:00:02. > :00:12.Those are the latest headlines. Now for the latest financial news with
:00:12. > :00:21.
:00:21. > :00:28.Running out of credit. Shares in ratings agency Moody's slump on
:00:28. > :00:33.fears it could be next to be sued over the 2008 financial crisis.
:00:33. > :00:36.Plus, the trillion euro budget battle rages on. But is Europe
:00:36. > :00:46.spending too much subsidising the economy of the past and not enough
:00:46. > :00:54.
:00:54. > :00:59.Welcome. A quick look at the latest in the world of business and money.
:00:59. > :01:02.We will talk about the EU budget battle shortly. First, we will talk
:01:02. > :01:07.about this. Credit rating agency Moody's reports its numbers for the
:01:07. > :01:11.last three months of last year. We will get those later today. It is
:01:11. > :01:15.expected to say profits were up but that is likely to be overshadowed
:01:15. > :01:23.by fears it could be next in line for a massive lawsuit over its role
:01:23. > :01:30.in the 2008 financial crisis. This week, you -- you may remember
:01:30. > :01:34.Standard & Poor's received a $5 billion civil suit from the US
:01:34. > :01:38.Department of Justice, claiming it defrauded investors by giving
:01:38. > :01:45.trouble a ratings to mortgage- backed investors. But that later
:01:45. > :01:51.collapsed. Since then, Moody's shares have sunk more than 15%.
:01:51. > :01:56.They have significant influence on investment decisions but since the
:01:56. > :02:02.global crisis in 2008, the credibility of agencies has been
:02:02. > :02:08.called into question. Reputations to investors and financial
:02:08. > :02:11.institutions... Now, courtesy of a $5 billion lawsuit, the American
:02:11. > :02:16.Department of Justice is no longer questioning the practices of credit
:02:16. > :02:20.agencies. It is looking for accountability. Adding to Standard
:02:20. > :02:26.& Poor's woes, more than a dozen individual states are also suing
:02:26. > :02:29.the credit agency. We are suing them because they hold themselves
:02:29. > :02:32.up to be objective and independent but in fact they were mixing their
:02:32. > :02:37.business and profit-making side of the company with their analytical
:02:37. > :02:42.side of the company. The result was investors across the world trusted
:02:42. > :02:47.them for saying they were ejected when they were not. Of the three
:02:47. > :02:51.major credit agencies in the US, American authorities are going
:02:51. > :02:57.after Standard & Poor's. The question is whether this agency
:02:57. > :03:03.Moody's is next. It is not clear to me that Moody's will also be the
:03:03. > :03:09.pub -- target of this investigation. Even though Moody's and Fitch were
:03:10. > :03:18.equally guilty, they had equally flawed models and saw themselves...
:03:18. > :03:23.Sold their ratings to the investment banks. It looks like
:03:23. > :03:27.Standard & Poor's might be the one that made the error. In making an
:03:27. > :03:32.example of Standard & Poor's, the hope is that there will be lasting
:03:32. > :03:37.reforms in how agencies operate. Five years since the financial
:03:37. > :03:46.crisis, business models have not really changed.
:03:46. > :03:49.Moving on.. As you have been hearing, EU leaders have been
:03:49. > :03:53.meeting through the night to try and agree a budget for the next
:03:53. > :04:03.seven years. The sums of money being proposed are vast, some 973
:04:03. > :04:13.billion euros or almost 300 euros a year for every taxpayer in the EU.
:04:13. > :04:19.
:04:19. > :04:23.There they are. That breaks down to 300 for every taxpayer. 40% is
:04:23. > :04:26.earmarked to farmers and fishermen. The likes of Britain want to see
:04:26. > :04:29.that reigned in, pitting them against nations in southern and
:04:29. > :04:38.eastern Europe, the main beneficiaries. As the politicians
:04:38. > :04:43.do battle, many in the business world want more spent on creating
:04:43. > :04:47.future growth. The budget for research and innovation is only
:04:47. > :04:56.less than a quarter of the spending on farming. Some fear that could be
:04:56. > :05:01.an easy place to wield the axe. Cambridge in the UK, this is a
:05:01. > :05:05.laboratory at the crossroads of science and technology. Researchers
:05:05. > :05:12.from at least 15 EU member states collaborate on a flagship project
:05:12. > :05:18.to exploit a revolutionary material. They are experimenting with a
:05:18. > :05:25.carbon-based and extraordinarily thin substance, it conducts
:05:26. > :05:30.electricity better than copper. The hope is that it could be a wonder
:05:30. > :05:34.product for the 21st century, as plastic was in the 20th century.
:05:34. > :05:44.More than 100 times stronger than steel, it is hoped it can be a
:05:44. > :05:45.
:05:45. > :05:50.replacement for silicone. But without huge advance -- an increase
:05:50. > :05:55.in the funds, they could lose sight of the project. We want to better
:05:55. > :05:58.society in general and create jobs. As a priority project, this
:05:58. > :06:02.research should be safe but the EU's Innovation Commission is
:06:02. > :06:07.worried member-states could pull the plug on the very projects that
:06:07. > :06:11.could bring new business to a low or no growth Continent. Some will
:06:11. > :06:16.come looking for cuts, some will come with vested interests in mind
:06:16. > :06:20.and supporting those. But in the middle of everything that goes on,
:06:20. > :06:25.inevitably with these discussions, the danger is that the sacrificial
:06:25. > :06:32.lamb or the casualty will be research and innovation. For a
:06:32. > :06:37.country like the UK, which has done so fantastically well for research
:06:37. > :06:40.and innovation, that would be catastrophic. So, EU research
:06:40. > :06:50.funding is in the firing line as leaders embark on another bruising
:06:50. > :06:56.round of bargaining to try and keep spending and rebates they -- they
:06:56. > :07:02.want. A bruising round of bargaining.
:07:02. > :07:08.Heading over to Asia. More evidence that China's economic recovery is
:07:08. > :07:13.on track. Trade numbers in January show a big jump on last year in
:07:13. > :07:23.both exports and imports. Good news, because we have got an export surge
:07:23. > :07:23.
:07:23. > :07:32.by 25%, imports are up nearly 29%. But can we smell a new year that? -
:07:32. > :07:37.- rat. It is more of a slithering snake. It is the Year of the water
:07:37. > :07:45.snake. Better-than-expected trade data. The economy is perhaps
:07:45. > :07:52.rebounding from the recent slowdown. Exports surged 25%, as you said, in
:07:52. > :07:56.January. Forecasters called for a 17% jump. Imports were up nearly
:07:56. > :08:00.13%. Of course analysts are saying that some of that momentum may be
:08:00. > :08:07.due to the fact that figures for January were distorted by the
:08:07. > :08:13.change in the timing of Chinese new year. That is when factories and
:08:13. > :08:23.businesses shut for many days. That in packs production of goods. Last
:08:23. > :08:24.
:08:24. > :08:28.year, the new year was celebrated in January. -- in -- impacts. It
:08:28. > :08:32.also influences import numbers. Companies are restocking ahead of
:08:32. > :08:36.the celebrations. But analysts contend that while the changing in
:08:36. > :08:42.timing of the celebrations did have an impact on numbers, the overall
:08:42. > :08:45.trend was that a recovery is happening in the Chinese economy.
:08:45. > :08:54.Most of the markets today, with the exception of Japan, are all rising
:08:55. > :09:00.on these numbers. And new year rat is exactly what I
:09:00. > :09:04.was alluding to! These are some of the other stories
:09:04. > :09:09.making headlines. The Boeing 787 Dreamliner will fly again for test
:09:09. > :09:13.flights. That is to monitor the potentially faulty batteries. All
:09:13. > :09:18.50 Dreamliners were grounded worldwide on 16th January after a
:09:18. > :09:21.series of incidents, including a fire onboard apart 787 in Boston
:09:21. > :09:25.and an in-flight problem on another plane in Japan, forcing them to
:09:25. > :09:29.make an emergency landing. This has cost the airline tens of millions
:09:29. > :09:33.of dollars. US regulators want to take a closer look at how the
:09:33. > :09:37.batteries were approved, which could mean the debt remain out of
:09:37. > :09:44.surface for weeks to come. Singapore Airlines has reported a
:09:44. > :09:49.small rise in profits for the final quarter of last year. It made $115
:09:49. > :09:56.million. It has been under pressure at the premium end of the air
:09:56. > :09:58.travel market. These are the Asian markets. They were pretty much up