :07:16.China. Amongst overseas markets, Europe, the Middle East and Africa
:07:16. > :07:18.accounted for the largest share, with China ranking second, followed
:07:18. > :07:23.by the Asia Pacific and the Americas accounting for the least.
:07:23. > :07:27.The controversy surrounding the headlines is the perception that it
:07:27. > :07:31.is seen to be too close to the Chinese government. It was founded
:07:31. > :07:35.in the 1980s by a former Chinese military officer and has run into
:07:35. > :07:39.many problems in countries, including the US and Australia, due
:07:39. > :07:45.to a lot of national security concerns and cider espionage
:07:45. > :07:49.worries as well. -- side their espionage. It has repeatedly said
:07:49. > :07:56.it has no links with the Chinese government and has been known for
:07:56. > :08:03.trying to raise sales in the telecoms sector by edging out
:08:03. > :08:07.rivals. In fact, it results follow China's second largest telecoms
:08:07. > :08:13.maker which warned of a net loss of just under 500 million in 2012.
:08:13. > :08:15.Thank you. Other business stories. Japan's All Nippon Airways says the
:08:15. > :08:19.worldwide grounding of Boeing's Dreamliner has forced it to cancel
:08:19. > :08:22.335 flights up to next Sunday affecting nearly 48,000 passengers.
:08:22. > :08:26.ANA said the cancellations have affected its domestic business the
:08:26. > :08:32.most and 43 international flights have been cut. With 17 Dreamliners
:08:32. > :08:35.in operation, it is Boeings biggest 787 client. Last week the Japanese
:08:35. > :08:39.airline was forced to make an emergency landing in Western Japan
:08:39. > :08:43.sparking a global alert. In New Zealand, fugitive internet
:08:43. > :08:46.tycoon Kim Mr Dotcom has launched a new file-sharing business just a
:08:46. > :08:49.year after he was forced to close a similar website. His previous
:08:49. > :08:52.venture Megaupload.com once accounted for over 4% of the
:08:52. > :08:56.world's internet traffic and US authorities claim he used it for
:08:56. > :09:02.racketeering, money laundering and copyright-infringement. Dotcom
:09:02. > :09:07.denies any wrongdoing. The original Batmobile from the
:09:07. > :09:11.1960s television show has sold for an impressive $4.2 million. But you
:09:11. > :09:14.do get a lot of car for your money. It is almost six meters long and
:09:14. > :09:19.features an oil squirter fashioned from lawn sprinklers, perfect for
:09:19. > :09:22.giving your archenemies the slip in a car chase. The man who bought the
:09:22. > :09:29.car is a collector from Phoenix, Arizona who goes by the rather
:09:30. > :09:35.Arizona who goes by the rather unlikely name of Rick Champagne.