:00:00. > :00:08.Those are the latest headlines from BBC World News. Now for the latest
:00:09. > :00:17.financial news with World Business Report.
:00:18. > :00:24.Markets hope for a rebound in US hiring after last month's disastrous
:00:25. > :00:27.figures. Plus, fears for Switzerland's role
:00:28. > :00:29.as a business haven as it votes on curbing the number of EU workers it
:00:30. > :00:44.lets in. Welcome to World Business Report.
:00:45. > :00:48.I'm Alice Baxter. Also in the programme, US markets notch up their
:00:49. > :00:54.biggest day of gains this year. We'll see if that optimism is
:00:55. > :00:57.carrying through into Asia. We start in the United States, where
:00:58. > :01:00.global markets are focused this Friday on the health of the world's
:01:01. > :01:04.biggest economy - specifically, the recovery in the labour market. In a
:01:05. > :01:09.few hours' time, we'll get jobs figures for January. The hope is
:01:10. > :01:15.they will show a rebound from the last set of numbers, which were
:01:16. > :01:18.nothing short of disastrous. Last month, we learned that US employers
:01:19. > :01:27.created just 74,000 jobs in December. That was the worst payroll
:01:28. > :01:31.data for almost three years. Was it a blip caused by the extreme cold
:01:32. > :01:35.weather in the US or a sign of a sharp slowdown in the economy?
:01:36. > :01:39.Today, we'll find out. Economists are expecting a much healthier
:01:40. > :01:46.185,000 new jobs in January. That would keep the unemployment rate at
:01:47. > :01:50.its five-year low of 6.7%. But even with unemployment coming down,
:01:51. > :01:53.there's another big concern - wages. Many working Americans have seen
:01:54. > :01:57.their pay stagnate for years, putting severe pressure on their
:01:58. > :02:06.spending power. We'll have a report on that. Michelle Fleury reports
:02:07. > :02:11.from New York. A majority of US workers have
:02:12. > :02:20.experienced a decade of flat wages. The meeting weekly wage in 2012 was
:02:21. > :02:25.$768. The same as 12 years earlier. The situation was made worse by the
:02:26. > :02:35.recession five years ago. Wages fell despite a rise in productivity. For
:02:36. > :02:40.this woman, a new -- a New York subway assistant, the flatlining
:02:41. > :02:45.wages has left her in a financially vulnerable position. 25 years ago
:02:46. > :02:51.when I first started, the pay cheques were good. The raised were
:02:52. > :02:57.good. I had four young children. I was able to survive. My two children
:02:58. > :03:02.went to college. I had no issue with trying to make ends meet. Now I'm
:03:03. > :03:08.alone and my children are up. It is hard for me to survive. In a country
:03:09. > :03:12.were consumer spending accounts for two thirds of economic activity,
:03:13. > :03:20.shed some light on why the recovery has been so lacklustre. The very
:03:21. > :03:29.slow growth in earnings is slowing their demand for goods and services.
:03:30. > :03:33.That, in turn, is slowing the growth of the US economy, giving it more
:03:34. > :03:39.moderate than it has been in the last economic recoveries. Most agree
:03:40. > :03:45.that recovery is under way. Over the year, the implement rate has been
:03:46. > :03:53.falling. For too many Americans, the job market is still too weak. That
:03:54. > :03:54.could mean stagnant wages. That prevent them from sharing any sense
:03:55. > :04:04.of wider prosperity. Investors around the world are
:04:05. > :04:06.waiting for those US employment figures at 8:30 Washington time or
:04:07. > :04:23.1330GMT. Let's cross to Singapore to see how Asian markets are faring.
:04:24. > :04:32.They are doing relatively well. Many people are keen to what the
:04:33. > :04:41.employment report later today, to see if the largest economies out of
:04:42. > :04:46.the woods. They were better than estimated US jobless claims. It
:04:47. > :04:49.helped lift most Asian markets. There are rebounding from the Iraq
:04:50. > :04:57.experienced earlier, the five-month lows hit yesterday.
:04:58. > :05:08.There was a loss forecast yesterday. That is after an electronics giant
:05:09. > :05:14.was shedding 5000 jobs. There is a stagnant PC market this year. The
:05:15. > :05:21.aggressive restructuring plan might offset the impact of the forecast
:05:22. > :05:28.net loss of $1.08 billion. In Australia, we have seen gains as
:05:29. > :05:33.well after the nation's Central Bank raced forecast in economic growth
:05:34. > :05:39.and inflation this year. Rates will remain at 2.5% for a while. While
:05:40. > :05:45.most Asian forces were off, there is the exception of China's markets
:05:46. > :05:52.which reopened after the Lunar New Year holiday. There is growth in the
:05:53. > :05:59.Chinese services industry. We will keep an island that.
:06:00. > :06:05.-- eye on that. To Switzerland now, where
:06:06. > :06:08.immigration has long been a controversial and emotive issue.
:06:09. > :06:12.This is a poster from the right-wing Swiss People's Party back in 2008.
:06:13. > :06:15.On Sunday, the Swiss hold a referendum on whether to impose
:06:16. > :06:22.quotas on immigrants from the EU as it already does on non-EU
:06:23. > :06:24.immigrants. The twist is that it's particularly aimed at well-educated
:06:25. > :06:27.and highly skilled workers, who are blamed for pushing up house prices
:06:28. > :06:32.and taking the best jobs from locals. The vote threatens to damage
:06:33. > :06:41.Switzerland's reputation as a business-friendly haven and has its
:06:42. > :06:44.many multinational firms worried. Yves Nidegger is a Member of
:06:45. > :06:53.Parliament for the Swiss People's Party who have proposed the
:06:54. > :07:04.referendum. Sadly, we have been told that we have lost the line. We have
:07:05. > :07:08.to leave that for now. A former portfolio manager at SAC
:07:09. > :07:10.Capital Advisors hedge fund has been found guilty of conspiracy and
:07:11. > :07:13.securities fraud in what prosecutors called the most lucrative insider
:07:14. > :07:16.trading scheme in US history. Mathew Martoma could face up to 45 years in
:07:17. > :07:19.jail for acquiring secret information about drug trials that
:07:20. > :07:26.left his firm $275 million better off. He's the eighth current or
:07:27. > :07:29.former employee of SAC, owned by Wall Street billionaire Stephen
:07:30. > :07:38.Cohen, to be convicted of insider trading.
:07:39. > :07:44.Steel giant ArcelorMittal is expected to report a jump in
:07:45. > :07:48.fourth-quarter profits. Analysts think they could be up some 30% on
:07:49. > :07:51.the same period last year. The world's biggest steel maker, seen as
:07:52. > :07:58.an indicator of global economic activity, said in November that it
:07:59. > :08:01.was turning the corner. Investors will be looking for its outlook on
:08:02. > :08:03.the rest of the year and possible effects of the turmoil in emerging
:08:04. > :08:25.markets. We heard how Asian stocks were
:08:26. > :08:38.faring. We are waiting for the key job numbers to come out for January.
:08:39. > :08:49.Investors think the stocks are there in Sony.
:08:50. > :08:59.In Wall Street, anticipating positive jobs reports for January,
:09:00. > :09:07.following the slightly disastrous report for the last period. That is
:09:08. > :09:19.the view at the moment. A quick look at US markets. We cannot bring those
:09:20. > :09:22.numbers. But these numbers are positive in participation of the
:09:23. > :10:05.jobs numbers report. There we go. A lot. More on BBC News.
:10:06. > :10:09.Up to 60 young people have been taken ill at a dance music event in
:10:10. > :10:10.Belfast. It's thought they had