:00:16. > :00:19.Amazon founder Jeff Bezos briefly becomes the world's richest person.
:00:20. > :00:21.But Wall Street nerves about the company's massive spending
:00:22. > :00:31.Will the latest figures on the US economy bring President Trump closer
:00:32. > :00:44.a billion-dollar round of coffees as Starbucks buys out
:00:45. > :00:56.It has seen its shares fall sharply after its latest figures
:00:57. > :01:00.The good news - it is raking in huge sums of money
:01:01. > :01:04.The bad - it's spending a fortune on developing its business,
:01:05. > :01:07.and that is making investors nervous.
:01:08. > :01:13.Total sales in the three months to June jumped almost a quarter
:01:14. > :01:16.compared to last year to just under $38 billion.
:01:17. > :01:20.Unfortunately, they spent almost all of it!
:01:21. > :01:25.Operating expenses surged to well over $37 billion.
:01:26. > :01:27.That means there wasn't much actual profit -
:01:28. > :01:35.a comparatively measly $197 million, and down 77% on last year.
:01:36. > :01:37.Amazon is investing massively in everything from TV and movie
:01:38. > :01:40.content to new warehouses for the global expansion
:01:41. > :01:46.Like this - the deal it announced last month to buy the supermarket
:01:47. > :01:50.chain Whole Foods for over $13 billion.
:01:51. > :01:53.Amazon has been putting increasing pressure on bricks and mortars
:01:54. > :01:57.Optimism about the company's future has helped to push up
:01:58. > :02:03.Since January, Amazon shares have risen by more than 40%
:02:04. > :02:08.to a new record, making the company worth about $500 billion.
:02:09. > :02:10.That has proved very lucrative for this person -
:02:11. > :02:18.On Thursday, he became the richest person in the world,
:02:19. > :02:26.As the share price has come down again, he has dropped back
:02:27. > :02:30.What you have to remember is the market is making him rich
:02:31. > :02:34.based on his ownership of Amazon, and Amazon is not making a heck
:02:35. > :02:38.The market is saying that, at some point in time,
:02:39. > :02:41.they will generate so much market share that they can
:02:42. > :02:45.This is extremely profitable, and that's so he's done
:02:46. > :02:52.So it's really a tribute to someone who latched on to the strength
:02:53. > :02:54.of the so-called new economy, and internet economy,
:02:55. > :03:02.Riaz Kanani, co-founding partner of marketing agency,
:03:03. > :03:16.This is quite typical of Amazon, they make a lot of money and they
:03:17. > :03:19.invest a lot of money and they are not interested in banking profits
:03:20. > :03:25.might have markets reacted so badly? Two major regions, -- reasons, the
:03:26. > :03:31.lead up to these results, they were expecting them to not invest
:03:32. > :03:36.heavily. The other major reason is Amazon has really aggressively
:03:37. > :03:40.invested and as a result the markets have had. Why were investors not
:03:41. > :03:47.inspected them to do what they usually do? The last couple of years
:03:48. > :03:51.they have been comfortable, they have been growing, they continue to
:03:52. > :03:56.invest but I think they under estimated how much, having really
:03:57. > :04:03.taken significant market share, I mean, Amazon prime now have nearly
:04:04. > :04:06.50% of American households which is astonishing when you think about it
:04:07. > :04:13.is a subscription to an e-commerce retailer. So they are pushing on,
:04:14. > :04:19.they are going to invest further in faster delivery, different types of
:04:20. > :04:25.delivery, as well as pushing internationally. Jeff Bezos isn't
:04:26. > :04:30.just building a company, and Empire is almost too small a word for what
:04:31. > :04:34.he's trying to create, he going global, into TV and video, we are
:04:35. > :04:39.seeing the purchase of Whole Foods, where do you think rob one could go
:04:40. > :04:42.next? The rumour is internally they are working on a communications
:04:43. > :04:46.platform, it would compete with lock-up and Facebook. Instant
:04:47. > :04:56.messaging, video chat, that kind of thing. -- WhatsApp. It's a natural
:04:57. > :04:59.next step for them, given there are Alexa device they launched which has
:05:00. > :05:03.been extremely successful which allows you to order things by voice.
:05:04. > :05:11.You know, choose to play music by voice. Briefly, Amazon is part of
:05:12. > :05:15.this text table of Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Google, Alphabet, with the
:05:16. > :05:22.result this week from Facebook and Alphabet, how do is Amazon's
:05:23. > :05:26.compared to their tech partners? Very different, Facebook and Google
:05:27. > :05:30.are very much still advertising companies. Whereas Amazon throughout
:05:31. > :05:36.it all is really still an e-commerce, and this tradition
:05:37. > :05:40.business, that is what they do, --a distribution business. That is their
:05:41. > :05:43.core business. But how they view the world. Thank you for joining us.
:05:44. > :05:46.Let's stay in the US where in a few hours' time,
:05:47. > :05:49.we get economic growth figures for the three months to June.
:05:50. > :05:51.It's an important set of numbers for President Trump.
:05:52. > :05:55.He has been promising an annual growth rate of 3% or more.
:05:56. > :05:59.But GDP growth in the first quarter - the three months to March -
:06:00. > :06:09.Samira Hussain reports from New York.
:06:10. > :06:14.The question is... As candidate for president Donald Trump had ambitious
:06:15. > :06:18.goals for America's economy, believing he could make the
:06:19. > :06:24.country's GDP saw. We are bringing up from 1% up to 4% and are actually
:06:25. > :06:28.think we can go higher than 4%, I think it could go to five or 6%. But
:06:29. > :06:31.the realities of governing the country have a president singing a
:06:32. > :06:36.somewhat more muted tone. The various players on President Trump's
:06:37. > :06:40.economic team have suggested that America's economy could grow in and
:06:41. > :06:44.around 3%. You would need productivity to go back to levels
:06:45. > :06:52.seen at only the peak of the tech boom in order to get sustainable
:06:53. > :06:56.rates of growth at a 3- 3.5% or better, we have only done that for a
:06:57. > :07:00.few years in the entire post-World War II environment. I think it's
:07:01. > :07:05.very unlikely that anything on the fiscal policy front will go to the
:07:06. > :07:08.sustainable 3% or better. It was fiscal policy that had the
:07:09. > :07:13.International Monetary Fund downgrading America's growth
:07:14. > :07:17.prospects for both PC the next. In the IMF's opinion, whatever fiscal
:07:18. > :07:22.policy does get made may not be as growth boosting as previously hoped
:07:23. > :07:26.for. The continuing saga of repealing and replacing Obamacare
:07:27. > :07:31.has had a cascading impact on President Trump's legislative
:07:32. > :07:35.priorities, reforming this country's compensated tax code, and passing on
:07:36. > :07:39.billion-dollar spending bill, with things that would have a direct
:07:40. > :07:44.impact on America's economic growth. But the likelihood of getting either
:07:45. > :07:46.of those two things anywhere close to the President's desk is looking
:07:47. > :07:49.highly unlikely. Let's go to Asia now,
:07:50. > :07:51.where coffee giant Starbucks It is buying out its eastern Chinese
:07:52. > :07:55.partners, spending $1.3 billion on the 50% of the business it
:07:56. > :07:58.doesn't already own. It's the biggest deal
:07:59. > :08:15.Starbucks has ever done. What has been the reaction to this
:08:16. > :08:20.announcement? Quite a bit, reason why they are doing really is because
:08:21. > :08:24.China is Starbucks's fastest-growing market outside the US a number of
:08:25. > :08:29.stores, the deal will really help the company reach its target of
:08:30. > :08:34.operating some 500,000 stores in mainland China by 2021. This
:08:35. > :08:39.announcement of course percolating just as the Seattle -based site --
:08:40. > :08:45.Starbucks announced its profit, income fell about 8.3% until July
:08:46. > :08:50.which matched market expectations and of course the latest results
:08:51. > :08:54.come, really, the first under the new chief executive Kevin Johnson
:08:55. > :08:57.who took over from the co-founder how Witchell in December. He
:08:58. > :09:03.describes the China buyout as part of the firm's long game to deal with
:09:04. > :09:07.calling growth in the US. We know of course Starbucks is the world 's
:09:08. > :09:10.largest coffee chain, it has really been affected by reduced footfall in
:09:11. > :09:15.America's High Street and shopping centres and lots more consumers are
:09:16. > :09:18.shopping online and hence the move to target China and Asia. Thank you.
:09:19. > :09:22.Air France-KLM is buying almost a third of Virgin Atlantic,
:09:23. > :09:24.leaving Sir Richard Branson's parent company, Virgin Group,
:09:25. > :09:27.with a minority stake in the airline he founded.
:09:28. > :09:29.Air France-KLM is taking a 31% stake, worth ?220 million,
:09:30. > :09:32.in Virgin Atlantic as part of a four-way joint venture
:09:33. > :09:36.Virgin Group's share will fall from 51% to 20%,
:09:37. > :09:40.Sir Richard said he would remain "very much involved" after the deal.
:09:41. > :09:43.Germany's transport minister has announced a recall of 22,000 Porsche
:09:44. > :09:45.cars to remove what he says is illegal emissions-controlling
:09:46. > :09:49.He said that luxury marque Porsche would bear the cost of the recalls
:09:50. > :09:55.of the affected 3-litre Cayenne models.
:09:56. > :10:06.Let's have a look at the markets. Driving those markets down is the
:10:07. > :10:10.top story, the Amazon results. Sales revenue is up the profits are down
:10:11. > :10:14.is Amazon reinvest a lot of the money and that is pulled down the
:10:15. > :10:18.markets in Asia. The price of oil was down slightly. We will keep an
:10:19. > :10:26.eye on that across the morning. Thank you.
:10:27. > :10:29.The BBC understands at least 60 buildings have failed
:10:30. > :10:32.the government's whole system fire test in the wake