07/02/2014 World Business Report

Those are the latest headlines from BBC World News. Now for the latest

financial news with World Business Report.

Markets hope for a rebound in US hiring after last month's disastrous

figures. Plus, fears for Switzerland's role

as a business haven as it votes on curbing the number of EU workers it

lets in. Welcome to World Business Report.

I'm Alice Baxter. Also in the programme, US markets notch up their

biggest day of gains this year. We'll see if that optimism is

carrying through into Asia. We start in the United States, where

global markets are focused this Friday on the health of the world's

biggest economy - specifically, the recovery in the labour market. In a

few hours' time, we'll get jobs figures for January. The hope is

they will show a rebound from the last set of numbers, which were

nothing short of disastrous. Last month, we learned that US employers

created just 74,000 jobs in December. That was the worst payroll

data for almost three years. Was it a blip caused by the extreme cold

weather in the US or a sign of a sharp slowdown in the economy?

Today, we'll find out. Economists are expecting a much healthier

185,000 new jobs in January. That would keep the unemployment rate at

its five-year low of 6.7%. But even with unemployment coming down,

there's another big concern - wages. Many working Americans have seen

their pay stagnate for years, putting severe pressure on their

spending power. We'll have a report on that. Michelle Fleury reports

from New York. A majority of US workers have

experienced a decade of flat wages. The meeting weekly wage in 2012 was

$768. The same as 12 years earlier. The situation was made worse by the

recession five years ago. Wages fell despite a rise in productivity. For

this woman, a new -- a New York subway assistant, the flatlining

wages has left her in a financially vulnerable position. 25 years ago

when I first started, the pay cheques were good. The raised were

good. I had four young children. I was able to survive. My two children

went to college. I had no issue with trying to make ends meet. Now I'm

alone and my children are up. It is hard for me to survive. In a country

were consumer spending accounts for two thirds of economic activity,

shed some light on why the recovery has been so lacklustre. The very

slow growth in earnings is slowing their demand for goods and services.

That, in turn, is slowing the growth of the US economy, giving it more

moderate than it has been in the last economic recoveries. Most agree

that recovery is under way. Over the year, the implement rate has been

falling. For too many Americans, the job market is still too weak. That

could mean stagnant wages. That prevent them from sharing any sense

of wider prosperity. Investors around the world are

waiting for those US employment figures at 8:30 Washington time or

1330GMT. Let's cross to Singapore to see how Asian markets are faring.

They are doing relatively well. Many people are keen to what the

employment report later today, to see if the largest economies out of

the woods. They were better than estimated US jobless claims. It

helped lift most Asian markets. There are rebounding from the Iraq

experienced earlier, the five-month lows hit yesterday.

There was a loss forecast yesterday. That is after an electronics giant

was shedding 5000 jobs. There is a stagnant PC market this year. The

aggressive restructuring plan might offset the impact of the forecast

net loss of $1.08 billion. In Australia, we have seen gains as

well after the nation's Central Bank raced forecast in economic growth

and inflation this year. Rates will remain at 2.5% for a while. While

most Asian forces were off, there is the exception of China's markets

which reopened after the Lunar New Year holiday. There is growth in the

Chinese services industry. We will keep an island that.

-- eye on that. To Switzerland now, where

immigration has long been a controversial and emotive issue.

This is a poster from the right-wing Swiss People's Party back in 2008.

On Sunday, the Swiss hold a referendum on whether to impose

quotas on immigrants from the EU as it already does on non-EU

immigrants. The twist is that it's particularly aimed at well-educated

and highly skilled workers, who are blamed for pushing up house prices

and taking the best jobs from locals. The vote threatens to damage

Switzerland's reputation as a business-friendly haven and has its

many multinational firms worried. Yves Nidegger is a Member of

Parliament for the Swiss People's Party who have proposed the

referendum. Sadly, we have been told that we have lost the line. We have

to leave that for now. A former portfolio manager at SAC

Capital Advisors hedge fund has been found guilty of conspiracy and

securities fraud in what prosecutors called the most lucrative insider

trading scheme in US history. Mathew Martoma could face up to 45 years in

jail for acquiring secret information about drug trials that

left his firm $275 million better off. He's the eighth current or

former employee of SAC, owned by Wall Street billionaire Stephen

Cohen, to be convicted of insider trading.

Steel giant ArcelorMittal is expected to report a jump in

fourth-quarter profits. Analysts think they could be up some 30% on

the same period last year. The world's biggest steel maker, seen as

an indicator of global economic activity, said in November that it

was turning the corner. Investors will be looking for its outlook on

the rest of the year and possible effects of the turmoil in emerging

markets. We heard how Asian stocks were

faring. We are waiting for the key job numbers to come out for January.

Investors think the stocks are there in Sony.

In Wall Street, anticipating positive jobs reports for January,

following the slightly disastrous report for the last period. That is

the view at the moment. A quick look at US markets. We cannot bring those

numbers. But these numbers are positive in participation of the

jobs numbers report. There we go. A lot. More on BBC News.

Up to 60 young people have been taken ill at a dance music event in

Belfast. It's thought they had