02/08/2017 World Business Report

Apple takes yet another giant bite out of its competition,

making a profit of over $11 billion in the third quarter of the year.

Up up and away, US shares hit a record high for a fifth day

We tell you what's driving the astonishing growth.

We'll be live in China for the latest on a possible trade

Let's start with the world's most valuable company.

Apple has published its latest set of results and they show revenue

growing to $45.1 billion for the three

That combined with a prediction that it will bring in as much as $52

billion in the next quarter saw shares rise by up to 6%

in after-hours trade to hit a record high.

Apple made a pre-tax profit of $11.3 billion in the three months

from April to the end of June, a solid rise on the previous year.

This year the iPhone is ten years old, but it's not been performing

so well in China, where sales this quarter were flat and total Chinese

revenue for the company actually fall by 10% compared to the same

And Apple increasingly trails its arch rival Samsung

in the smartphone market in terms of share right across the globe,

which some analysts say is a problem for a company so reliant on handsets

One way Apple has tried to decrease its reliance on iPhone

sales is its growing range of services.

Those grew by 22% year on year in Q3, with the company raking

in $7.3 billion from things like its App Store and Apple Pay

now from outside Apple's HQ in Silicon Valley.

Investors and Apple fans had been concerned that the new iPhone, which

is due in September, could be delayed until next year because of

production issues but judging by Apple's revenue forecast for its

next quarter, it expects the iPhone production to be right on track so

you can expect anticipation for the new phone to go into overdrive in

what will be the iPhone's 10th anniversary year. Other good news

for Apple was better results for its iPad range, which has grown for the

first time in more than three years. The tablet, written off by many as a

dying form factor, is stronger than ever and eight of the ten strongest

are made by Apple. Apple's serviced apartment, things like the App Store

and Apple Music, have revenues of $7.3 billion in this last quarter,

making it the size of a fortune 100 company. A blip in these results and

it's been a big blip for quite now for Apple is the company performance

in China were in this quarter the revenue drops. Chief executive Tim

Cook told investors he thinks Apple is in a trough in the region and he

expects better performance in China soon. Dave Lee, BBC News, Silicon

Valley. And a follow-up on a story

about apple we were covering Chief Executive Tim Cook has

said he would rather not have removed some software

from his firm's App Store in China that allows users to access banned

parts of the internet. Speaking after the release

of the firms results he said Apple was required by the Chinese

government to remove the apps. The shares did really well after the

day traded and the Dow Jones industrial average closing on a

record high. It's the fifth day in a row this has happened, getting

closer to 22,000. It's the 48 record highs since Trump was elected. --

48. What is behind this long-term trend? -- 48th.

This particular run on the Dow has been driven by strong corporate

earnings. Banks continue to perform well despite lower trading numbers

and oil companies seem to be read gaining some lost ground now oil

prices are starting to rebound. -- regaining. Some big companies like

Facebook and Netflix have posted strong earnings for the quarter but

if you look at the entire year, all of the indices have been breaking

records and all of this is happening despite the legislative stalls in

Washington. It seems like it may be a while before we see any movement

on tax reform or infrastructure spending. But the general sense from

Wall Street is that the White House is business friendly and that can

only mean good things. Of course there are some other factors

contributing to the party. Global growth and a weak dollar are

boosting exports and investors were really relieved when the Federal

Reserve, America's central bank, promised that it would raise

interest rates slowly. Samira who's in explaining the White

House's being perceived as business friendly but what about its

relationship with China? It's being reported President Trump

is close to a decision on how to respond to what he considers

China's unfair trade practices. The Reuters news agency says

Mr Trump is looking into initiating an investigation of

Chinese trade practices. the president to unilaterally impose

tariffs. Joining us now from Shanghai

is our China correspondent Hi, Robin. This is something that he

talked about a lot during the campaign trail, he would slap

tariffs on China, so this could possibly become a reality? Yeah,

this is the third time President Trump has talked about the prospect

of possibly a trade war between Beijing and Washington, DC. You're

right, during the campaign it was hugely important for Donald Trump

the candidate and he talked in extreme language saying China had

raped the United States of jobs. What we're seeing now is reports

from both Reuters and Bloomberg, sourced I have to say to anonymous

people, the prospect in the coming days is rising of President Trump

making a decision to order an investigation under some legislation

in the States from 1970s four, a trade act of Ayr, to look at the

relationship between China and the US and what they see as a long

period of hostile Chinese actions -- 1974 -- a trade act there. Many

firms are here in heavy industry. The fact, and we hear this a lot

from US firms here, there isn't really reciprocity and a level

playing field so what we might get from the President is an

investigation although that could possibly be quickly followed by

unilateral trade sanctions against China from the United States. I have

to say it's not the first time the President-elect has talked about

this but I think he has often linked trade to diplomacy, we saw last week

I think the failure it is fair to say that America's efforts to force

China to do something over North Korea and now we're facing the

prospect of a trade war again. It's clear those two things are linked at

the White House. Thanks a lot, Robin Brant, who is based in Shanghai.

'S political leaders and car industry bosses will be meeting in

Berlin today to talk about inner-city pollution in 16 German

cities -- Germany's. It's been reported the government will ask for

software updates for around 2 million vehicles at a cost of $354

million. That's instead of more expensive changes to engines to cut

diesel emissions. The meeting comes as the European investment bank

announced it is examining claims of Volkswagen use one of its loans to

develop a device to evade engine emission tests. In the meantime

major US car firms have reported a sharp fall in sales in July, driven

down by lower rental fleet sales and weaker consumer demand.

Sales were down by 15% at General Motors, 10%

at Fiat Chrysler and 7.5% at Ford compared with the year before.

Shares in US car companies fell on the news.

Let's quickly look at the markets in Asia. Many tech companies riding

high today in Asia of the back of the news about Apple. Many companies

in Asia supply bits for the iPhone and other elements like the iPad.

Let's quickly look at the United States so you can see how the Dow

ended. As we mentioned, not far at all from that 22,000 mark. Quite a

feat really. The main markets are all higher. Apple shares up 6%.

Apple now at a record high as well. Of course, the world's most valuable

company in terms of market cap. That's all from me for now, see you

in a moment for the news review. Women in their early 60s are ?32

a week worse off on average