:00:02. > :00:04.Much more on that story on the BBC website. For now, those are the
:00:04. > :00:14.latest headlines. Now for the latest financial news, in World Business
:00:14. > :00:22.
:00:22. > :00:31.Facebook shares surge 20% as its earnings smash Wall Street
:00:31. > :00:41.estimates. Plus, flying the flag or just flagging? Will the latest
:00:41. > :00:51.
:00:51. > :00:58.growth figures show signs of life in Also coming up: improving fortunes
:00:58. > :01:00.full-forward. Americans return to the car showrooms outlast. -- for
:01:00. > :01:03.Ford. Since Facebook went public on the
:01:03. > :01:06.New York stock exchange last year with a valuation of $100 billion,
:01:06. > :01:09.only then see its stock flounder below its flotation price, to the
:01:09. > :01:11.investment world it's been controversial to say the least. The
:01:11. > :01:14.bulls, if you like, point to the social networking site's billion
:01:14. > :01:17.plus users around the world and massive future earning potential.
:01:17. > :01:20.The bears say it will always struggle to justify its vast
:01:20. > :01:25.valuation, and might even go the way of MySpace and fall out of favour
:01:25. > :01:29.with users altogether. Late on Wednesday, the company released
:01:29. > :01:32.quarterly results and it was definitely one-nil to the bulls.
:01:32. > :01:39.Facebook says it made revenues of over $1.8 billion in the three
:01:39. > :01:44.months to June. That's a jump of more than 50% on the same period
:01:44. > :01:47.last year and much more than Wall Street was expecting. On that, a
:01:47. > :01:54.healthy $333 million was profit, compared with a quarterly loss of
:01:54. > :01:57.some $150 million last year. The results after the Wall Street close
:01:57. > :02:01.had an effect on the share price that was nothing short of
:02:01. > :02:11.electrifying. Facebook stock surged 20% in after-hours trading, to
:02:11. > :02:12.
:02:12. > :02:22.$31.81. But that's still a way off its flotation price of $38. Here's
:02:22. > :02:23.
:02:24. > :02:27.It's been just over one year since shares in Facebook went public. Back
:02:27. > :02:34.then, its initial public offering was described as disappointing. Even
:02:34. > :02:38.disastrous. But not today. Investors are cheering results that came in
:02:38. > :02:44.much stronger than expected. At their focus had been on how Facebook
:02:44. > :02:48.has managed to make money out of all of its users. Wednesday's figures
:02:48. > :02:53.are showing that it has managed to track many more users and
:02:53. > :02:57.advertisers. -- attract many more. But, as people use their mobile
:02:57. > :03:01.phones more to check Facebook on the company has been ramping up its
:03:01. > :03:08.mobile phone users. Figures showed the advertising revenue from
:03:08. > :03:11.devices, which was practically done at the time of the IPO, now accounts
:03:11. > :03:16.for over 40% of its advertising revenue, which is what investors
:03:16. > :03:21.want to hear. But some say, let's not celebrate yet. Because even
:03:22. > :03:27.though shares have surged, thanks to these strong figures, they are still
:03:27. > :03:35.well below the IPO price of $30. But at least amid growing concerns that
:03:35. > :03:38.Facebook could be losing some of its its younger users, it is at least
:03:38. > :03:41.making investors happy. The health of America's car
:03:41. > :03:44.companies has long been a measure of the state of its economy. On
:03:44. > :03:47.Wednesday, Ford reported better than expected US earnings for the second
:03:47. > :03:50.quarter and raised its profit and sales forecasts for the year, thanks
:03:50. > :03:55.to booming truck sales in the States. On Thursday, it's General
:03:55. > :03:59.Motors' turn to report. With the US corporate reporting season now well
:03:59. > :04:08.under way, how robust does the US recovery look from Wall Street?
:04:08. > :04:13.Samira Hussain reports from New After years of pennypinching,
:04:13. > :04:17.Americans are shopping again. Chief among those purchases, new cars.
:04:17. > :04:23.That's driving up profits for some of America's biggest car
:04:23. > :04:27.manufacturers. I think we are clearly in growth mode.
:04:27. > :04:32.automobile industry is growing robustly around the world. We are
:04:32. > :04:37.growing within that. In fact, we are above the overall industry. It's an
:04:37. > :04:44.industry phenomenon on but Ford clearly has a lot of momentum around
:04:44. > :04:47.the world. Consumer spending overall are bright spots in the US economy.
:04:48. > :04:50.Admit -- with more than one third of American companies reporting their
:04:50. > :04:55.quarterly earnings, a clear picture of just how well this economy is
:04:55. > :05:03.doing emerges. It's telling us that the economy is growing at only a
:05:03. > :05:11.traditionally at a much stronger rate than we are today. With
:05:11. > :05:16.earnings now increasing by about 3.5% on a yearly basis, it's showing
:05:16. > :05:19.that the gains are not what Wall Street has been used to.
:05:19. > :05:25.companies as financials are surprising investors I posting gains
:05:25. > :05:29.of 20%. A spec -- sectors like basic materials, industrials and utilities
:05:29. > :05:34.are not performing as well, adding pressure is on the strength of the
:05:34. > :05:37.global economic recovery. Consumers are and will continue to be behind
:05:37. > :05:42.the wheel of this country's austerity. While earnings are
:05:42. > :05:49.showing some sign of strength, the US economic recovery has not hit the
:05:49. > :05:52.To the UK, where hopes for a sustained economic recovery could
:05:52. > :05:55.get a boost later from official growth figures. Gross domestic
:05:56. > :06:02.product is widely forecast to have increased by 0.6% in the April to
:06:02. > :06:07.June period. If confirmed, that would be twice the pace of growth in
:06:07. > :06:13.the first quarter, which was 0.3%. Unofficial monthly data published
:06:13. > :06:16.since then has suggested a continued improvement. Also, revisions to
:06:16. > :06:20.official numbers have show that the double-dip recession at the end of
:06:20. > :06:24.2011 and beginning of 2012 never actually happened.
:06:24. > :06:28.Even so, 0.6% is hardly strong growth. So, what kind of recovery
:06:28. > :06:35.are we looking at? Rob Wood, Chief UK Economist at Berenberg Bank,
:06:35. > :06:41.joins us. Many thanks for coming in this morning. What you make of this
:06:41. > :06:46.figure? Does it get you excited? It is good news. After the quagmire of
:06:46. > :06:50.last year, dancing up and down between positive and negative
:06:50. > :06:55.growth, two consecutive quarters of growth is good news. It's a big
:06:55. > :07:01.turnaround. If it adds up to 1% over a couple of quarters, that's still
:07:01. > :07:05.pretty good for the early stages of recovery. Do we think that this sort
:07:06. > :07:10.of stabilisation that we have been seen across the eurozone,
:07:10. > :07:14.stabilisation of the single currency, has that played a part? I
:07:14. > :07:18.think that has been imported. threat -- uncertainty surrounding
:07:19. > :07:22.the eurozone has probably been holding back firms from investing
:07:22. > :07:27.more than they might. And the bad headlines in the papers probably
:07:27. > :07:30.weigh on consumers thinking as well. But ultimately what we have seen is
:07:30. > :07:36.the Bank of England policy, that is, low interest rates, finally
:07:36. > :07:41.feeding through. Mortgage rates have come down the best part of 1% over
:07:41. > :07:45.12 months. And house prices and the housing market are turning up. We
:07:45. > :07:53.can argue about the sense of pushing up house prices, given how high they
:07:53. > :07:56.are, but what certainly seems to be are, but what certainly seems to be
:07:56. > :07:59.the case is that fast rising ice -- the case is that fast rising ice --
:07:59. > :08:04.house prices get people spending. Retail figures have been strong,
:08:04. > :08:12.suggesting the high street is this might pick up. But official
:08:12. > :08:16.manufacturing figures that came out showed a rather unexpected prop?
:08:16. > :08:22.Manufacturing is struggling. That's where you can see the eurozone
:08:22. > :08:26.coming through. Slowly clawing its way to expansion, as the Rose and
:08:26. > :08:31.stabilises and returns to growth, as we saw in the figures yesterday. --
:08:31. > :08:36.as the eurozone. I did not strong. The growth is coming from consumers
:08:37. > :08:41.going out and spending. What we see in the service sector, its growing
:08:41. > :08:47.quite well, but the manufacturing sector has been stagnating. OK. Good
:08:47. > :08:50.news, then. Thank you. China has been moving to boost its
:08:50. > :09:00.slowing economy, which is growing at its weakest pace in more than a
:09:00. > :09:02.
:09:02. > :09:04.decade. Among the measures, scrapping taxes for small businesses
:09:04. > :09:10.and offering help to struggling exporters. Let's go straight to Rico
:09:10. > :09:15.Hizon in our Singapore office. What are you have twice?
:09:15. > :09:18.Beijing says it will be suspending the value added tax and turnover tax
:09:18. > :09:23.for the small and medium-sized businesses. They have monthly sales
:09:23. > :09:29.of about $3500. This initiative, which takes effect on the 1st of
:09:29. > :09:33.August, is set to benefit more than 6 million small companies and boost
:09:33. > :09:37.employment and income for millions of people. As for exporters, they
:09:37. > :09:41.also have some measures. The government will be implementing
:09:41. > :09:46.signification of customs clearance procedures are cut operational fees
:09:46. > :09:48.and speed up a shipment of small and medium-sized private enterprises.
:09:48. > :09:54.Analyst say these measures are aimed at basically cushioning the impact
:09:54. > :09:57.of slowing growth on small businesses. Apart from that, the
:09:57. > :10:02.government is completely opening up the railway construction market, to
:10:02. > :10:07.develop it further and encourage private players to invest in the
:10:07. > :10:12.sector. It will also issue new bonds to help fund railway construction.
:10:12. > :10:16.Overall, China's economic growth has slowed for two quarters in a row.
:10:16. > :10:19.The government said these measures will push to basically stabilise
:10:19. > :10:26.economic growth over the next few years.
:10:26. > :10:34.Many thanks for that. Time now for a quick look to see how
:10:34. > :10:38.markets are doing. If we can bring them up for you... We might not be
:10:38. > :10:47.able to. But I can tell you that Asian markets have retreated from