us markets defy geopolitical concerns, surging to a record high. we'll take a look at what's behind the optimism. plus: why americans pay twice as much for sugar than the rest of the world. hello, and welcome to asia business report. the us stock market surged to a new high on friday — signs investors are shrugging off global headwinds. the rally�*s being driven mainly by big tech and is seen spilling over to the s&p 500 — a benchmark index that investors closely watch. it ended friday's trading session at a record high, outstripping its previous record more than a year ago. i spoke to tribeca investment

partners, who told me what's driving the rally. 2024 — we're heading to a good start. certainly the investor optimism has returned after the first couple of weeks of a little bit of weakness. investors have decided 2024 is going to be a year where interest rates will head lower locally and the economic activity will slow down, but not as bad as feared previously. so all that combined, it's good to see the nasdaq pushing higher, led by big tech, and everybody else heading the right way. big tech — we're hearing some good things, some lay—offs as well? sure. i do think big tech is going through — for 2024, certainly they've had a great start, but i do think they will slow down somewhat because of the things you talk to. their earnings were slowed somewhat because costs are higher. i do think that the ai—related sectors within the big tech will do better just because there's a phenomenal amount of growth. but every part of big tech is going to experience slowdown

because of high escalation in costs. 0n the other hand, i do think some of the more cyclical sectors like the consumer sector and everything else should start to do better this year, because the economy is not doing too badly. and with the interest rates potentially being cut towards the end of this year, we do think that those sectors will start to do quite well. not so much concern about all that conflict in the middle east? look, there is, but what's interesting is a barometer for investors�* concern from the middle east conflict is the oil prices. interestingly, oil prices had been heading lower for the last few months, and there seems to be no stop to its arrest its fall. and there seems to be no stop to arrest its fall. it's mainly because, in general, investors are now looking globally in terms of demand for oil forjet fuel and travel and everything might

be slowing somewhat, and that is offsetting the uncertainty in relation to the middle east. staying with the middle east: russia has overtaken saudi arabia as china's top supplier of crude oil, according to customs data. china and india have continued buying oilfrom russia even after western countries put sanctions on moscow following its invasion of ukraine in 2022. since then, russia has been selling its oil at significant discounts compared to the rest of the market. more news on china: china's central bank has decided to leave one of its key interest rates unchanged. that went against what investors had been hoping for, as the country continues to face an economic slump. china's post—covid recovery has been hit by a property crisis, falling exports, and weak consumer spending. now, can you recognise this? many of you will know that's a qr code, the successor of bar codes. its popularity, especially

in asia, has been rising. these jagged squares pack in a lot of information, and can be used for everything from paying for groceries to filing your taxes. but is there enough cybersecurity infrastructure in place to make the region a truly cashless economy? i got some answers from capron asia, a financial consulting company. we started off seeing qr codes used for payments in china many years ago. it was really to address the problem of low card penetration, especially around credit cards. and it was very cheap and easy way to make payments. it took a while before it really started to pick up around the rest of asia, in particular here in south—east asia. but a lot of those characteristics still remain. qr codes are generally secure, very cheap, and understandable for a lot of the population. in developed centres like here in singapore or in some of the other areas within south—east asia that are developing and have more of a financial exclusion problem, they are really a lifeline for many businesses and individuals as a way of making payments that's

different from cards. it makes life easier, but there are risks with these kinds of payments, right? certainly there are, like any other digital payment. the benefit with qr codes is that china has been running an experiment for the last 15 years about using or codes for payments. so there's a lot of lessons to be learnt around that. the technology itself is not that new. it's been around for 20 years, the qr codes in general. so there have been a lot of ways that producers of these qr codes�* payment solutions have really tried to address the security concerns. that all being said, with generative ai and everything else that's happening within the technology space right now, 2024 will be a big challenge for cybersecurity in general but, in particular, around payments will be a big focus for banks and other players in the market. and on the theme of payment, do you know how much americans pay for sugar? well, it's twice as much as the global average.

i thought it looks good! i think it looks good...! music plays every year, dave makes candy canes to sell at his shop in newjersey. but now, it's costing him more. this year, i did have a slight 4% to 5% increase on the final product. i want to say sugar went up maybe 15% from last year. the cost of sugar is rising worldwide, and in the us, where a protectionist policy props up domestic producers. music plays the us is the world's fifth—largest sugar producer, with sugar cane grown in the south and sugar beets in the north. the us is also a top consumer. louisiana is the northernmost point where sugar cane is grown commercially. we're about a mile away from the mississippi river and thousands of years of flooding left naturally occurring fertile topsoil —

perfect for growing sugar cane. 20% of sugar in the us, grown in the us, comes from louisiana. so, how does sugar go from being something you grow here and i buy on the shelf? we'll plant a whole stalk in the ground, and the following year we'll harvest that cane. this is a jaunder ch—570 sugar cane harvester. all it does is cut sugar cane. it goes to the mill, and the mill presses the juice out of that sugar cane. that stalk is sugar cane. we have to do a lot of work to get from cane to sugar. we have to knive the cane, put it through some very large rollers under some very high pressure to extract the juice, then separate the mud from the juice, and evaporate the water that's in the juice, before we can start crystallisation. then we have to separate the crystals from the molasses. it's one of the most processed

commodities you can find. the us department of agriculture protects domestic sugar production from foreign competition by taxing imports. a report by the government accountability office in october found that the sugar programme creates higher prices, and that americans pay around twice the world price for sugar. while the sugar farmers benefit, it's not like they don't have other problems. last year, we had a very good crop. the problem was input costs were, quite frankly, through the roof. the taxing, for example, $198 a tonne went to $1,000 a tonne. even though it could be a great crop, with an average or above—average price for your commodity, you're still feeling the squeeze and there's almost no way to plan for it. can a farm like yours compete with foreign sugar? 0urfarm, and american sugar farmers in general, will out—compete against any farm in the world — wejust can't compete against a farmer receiving direct subsidies. back in newjersey, dave deals

with the rising price of sugar when he can get his hands on it. there are still supply issues. sometimes they're out of different types of sugar. we have to work our production around that to keep things going. enough red? you run a business that's based around sugar. if the price goes up, what does it mean for your business? if prices go up, i increase prices. gas prices rise up, people still drive. people don't mind spending that extra money for that good candy cane or good piece of chocolate. they know where to come. in other news: australia has stopped taking applications for golden visas, allowing wealthy investors to enter the country. the programme was targeted at chinese investors, with them

investing $3.3 million. australia's home affairs minister said the move was part of the government's plan to create a migration system which delivers for australia. south korea says exports of kimchi, a staple korean food, has recorded an all—time high last year. shipments of the spicy fermented cabbage exceeded 44,000 tonnes last year. a south korean trade official cited the growing popularity of the country's culture around the world as the main reason behind the surge. the so—called korean wave has been making waves globally with k—pop, k—dramas and films becoming popular on streaming platforms. that's it for this edition of asia business report. thanks for watching. bbc news — bringing you

different stories from across the uk. reunited once again... theodore and his dad meeting in lviv. in the summer, theodore's school friends did a camping—out fundraiser to pay for his trips back to ukraine. actually, it means all the world to us. it's so amazing when children of that age are thinking of the future or thinking of what is happening in the world. what was the best bit about it? seeing a lot of my family. and i slept with my dad all the time. it was a boys�* room at that time during our stay because, yeah — they both snore. laughs no, i don't! yes, they do. no, idon't...! laughs theodore and his friend liam have started a new fundraiser —

cycling the distance between manchester and the middle east to raise funds for children affected by the situation in gaza. itjust felt as if it's unfair, so we need to do another thing for other people as well. they've currently travelled more than 500 miles. we started there, and we have to get all the way over to palestine. for more stories from across the uk, head to the bbc news website.

bbc news — bringing you different stories from across the uk. just some of the 650 trailers operated by gwyneth shipping laid up at its headquarters this afternoon. the company has sites in dublin, and its last public accounts from may 2022 show it made a profit of over £1 million. yesterday morning at 10:30, staff were called to the office for a meeting and told the company would be going into administration. today, there's been almost nobody in work, and calls have gone unanswered. information remains scarce about what happens next. the administrators were on site this afternoon, but weren't able to confirm how many staff in anglesea would be losing theirjobs. forthe in anglesea would be losing theirjobs. for the council, their jobs. for the council, it's theirjobs. for the council, it's another piece of bad news on the island after the recent closure of the two sisters chicken factory.— chicken factory. it's devastating, - chicken factory. it's devastating, the i chicken factory. it�*s devastating, the confirmation. devastating news for the families and the workers that are affected — january after christmas, we all know the

cost—of—living crisis, the effects of that, and we need clarity to support these families.— clarity to support these families. �*, ., , ., families. it's too early to say whether the _ families. it's too early to say whether the administrators i families. it's too early to say i whether the administrators will be able to get any part of the business moving again. this evening, we spoke to a number of gwynnable shipping staff. none wanted to talk on camera, but they did say they were hoping to find otherjobs in the haulage industry. for more stories from across the uk, head to the bbc news website.

hello and welcome to sportsday. i'm chetan pathak. coming up on the programme: liverpool score four at bournmouth to extend their lead at the top of the english premier league. forfeit matches when fans are racist. fifa's president calls for harsher punishments in the fight to tackle racism. and ten shots off the lead going into the weekend: rory mcilroy pulls off a remarkable comeback at the dubai desert classic. welcome along. thank you forjoining us. we start then at the top of the english premier league with liverpool extending their lead to five points after a 4—0 win away at bournemouth.

after a goalless first half amidst high winds