13/04/2017 World Business Report

Now it's time for World Business Report.

Can America's banking giants back their sky-high share prices

Plus, scooter boys beware - why your takeaway food could soon be

Lots going on. If you give me about eight minutes I will give you a

snapshot of all the latest in the world of his ascent of money. --

world of business. Also coming up, more surprises

from President Trump as he eases We start on Wall Street,

where it's a hugely important Now we know the share prices

of banks have soared in the months following President Trump's

election, led by America's biggest But in recent weeks doubts

have been creeping in, Today we get first quarter results

from the biggest US bank, JP Morgan Chase, and later

from its rival Citigroup. They're the first of

a barrage of reports Will they be good enough

to justify the Trump rally, or confirm those fears that it's

a bubble waiting to burst? President Trump has famously

promised to throw out the mass of banking regulation brought

in by the Obama administration after the financial crisis,

the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010. But he's been struggling to pass

other legislation like healthcare reform, so this

is all up in the air. Still, the banks have had a boost

from rising US interest rates, which have now hit 1%

and are expected to hit 3% This means more profits,

because it helps their lending That's the difference

between the interest rate they offer to savers and the rate

they charge to borrowers. Here's the view of one top

Wall Street watcher. What has happened since the

presidential election in November is that the equity market has been

strong but the banking sector has been particularly strong because the

investors see the banks is benefiting specifically on some of

the policies the new administration is talking about. We have not really

seen any news about the tax cut proposals, the infrastructure

spending, some of the other policies to boost the economy and boost

lending, and therefore help ranks increased profits over the

long-term. US banking results for the first quarter of 2017 will be

deceptive. They will look very strong competitor first quarter of

last year, but the first quarter of last year was very weak indeed. If

we compare them with the first quarter of last year they will have

made very little progress because we are not really seeing any of the

economic and fits people were expecting from the incoming

administration's policies. -- economic benefits. I do not expect a

sell-off of banking stocks, it is a think the market is waiting for

further news from the new administration in terms of exactly

what they are going to do in terms of boosting the economy, cutting

taxes and listening banking regulation. I think all those

factors could be beneficial over the long-term, and I think those

investors want to be able to take advantage of that.

Well, let's stay with this story. One Wall St watches saying that he

does not think there will be a retreat on the banks, but it is an

expensive market at the moment, because the share prices are so

high. Investors and everybody are respecting the banks to deliver.

Will they? I think we will see good numbers, but it is not just about

the numbers for the last three months. That is backward looking.

What we are looking forward to is any legislative changes which will

make banking less regulated and open the floodgates for profitability

like the heyday of the 1980s. That is actually what is fuelling this

stock market rise from the banks and the financial sector. That was one

of President Trump's promises, the Dodd-Frank Act. What we have seen

some of his other promises not go through, he has struggled. He may

struggle with this. Even that Wall Street is watcher was seen to wait

and see... No, it is a win-win for banks. If he gets the legislation

through then markets move through the expectations. If he does not get

it through because of the gridlock in Congress, because some

Republicans, as they did with Obamacare, switch sides or do not

push the legislation through, it doesn't matter. He will bribe

congressmen, because that is what you do. So they will benefit not

from deregulation but from increased governmental spending, which is what

will happen. One way or another the banks are going to benefit. We are

extremely bullish about US banks. In fact, more bullish than on the

broader US economy, because we think what will happen is that he will

just end up taking the easy way out, which is spending more money. OK, so

you think these high prices are justified? We think they will be

even higher by the end of the year. Well, there you go committee heard

it. Let's stay in the US,

where President Trump has said his administration will not

label China a currency manipulator, despite his campaign

promise to do so. He told the Wall Street Journal

the dollar was "getting too strong" but that was partly his

fault because people had The comments to the Wall Street

Journal come after his meeting China has been accused

of suppressing the yuan to make its exports more

competitive with US goods. Before the US election,

Mr Trump likened this Sharanjit Leyl has been

following this for us in Singapore. Again, and other incredible story.

Higher US dollar week as he is so good, hey? Yeah, but you know what?

Those comments pretty much had the desired effect, because as soon as

he said he didn't want a strong US dollar and didn't like a strong US

dollar, the US dollar tumbled. So now we are seeing the yen and others

in Asia finding strength, and as a result the markets are falling

because nobody else likes their currency being too strong either. So

the Japanese are selling off all those export-oriented stocks. But,

yes, as you say, he went on to state in that interview that's a thing of

the label currency manipulator on China would hurt talks with Beijing

on dealing with North Korean threats. We knew that China had

suppressed the currency, the yuan, for years, to make its exports more

competitive with US goods. But Mr Trump said this was like reaping the

United States. He had promised to label China currency manipulator on

his first day in office, but in that interview he admitted that China had

not been currency manipulators for some time. They have actually been

trying to prevent further weakening. All of this, as we know, has not

helped the reality of the trade relationship between the United

States and China, with data out a few hours ago showing that the trade

surplus China has with the US has risen yet again. It rose in March to

over $17 billion. That is a big rise from February's $10 billion or so.

President Trump has focused on that in particular, that large trade

surplus that China has with the US. It was about $350 billion last year,

and he has been pressing Chinese President Xi Jinping to help reduce

the gap. Do you ever ordered delivery? Takeout food, I should

say? Yes, sometimes. Delivered to you by a man or a woman on a

scooter, right? Something like that? That's right. Watch this next story.

Are you happy to have your food delivered by a robot?

That's the question being asked of take-out food customers

of technology that could mean the end of the road for scooter

We think the best approach for this kind of system is one where there is

constant human oversight of the robots. The architecture we have

chosen is one where a person is capable of controlling one or two

robots, and overtime we would build in more and more autonomous

operation so there is one person then controlling five and then and

so on. It is effectively multiplying the ability of a given person to do

more work over the set of robots they are overseeing.

That's the future. I'll be back later to look at the newspapers from

around the world.