28/10/2015 World Business Report

The enduring demand for the iPhone helps Apple defy it's sceptics again

with blockbuster results and a healthy forecast for Christmas.

Also in the programme: We'll hear more about National Australia Bank's

But first: The world's largest tech giant Apple is claiming its most

successful year ever, after posting encouraging fourth quarter numbers.

The world's largest tech giant Apple is claiming its most successful year

The company's revenue reached $51.5 billion for the three months to

September, up more than 20% from the same period last year.

It meant the company made a profit of over $11 billion.

It's thanks largely to strong iPhone sales.

The firm sold more than 48 million of them in the last three months.

And despite slowing economic growth in China, sales there have nearly

That's nearly a quarter of Apple's total revenue.

Michelle Fleury is across this for us in New York.

Is this apple's most successful year ever? Chief executive Tim Cook says

yes and tells investors the tech giant is heading into the holidays

with the strongest product lineup yet. The boss of the tech company

has lots of reasons to smile. The iPhone continues to fly off the

shelves. 48 million were sold in the last quarter. Is apple too dependent

on smartphone sales? It helped drive revenues 20% higher. There is a

saying on Wall Street that trees don't grow to the sky. What's meant

by that is every product line reaches its limits. Whether we are

there yet or not with the iPhone remains to be seen. A lot of people

were saying that before the iPhone 6 was launched and then we all had a

nice surprise in terms of strong unit sales. There are many regions

in the world, such as India, Brazil, Russia, where there is room

for growth left. The story from China is mixed for apple. Annual

revenue in the region almost doubled compared with last year -- Apple. It

was lower than the previous quarter, and sales of the iPad suffered as

more of us choose oversized smartphones instead. With a cash

pile bigger than many country's GDP, and with such a firm grip on the

smart phone market, there is no sign that Apple's dominance is

diminishing -- countries' GDPs. Once again we are on Fed watch

with everyone wondering if we will see the US central bank raise

interest rates this year or next. Today Janet Yellen and her team will

announce this month's decision. Most economists predict we will see

no action this time, but should there be a rise in

the cost of borrowing, it would mark With me is Nandini Ramakrishnan,

global market strategist at Nice to see you again. It is the

same conversation we are having, isn't it, but quite a lot has

changed. We have had a lot of US companies coming out with earnings

of stories and US manufacturers are concerned about the future. Shore.

Not enough has changed to push them to change rates today -- sure. US

manufacturers have been struggling. Manufacturing data hasn't been a

strong. If you want everything to be convincing to tell you the economy

is strong enough to read stand concerns, the data points aren't

there. The dollar is strengthening, that is hurting many companies in

the states, that is a key issue for the manufacturers and the oil prices

remain low and China, concern about China is still there, isn't it? The

dollar strength has been hurting the exporter is an more dollar sensitive

companies. As time goes on they've been more active with hedging and

currency management and we don't see that challenge facing them in 2016

as much as it did in 2015. Oil-price, definitely, hasn't

rebounded higher than 40-50 per barrel, so it is a challenge for

energy oriented companies. When will they go up? I don't think it is

today. There is a chance for December. If we are waiting for the

set of factors it might be 2016. Are they waiting too long? I think they

should raise rates. There are some benefits raising rates at a low

level that economists think the US economy can handle it, it is time to

move on. The emerging markets can deal with this uncertainty for not

too much longer so I think they should. Early 2016 isn't pushing it

too fast so let's hope. In the meantime, everybody is hoping the

Bank of Japan will inject more stimulus on Friday. There is this

dynamic where the ECB and the Bank of Japan are easing in order to

stimulate the economy whereas the US is thinking of tightening. And the

UK. Exactly. There is a diverted between the central banks and, you

know, sorry, what Friday's announcement with the bank of Japan

will give us a sense about whether another huge economy is going in a

different direction from the Fed. Interesting. Thank you for coming

in. You've got a long day ahead. Staying at your desk until the

decision is announced later. Let's move on.

National Australia Bank says it plans to sell its British operations

by early 2016, two months later than expected.

The British business, which has been plagued by bad debts

and misconduct charges, has long been a thorn on NAB's side

The news came with the banks latest earnings update.

Sharanjit Leyl is in our Asia Business Hub in Singapore.

NAD, one of the biggest Australian banks, give us details on its

earnings and the British side of the business -- NAB. Well, that is

right, Sally, the British business as you said is frustrating to

shareholders for years. These are the first time they've revealed how

they plan to exit. The CEO Andrew Goulburn made the exit a priority

when he took office last August and said that some of the

underperforming operations will be spun off and sold off through an

initial public offering in what he called a complex transaction. The

bank essentially saying it wouldn't emerge from -- it would demerge from

the business and it plans to do so by early next year most likely, in

February, and some of the shares would be put up for an initial

public offering. It is selling because as you said it has been

underperforming for years and it is part of the strategy to focus on the

Australian and New Zealand operations. What is also interesting

with the announcement is NAB said it would sell most of its life

insurance business. It is announcing the sale of 80% of that business to

Japan's Nippon life insights company, one of the leading life

insurers. The insurance arm sale was worth over $2 billion and is

representing what the bank essentially calls a very attractive

long-term partnership with the high quality partner. In terms of the

earnings, though that is the thing people are watching for, it ended up

being the thing most investors focused on lease with the other

announcements. Those earnings were looking rather good with NAB posting

profits up nearly 20% for the year to September. Thank you.

Twitter disappointed investors with a gloomy forecast.

Its revenues for the third quarter rose, but less than expected

and the number of active users only grew by 3 million since June.

This is Twitter's first earnings report with Jack Dorsey,

its founder back at the helm as its permanent chief executive.

Twitter shares lost as much as 11% in after market trading.

China's online retailing giant AliBaba also reported its results

The firm posted record revenues of almost $3.5 billion, thanks to

The latest results pushing up its shares, ending the day higher by 4%.

Let's look at markets in Asia. We've mentioned the big event is the Bank

of Japan meeting on Friday. What will it do in terms of stimulus?

Weakness in Hong Kong. UBS reports lowered growth in China, weighing on

sentiment in Shanghai and in Hong Kong today. Chinese stocks listed in

Hong Kong headed for the biggest loss in a month. Asian stocks, as

you can see, are mixed. Looking at the day on Wall Street, you can see

how the Dow and the S 500 ended the day. Some say Wall Street might

have a better day today given the news from

sentiment, of course, the biggest company listed in the US. That's all

from World Business Report. I'll see you soon.

Ireland is to start phasing out one and two cent coins today.

From now on lots of shoppers will start receiving change, rounded