this is business live from bbc news with ben bland and rachel horne. the world's largest advertising firm, wpp, says 2017 is is going to be a tough year. live from london, that's our top story on friday the 3rd of march. last year may have been another good year for the advertising giant wpp but it says the year ahead looks less certain. what does this tell us about the state of the global economy? and for the first time ever, the digital currency bitcoin is now worth more than the price of gold. a softer open for the main european indices. we will be having a look at what is moving world markets and why. and we'll be getting the inside track on all the biggest stories of the week with our economics editor, kamal ahmed,

including the stock market debut of snapchat‘s parent company. the shares jumped more than 40% on their first day of trading. well, one american school which invested $15,000 in the startup back in 2012, has banked millions, so today we want to know what's the best investment you've ever made. just use the hashtag bbcbizlive. welcome to the programme. we begin with advertising. it often serves as an important key early indicator of how well an economy is faring. when advertising is doing well, we're buying and selling and economies tend to be growing. the world's biggest advertising agency, wpp, hasjust published its full—year results in the last hour and a half. in a moment we'll hear from the company's founder and chief executive, sir martin sorrell, but first let's

take a look at the numbers. annual pre—tax profits of $2.3 billion for the group, up 26% on the previous year. the group has reported 2016 like—for—like net sales up 3.1%. however, that growth may be about to change as wpp has set "conservative" sales targets of 2% for 2017, based on more modest start to the year. wpp's chief executive, sir martin sorrell, joins us now from the london stock exchange. thank you for speaking to us. let's look at these figures, profit up but you are expecting slower growth next year. why? not mix did this year. we had a strong 2016, another record

year —— not next year. the profits we re over year —— not next year. the profits were over £2 billion, not dollars, although there is not so much different as that used to be. what we saw was a slowing in quarter four and a slow start to 2017. worldwide gdp growth is about 3.5 to four point —— percent. we are seeing stronger growth market in latin america and middle east and central and eastern europe but tougher conditions generally and if we look at inflation, very little, maybe a bit more here in the uk post brexit and the devaluation of the pound and maybe a bit more coming in america with president trump's expansionist policies if they are in fermented. generally little pricing power —— if they are in fermented. three forces are pushing the clients, technological disruption, digital

disruption, the second is zero—based budgeting, a fashionable deconstruction of cost but its width is putting pressure on costs and also activist investors. that is all encouraging people to focus more on the short—term than the long term and not on innovation and brand building which is key to success in oui’ building which is key to success in our view building which is key to success in ourview in building which is key to success in our view in the long term. building which is key to success in our view in the long termli building which is key to success in our view in the long term. i wanted to ask you about snap. you spent $90 million on it. we account for about 2596 million on it. we account for about 25% of the world's media markets and that was roughly the proportion we invested in snap. do you think they can live up to the hype and work out how to make enough revenue to turn a profit? early days but it is competition for facebook which is to be welcomed. 0ur competition for facebook which is to be welcomed. our clients and ourselves, our third largest client, the cmo, was talking about the importance of measurement for facebook and google. google is

easier to measure in that it is search and you can see the sales results more clearly but facebook is more difficult to measure. snapchat has the same issue as it competes with facebook and amazon builds its search capability to compete with google and what we need is better data. 0ften google and what we need is better data. often the privacy issue is used as the reason why data is not as prevalent or at exposed as it should be. sometimes that is an excuse, should be. sometimes that is an excuse, a should be. sometimes that is an excuse, a figleaf, not the real reason, but clearly what our clients wa nt reason, but clearly what our clients want and what snapchat will have to prove is that return on investment from using snapchat as a medium is as effective or more effective than facebook or any other medium and thatis facebook or any other medium and that is the key battle. measurement of traditional media is pretty efficient of —— but measurement of new media is pretty much nonexistent

so we new media is pretty much nonexistent so we have to expand that capability to get the appropriate returns that we are seeing. 0ther to get the appropriate returns that we are seeing. other issues like fa ke we are seeing. other issues like fake news, which you know a fair bit about on the bbc in terms of subject matter, on brand safety, media placement, fraud, those are other important issues. and last year about a third of your investors opposed your pay deal, it went ahead. that opposition was up from about 22% oppose it the previous year. will that increasing opposition have an impact on your pay deal this year? the discussions about pay continue and our company is no different to any other. there are discussions taking place between compensation committees and chairman with the institute of investors about what pay should be. 0ur with the institute of investors about what pay should be. our plans are to be based on performance and i think in the last five year run of oui’ think in the last five year run of our last plan, which hasjust crystallised, we have outperformed

97.5% of the ftse 100 crystallised, we have outperformed 97.5% of the ftse100 if i remember correctly and the value of the total shareholder return it up by over 200% over that five—year period. it is about a question of pay for performance. thank you for your time this morning. in other news... music streaming service spotify says it's reached the landmark of 50 million paid subscribers. it's grown by 25% in less than six months and has now widened its lead over its nearest rival apple music. the swedish company is reportedly considering a us stock market flotation. it's already one of europe's most highly valued startups, although it is still making a loss. a south korean court has said the first hearing in the trial of samsung's de facto boss jay y lee will be held on 9th march. earlier this week, the man who runs one of the world's biggest companies was indicted on charges including bribery and embezzlements. he's admitted making donations

linked to the president, but denied the accusations that he sought political favours in return. a quick look on the tablet because there is an interesting story about there is an interesting story about the london stock exchange who have resulted out, revenue up 1a%, operating profit up 1% but in those results, the lse said it continued to work hard on the proposed merger with butcher bourse, which many thought was dead in the water —— with the german market. europe income position regulators objected to the deal but they are waiting for the outcome of the decision which is due on the 3rd of april 2017 and that merger something will still happen and we will keep an eye on it. you can read more about it on oui’ it. you can read more about it on our website. it's a big day for computer games giant nintendo. it starts selling its latest device, the switch. it's kind of hybrid machine, combining a home console and a mobile device in one.

and it's safe to say it is a massive gamble for nintendo, which is trying to recapture its glory days as a games company in a fast changing industry. some are even calling it "make or break‘. ashleigh nghiem is in singapore. tell us more. nintendo is under intense pressure to reboot its hardware sales business with the nintendo tending to have poor sales. the wiiu also lagged behind competing consoles. they say that launching switch button in a different ball game. mobile is a fast—growing gaming segment and a hybrid device, switch has deep integration with smartphones and also allows nintendo to stay true to its roots in the self top console business. that also worries from

gamers in the complaint as it does not offer many games and if it fails, nintendo might have to rethink its hardware business. but for now it shares have jumped today about 4%, defying the rest of the tokyo stock market. thank you. shares across asia pulled back on friday, shadowing the retreat on wall street. japan's nikkei ended the session lower despite a weakening yen which usually helps to prop—up exporters. shares in hong kong and shanghai slipped ahead of the opening of the national peoples congress, something where china's leaders may announce new measures to rein in debt and tighten up the side of financial markets. a softer open for the european markets — the ftse, the dax and the cac all opening lower. traders are becoming increasingly confident the federal reserve will hike interest rates this month. that puts some downward pressure on global markets because it draws investors towards us currency

rather than stocks. let's find out what is in store on wall street. how soon will us interest rates rise? janet yellen is scheduled to speak in chicago this friday, one day before the us central bank enters a quiet period ahead of its policy meeting in mid—march. her words could shed light on whether the federal reserve will raise interest rates this month. rate expectations have gone up for a couple of reasons. the economy continues to improve and the stock market has a new record this week, the dow jones industrial average closed above 21,000, just four weeks after hitting 20,000 for the first time. in other economic news, the institute for supply management releases its non—manufacturing index for february. also, keep an eye on caterpillar's share price. the heavy goods maker's stock

plunged after federal agents raided raided its offices in illinois, believed to be related to a tax investigation. joining us is richard dunbar, investment director at aberdeen asset management. thank you for coming in. i want talk you about digital crypto currency. 0therwise you about digital crypto currency. otherwise known as bitcoin. this is performed very well relative to other currencies. but nobody is quite sure who controls it, and the supply, quite sure who controls it, and the supply, but they are certain that central banks don't control it. supply, but they are certain that central banks don't control itm is very shadowing, it came from nowhere. it tends to fund the darker corners of the internet but it has many advantages in that the general policy of central banks as to be to devalue their currencies but bitcoin does not have those fassett and that has been a real attraction in the past ten years. —— with those assets. and it is now exceeded the

price of an ounce of gold so it is a real milestone for a currency that is still relatively in its infancy. it is, but nobody knows who controlled it, it is peer to peer so there is no control of supply and it has been very volatile relative to other currencies around the world and buyers should beware. do you have any of it? no! i was reading about how you do get it, you have an address that acts as your account and it adds to that and it is the anonymity that draws people in because the transaction can be done pa rt because the transaction can be done part of it is down to people trying to evade currency controls in china and get money out of the country. and i suspect everything we have spoken about should suggest the wear. richard, you will be back to talk to us about our paper story and

think about what is the best investment you have ever made after a school invested £50,000 in snap of a school invested £50,000 in snap of a start—up. —— £15,000. still to come... we will be talking about snapchat‘s stock market debut. you are with business life. even with its merger under threat, it seems the lse is doing quite well. in the 12 months to december, revenue was up 14% at £1.5 billion, although operating profit wasjust1% higher. the london stock exchange group says it "continues to work hard on its proposed merger with deutsche borse" 0ur correspondent theo leggett joins us now. it looked last week or earlier this week that the whole merger would be off and this seems like a turnaround? it does although nothing

is certain until the 3rd of april when the european commission comes out and says what it thinks about this merger. but you are right, the london stock exchange through the markets on the bombshell last weekend when it said that it wasn't prepared to go ahead with this merger with deutsche borse under the conditions which they expect that the european commission to impose and that would mean getting rid of its italian bond trading platform, saying it was not willing to do that. underlying that there are various reports from people close to the negotiations suggesting the real reason is a certain amount of conflict between the boardroom of the london stock exchange and that of deutsche borse over where the centre of gravity of this new group would become if it would be in london or in frankfurt and some german politicians are unhappy it looks like gravitating towards london. but in this statement, the london. but in this statement, the london stock exchange says the group has worked hard on the proposed merger with dreich which received

formal approvalfrom merger with dreich which received formal approval from both sets of shareholders and this would be an industry defining combination of expanding their present in global markets and —— anchored in europe and delivering significant customer and delivering significant customer and shareholder benefits. considering the obituaries for this deal written in the past week, it sounds like strong stuff so we will have to wait and see what the lse wa nts to have to wait and see what the lse wants to do. we have a story here about zero hours contract, a type of contract that became popular following the financial crisis with the idea it gave businesses more leeway to reduce gave businesses more leeway to red u ce staff gave businesses more leeway to reduce staff hours, also some would argue it gives those holding the contract more choice. we have figuring showing there is a record high number of people with zero hour contract. 910,000. the rate of increase is slowing. you can get more on our website. you're watching business

live — our top story. the world's largest advertising firm — wpp — has reported its latest results and it warns that 2017 is going to be a tough year. a quick look at how markets are faring. you can see european markets, they are all down ever so slightly, in a week where we saw a real boom in the states, continuing record highs but falling off yesterday, asian markets down overnight and the european markets following that trend. and now let's get the inside track this week — we've had record levels on the ftse and dow, with the dow reaching over 21,000 on wednesday, the day after president trump's address to congress. and yesterday was the day for the most anticipated tech market floatation since twitter. snap — the owner of photo messaging app snapchat — made its debut on the stock market in the us. snap closed its first day of trading at $24.a8, up 44% on the opening price. 0ur economics editor kamal ahmed joins us now. welcome to the programme. we have to

start with snap. it is fascinating, the shares come with no voting right, the company has yet to make a profit. do you think it will live up to the hype? it is impossible to say. what we are seeing here, is as you said about the markets, a world awarn with cash. cash. there haven't been many tech flotation, you mention twitter,ally. be aba but there has been little avenue for people to take investment in new tech start ups and so what snap is doing is offering the market a different type of awed yearnings it is not only young, it is an audience thatis is not only young, it is an audience that is about friendship, if you think of twitter being about stranger, facebook being about again ta ntss snapchat about stranger, facebook being about again tantss snapchat about friendship groups and this idea that young

people put much more value on that, than they do on being on twitter or facebook which is a more distant type of relationship. so yes it is risky, of course it hasn't made a profit, facebook tried to buy snap in 2013 for $3 billion. this puts it at just in 2013 for $3 billion. this puts it atjust under 30 billion. but yes, it isa atjust under 30 billion. but yes, it is a risk but if it pays off for the investors it can pay off in a grand way. i was going to ask about the change in tone we heard from president trump this week. much softer than he has been in that speech. that is right. what is interesting, it is almost linked in way. there is confidence in markets, snap has revealed that in a way. i remember being here on the night after president trump was elected and we talked about this idea was he going to be campaigning trump or more presidential? in the intervening period he has been more like campaigning trump, aggressive,

controversial, attacking the media, certainly the address to the joint houses of congress was much more benign, much more presidential as some would describe it, softer on things like immigration, talking about tax deeregulation, the need for investment. bringing america together and the markets have responded positively to that. we look though at the markets notjust in isolation about trump but also about the possibility of interest rate rises, but the federal reserve, and also that global growth is coming back, and the eurozone has soon stronger growth. america is seeing stronger growth and all these things are coming together in a low interest environment. lots of cash oner cop rat balance sheets and it is making this rather frothy environment that we are seeing at the moment. i want to go back to snap. we had sir martin sorrel at the top of the programme. he was warping it is going to be a tougher

yearfor warping it is going to be a tougher year for advertiser, warping it is going to be a tougher yearfor advertiser, i warping it is going to be a tougher year for advertiser, i am fascinated by the fact the shares have rocketed on the first day of trading when they haven't worked out how to monday tie them. we are told they need to work out how to get theed advertising. it doesn't bode well. sirmartin advertising. it doesn't bode well. sir martin made a very interesting point. advertisers want competition. they don't want to be trapped in having to advertise with facebook or with google, who are commanding the new markets in advertising at the moment, and that is why snap could be successful, because if they can find a way of encouraging their millions of user, young users to also use snap as a way of what, of understanding what they want to buy, then that becomes an incredibly valuable proposition. this is 16—25—year—olds. these are the sweet spot sector for advertisers and if wpp can find them and find access

snap could be profitable. thank you for joining snap could be profitable. thank you forjoining us. thank you forjoining us. southern africa has suffered extensively from a wide—spread drought in recent years. but now there's a new threat to the region's agriculture — a plague of army worms — caterpillar—like pests that are devastating crops. in zambia, the maize crop has been attacked by the worms and that's raised fears that the cost of the country's staple food nshima may be set to increase. let's see what other stories are being talked about on social media. we will start with snapchat. because there is a story in business insider, about a school that invested $15,000 in snapchat when it was a start up. they have banked millions this week, what has been the best investment you have made? two best, my personal one i would

suggest my house, best investment in the business, a company called burford capital. we made five times oui’ burford capital. we made five times our money. and the characterisation of that is one that people weren't interested in, a market people didn't know, where there wasn't much competition so a road not well travelled but more so today. have you got a good investment? i am seeing some of the ones tweeteded in. steve clarke said best investment is property, it can be rented out whereas shares are just parked. interesting take on that. mine wasa parked. interesting take on that. mine was a trip, i managed to see the northern lights. well done. let us see the northern lights. well done. let us see what other stories are we covering today. the discounters because we have got liddle or is it aldi? it was aldi. aldi? it was aldi.

aldi starts online sales in china this month, and using australian supplier, an interesting tie up. this month, and using australian supplier, an interesting tie upm is. and aldi have been underestimated in virtually every market they have come into. they have been underestimated in the uk market when they have been competing against our big supermarket, they are going quietly into china, they are going quietly into china, they are partners with ali baba. they are doing it with a chinese partner. carefully. so i suspect that is one worth watching and they will do well. so soft launch initially. perhaps a bigger one in april and some stores as well. interesting, we will keep eye eye on that. have a great weekend. have a great weekend. see you soon. bye. good morning. a different day today,

it is starting soggy in the south, we still have a mattering of hill snow in the north. it is not a wash out this weekend. it looks disturbed. we have brisk winds driving in this area of rain in the southern half of the country. this in the north is producing snow over the hills and it is very murky as well, because that cloud, that moist air is coming into the cold air so distributing hill fog. so you can see that doesn't make much progress through the day. six in northern ireland, it has been across northern england. the rain band pushes into wales, and england as we head to the afternoon. by that stage it may dry up afternoon. by that stage it may dry upa afternoon. by that stage it may dry up a little across southern and eastern areas but a soggy morning, spray and standing water on the roads, hill fog and the rain and the patchy hill snow in the north—west of england still a risk as it is in southern scotland and northern ireland. feeling miserable, but

northern scotland has fewer shower, lighter winds, some pleasant weather, however it is all change tonight and tomorrow. that rain band is slowly moving northwards but it moves knot wards, snow for grampian and high land region, we keep the milder theme, the mild air but it throws in more cloud and further showery outbreaks of rain, so it is going to be a particularly cloudy start for saturday morning with the longer spells of rain, hill snow in the north of scotland, across much of scotland. a keen east wind making it feel cold. further south a better chance of brighter weather. and there is uncertainty as to where this band of rain will be, how far further west it will be. for northern ireland it looks like another soggy day. that low pressure moves away into sunday but we have the next band of rain moving in off the atlantic and particularly significant snow across the alpine regions as well. let us focus on the uk. it looks slightly drier for the north east of scotland. but then we

have bands of rain, so a few hour hours of substantial rain, heavy showers, not especially cold, nine to ten degrees as you can see but it is an unsettled weather picture, that stays with us into the begin of next week but it is relatively mild at that stage. bye. hello, it's friday, it's 9 o'clock, i'm joanna gosling, welcome to the programme. our top story today — toddler poppi worthington was let down by detectives investigating her death according to a damning report. we'll have the details. the investigator found evidence that there had been an unstructured investigation, essentially it was not fit for purpose. also today, we'll hear from a man who spent 2a years in one of louisiana's most dangerous prisons after being wrongly convicted of killing a british tourist. the system didn't destroy me, didn't destroyed my kids. we're moving on. and that don't make it right. because it's totally wrong, it's an injustice. wheel of the full interview. —— we

will have. buying medicines online is a risky business according to a health watchdog. we'll hear how drugs are sometimes being sold without enough checks.