02/02/2016 World Business Report

Now for the latest financial news with World Business Report.

Oil giant BP will tell us how much its profits have been battered

Google's Alphabet trumps Apple, becoming

In a minute we'll take a look at the economic impact

of the Presidential Campaign as Iowa caucuses kick of in the US.

In the next two hours the oil giant BP will unveil just

how its bottom line has been hurt by the collapse in oil prices.

Taking a look at the firm's share price, you can see it has had

While dealing with the plummeting oil prices and company has also been

hit with billions of dollars if fines relating to the

Last month the company said it would cut 4,000 jobs globally

while slashing billions of dollars from spending on new projects.

Veteran financial journalist, Mickey Clarke takes a look back to see how

the recent price plunge compares to the falls he saw 30 years ago.

Sea oil has plummeted to a record low. Prices could fall to just $5 a

barrel. The once thriving North Sea oil sector was hit hard. Dormant oil

rigs across the coast of Scotland are a visible sign of the slump in

production. Remember him? The estimation was we need something

like 80 new developments. Unfortunately the vast majority are

falling by the wayside. This depression has hit the southern

states faster than ever before. As the prices dropped even the Texan

oil barons suffered. This is the most frightening time I have seen in

all my years in the business. Unless the pressure goes away as suddenly

as it appeared, it is going to be a bad spring. That is what is

frightening investors and producers today. China is no longer consuming

oil at the pace it was happy the boom in shale means the US is less

reliant on imports. Saudi Arabia refuses to cut back on production.

So the unanswered question is whether there will be a recovery.

Will it be quick or will it take 20 years like it did last time? In

terms of her price recovery 20 thing like $100 a barrel, if ever that

occurs, it will be a long way into the future because one of the key

parallels with the situation we have at the moment is that technology in

the form of US shale has once again proved able to commercialize a lot

of hydrocarbon and that genie is not going back in the bottle. And when

we hear from BP we will make sure we update you with the numbers.

Over to Asia now, and South Korea where we're

expecting economic news in the next day or two, Rico tell us more.

How has the South Korean economy been faring? Over the past year it

has been quite sluggish, and it could get the boost that it needs as

early as Wednesday because the South Korean government is set to unleash

a series of stimulus initiatives to jumpstart the country's economy

because over the past two days we have had a collapse in its export

numbers and then today, cooling inflation which is threatening the

fragile recovery. The slowdown in China continues to be a major

headache for South Korea, being a key trading partner. Of going

shipments to the mainland tumbled more than 20% in January, exports to

the US also fell and the Finance Minister also stressed that external

uncertainties have indeed increased since the start of the year because

of volatile Chinese stocks, falling oil prices and negative interest

rates that were adopted by the Bank of Japan last week. The minister

didn't specify exactly what measures would be implement it to support the

economy but analysts are speculating that the stimulus will probably be

aimed at job growth and not involve additional public spending. The

ministers also concerned about the inflation rate which cooled to its

lowest level since January last year. The Bank of Korea has a new

AGM on the 16th of February and they will be looking to cut interest

rates. Thank you. Alphabet,

the company which owns the search engine Google, has seen its share

price surge in after hours trading It has now overtake Apple to become

the most valuable company in the The group's revenue jumped from $18

billion to over $21 billion. Google's Chrome, YouTube,

Android business is keeping Wall street happy

as more people are clicking on ads. Alphabet is about $568 billion, so

surpassing Apple. The total revenue was up about 17% which is in line

with what analysts had expected. That is off the back of its core

Google business and the strength with mobile ads and YouTube adds.

That was to be expected. What we're looking for in this report is how

the other part of Alphabet, there other ventures that are a bit more

ambitious, how they were affecting the overall company's revenue in

Outlook. -- and Outlook. The race for the White House starts

here, it's the beginning of election season in the US and

on Monday night the people of Iowa gathered at caucus sites to be the

first people in the United States to So what are the results likely

to be and what are the economic Jacob Parakilas is Assistant Head,

of US and the Americas Programme It has been quite a night. Very

surprising. American politics is always interesting. Phyllis in on

your reaction -- fill us in. Donald Trump came in second and not a

particularly strong second, he was only a few points ahead of Marco

Rubio who exceeded expectations. Ted Cruz, the senator from Texas, was

the winner on the Republican side. On the Democratic side, Bernie

Sanders and Hillary Clinton were nearly tied with Hillary Clinton a

fraction of a percentage point ahead but essentially that means they will

go into New Hampshire with the same amount of delegates. What do we know

about what the different candidates are saying regarding the economy? On

the Republican side, the major difference between Donald Trump and

the rest of the field, the rest of them are quite uniform in terms of

their economic policies, they are all in Cairo cutting taxes and

government reform and replacing ObamaCare -- in favour. Donald Trump

has said he would put a tariff on Chinese imports which is a major

difference. Talking about the TPP on the Democratic side, do they want to

unravel that? Bernie Sanders is authentically opposed to it. He is

opposed to free trade deals generally on the grounds that, in

his view, they hurt American workers. Hillary Clinton has also

come out against it but she has previously spoken in favour of it.

Her change of heart happened relatively late in the process. It

seems as though that is probably a matter of political positioning and

she is counting on a being passed by the time she gets into office. To

what extent is the economy and issue for voters this time? It is pretty

significant although there is a split between the Republicans and

Democrats. Republican rhetoric is much more about national security.

Thank you. It is all very interesting. We will keep you across

every twist and turn. In other news: It's reported Yahoo's

boss Marissa Mayer is set to reveal cost-cutting plans that include

slashing 15% of its workforce, that's roughly 1,600 jobs,

and closing some business units. Plans could be announced

after Yahoo's fourth-quarter results Executives have been under pressure

from investors, as Yahoo struggles to win bigger

share of US web searches. That is all from the, Whittlesea is

in. -- we will see you soon. It's emerged that the head of the

National Crime Agency was appointed amid concerns about her performance

as Chief Constable of Surrey Police. BBC News has learned that Surrey's

Police and Crime Commissioner was