this is business live from bbc news with aaron heslehurst and ben bland. day of reckoning on wall street. can america's banking giants back their sky—high share prices with sky—high profits? live from london, that's our top story on thursday the 13th of april. jpmorgan, wells fargo and citi kick off the earnings seasons where we'll get to learn the strength of any trump bump. also in the programme: "they're not currency manipulators" — the us president makes a big u—turn on his view of china's monetary policy. and as always we'll give you the latest lowdown on what's happening on the markets all around the world. cautious trading continues.

and we'll be getting the inside track on the key to success in china. the founder of uk high street stalwart timpson‘s will be here to explain why he's expanding his key—cutting and shoe repair business overseas, and why brexit was the right thing to do. today, as burger king launches a new ad that hijacked google‘s home assistant, we want to know: do adverts need to be more creative to get your attention these days? let us know. just use the hashtag #bbcbizlive. hello and welcome to business live. welcome to the programme. we start on wall street, where it's a hugely important day for investors. foul for our pensions!

now, we know the share prices of banks have soared in the months following president trump's election, led by america's biggest banks, which are up by almost 25%. but in recent weeks, doubts have been creeping in, rattling the markets. let me show you what we have put together. today we get first quarter results from the biggest us bank, jpmorgan chase, and later from its rival citigroup. they're the first of a barrage of reports from america's biggest companies. but 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% in the next two years. this means more profits, because it helps their lending margins. that's the difference between the interest rate they offer to savers and the rate they charge to borrowers. thank you very much. professor thorsten beck is professor of banking and finance at cass business school. welcome to business live. the banks, big time of the year for them, revealing their profits. do you think they have already priced in the anticipation of looser

regulation, or do you think we are yet to see that affect them?” regulation, or do you think we are yet to see that affect them? i don't think we will see that in the reports coming out of the next couple of days. what the banks have been benefiting from his healthy credit growth over the last couple of years. the us financial market looks different from the european market. they have come out of the crisis much quicker than we did in europe. and as aaron just mentioned, this will drive the only rates. the higher share prices are more driven by the expectation of future deregulation. do you think that this set of results is going to be the last one where they are really feeling the pressure of the interest rates that have been so low for so long that have hit their profit—making ability? long that have hit their profit-making ability? probably, yes. you might see an offsetting effect in the future of the growth slowing, but of course on the investment acting side, there are

probably more deals to be had given the general deregulation trend that we see in the us and of course the animal spirits that have been released over the past couple of months, but there is also a high certainty along the way, so it is to be seen. thorsten, can i ask you this. for the uninitiated out there, these numbers are backward looking. the markets are looking for what is in front. and something we don't touch on with the us banks much is the carload market. —— car loan market. it is very similar to the housing sub—prime market, and we know what happened to that.|j housing sub—prime market, and we know what happened to that. i would not be as concerned as the sub—prime mortgage market, but yes, it is often hidden from investors‘ eyes

across the banking sector. i don‘t think it would be as bad as in 2006/7, but yes, care is to be taken. so is it the right time to be talking about deregulation, or if there is a simmering problem in the car loan there is a simmering problem in the carloan mar there is a simmering problem in the car loan mar market, isn‘t this the time when we need that regulation in place to stop that happening?“ time when we need that regulation in place to stop that happening? if you tell me that you want to reduce the 1000 pages of dodd frank and the regulation that comes with it, that is one way, but it is more about the general regulatory approach that will see change over the next couple of ears potentially. i don‘t think we are looking at a reform of the dodd frank act any time soon, because it is not top of the legislative agenda, and that has kind of stalled over the last couple of weeks. i think what they will

look at our two things, number one in the budget appropriation process, the regular treat framework might be starved of funds, such as the financial protection, the equivalent to the fca, and second, there are three open positions at the federal reserve board, three open positions at the federal reserve boa rd, two three open positions at the federal reserve board, two more potentially opening up next year, and so five positions out of seven to be filled by the trump administration, and that can set the tone for a different type of regulatory approach. that is what we will have to keep our eye on. professor thorsten beck, thank you forjoining us. let‘s take a look at some of the other stories making the news. united airlines‘ chief executive has said he will not quit amid an explosive backlash to video of a screaming man being dragged off an overbooked plane. 0scar munoz said he felt "shame and embarrassment", let‘s take a look at some of the other stories making the news. and vowed it would never happen again to a seated passenger on one of united‘s aircraft. the embattled aviation boss said the passenger

in question, david dao, deserved "certainly an apology". 0nly only an apology?! a group of shareholders has written to electric car—maker tesla questioning the independence of its board, warning it‘s too close to boss and co—founder elon musk. they urged it to re—elect members annually and to add two new independent directors to the board. in a tweet mr musk said the investors "should buy ford stock" instead. the french supermarket group carrefour has posted a strong rise of 6.2% meaning it hit almost $22.7 billion. its brazilian business was one of the main reasons why, with 38% growth in turnover, mitigating the impact of its poorly performing french business. us president trump has said his administration will not label china a currency manipulator. the huge u—turn comes despite his campaign promise to do so early in his presidency. rob brandt is in shanghai and joins

us. rob brandt is in shanghai and joins us. good to see you. it is another u—turn, but in general terms, this is good news for all of us? we don‘t want these countries having a trade battle? you talk to a whole range of people, i interviewed the ceo of ford a few minutes ago, they also the same, nobody wants a trade war between the united states and china, the world‘s two biggest economies. it is a substantial u—turn for the president, he spent months on the campaign trail saying that china was a currency manipulator and had been taking us jobs, but now he says they are not. the figures for the past few years, it has been appreciated in value and growing in strength against the us dollar. maybe what we are seeing is pa rt dollar. maybe what we are seeing is part of this grand bargain that president trump appears to be

offering china, we saw that detailed in florida, and at the heart of that is north korea, trade deals a key pa rt is north korea, trade deals a key part of that. thank you for the update, rob. let‘s look at the markets kicking off around the world. expected to follow more of a cautious trading session as it has donein cautious trading session as it has done in the past, and again, just important to note that the dollar has dipped off the back of president trump saying that china is not a manipulator. and he said he‘d prefer america‘s central bank to keep

interest rates low — because the dollar is getting too strong... 0k — let‘s turn our attention now to brazil — one of the world‘s biggest emerging economies — it‘s finally cut its main interest rate by 1% but it's still 11.25%. here‘s daniel gallas in sao paulo with the details. we haven‘t seen interest rates to this fast in brazil for almost eight yea rs. this fast in brazil for almost eight years. back then it was a completely different country, the b in brics, one of the fastest—growing countries in the world. now it is mired in corruption scandals and facing one of its worst recessions in history. so there is this drop in interest rates, does that mean brazil is back on track and back to the good old days? the answer is probably not, at least not so fast. the interest rates drop is partly because brazilians are unemployed and they have no purchasing power left, so prices are falling, and that means that interest rates can drop as well. the fundamentals of the brazilian economy are in bad shape. growth is supposed to be very modest this year, also the government has

high levels of debt. so economists are watching whether the country will keep cutting it interest rates in the next coming months. that could maybe signal that the country is back on track to a very slow recovery. joining us is lawrence gosling who is editor in chief of investment week. plenty there to talk about. let‘s talk about some of what daniel was mentioning there and this cut in interest rates in brazil. as he mentioned, the brazilian economy is still heavily indebted, and if you are the central bank in any country, you have two weapons at your disposal, they can‘t pump money into the economy, so they will steadily use this interest rate weapon tool to try to revive the economy. let's turn our attention closer to europe. everybody keep an eye on what is

coming up with the elections. the french election around the corner. turkey‘s election this weekend coming, an important one because there is still a state of emergency in turkey and it is a big economy, so in turkey and it is a big economy, so that is important. and then the following weekend, the first round of the french elections, it could be all over in wonder if one of the candidates gets 50% of the vote, not expected, it is very tight. so these other two next key elections. and especially the french election, does that affect european market at all? european equity markets have cooled offa european equity markets have cooled off a little, and the sovereign bonds of france in particular have eased off a little bit as well. so investors are nervous, albeit most people don‘t expect marine le pen to end up being elected after the second round. and the turkey referendum rather than an election. that is the key thing about that.

thank you very much, you will be back to go through the papers with us back to go through the papers with us shortly. still to come: the inside track on why one of the uk's the inside track on why one of the uk‘s biggest high—street chains thinks it has the key to success in china. you are watching business live on bbc news. sainsbury‘s argos are opening their 50th digital store today. it‘s part of plans to transform the retailer after sainsbury‘s bought the home retail group in 2016. they‘re also announcing plans to open ten mini habitat stores in branches of sainsbury‘s — and 90 stores will have argos click & collect points. john rogers is the ceo of argos hejoins us now. i‘m sure some people will be delighted by this, but are you not potentially putting some people off

who are not quite so, double, they love that traditional catalogue?” think it is about giving customers choice. many of them do love the catalogue, but many of them like to be above the shop in—store in an easy and convenient way through the digital tablet, so it is about providing customers with choice, whether it is home delivery, picking up whether it is home delivery, picking u p stuff whether it is home delivery, picking up stuff in the supermarket or indeed going into one of our argos high—street stores and giving customers that choice to grow sales, giving us a successful six—month sales and a winning market share. 0ne one other interesting is, when you look at your rivals, like amazon, with big warehouses is out of town, if they don‘t have the same sort of business rate overheads that you inevitably do in stories in towns and city centres, where you concerned by the recent changes? as a business, with, say, argos, we pay

over half £1 billion in business rate and we would ask the government to look at reforming the system, and out of date tax clearly focused on property, and with those retailers, in in this digital world, it is becoming less relevant so i think we welcome some of the small changes made to the system and processes are the last 12 months or so but fundamentally we are asking for a major freehold. john, many thanks. john rogers, chief executive of argos. don‘t forget you can find plenty on the business live page. right now, bad news if you‘re planning to travel over the bank holiday weekend. virgin‘s isco sorry, no, forgive me, it is later in april. not this weekend. it is later in the month. just frighten half the country! laughter you‘re watching business live.

our top story: is us burning season kicking off? it kicks off with the big banks over in america and they will tell us how much money have been making —— is us banking season kicking off? a quick look at how markets are faring... this is the start of the trading day in europe, all downjust a shade, very cautious. now, i want to talk about this... imagine taking over a family business and then more than quadrupling it in size. timpson was founded in manchester in 1865 as a shoe store and later expanded into manufacturing and repairs. in 1975 it had 430 stores and a new managing director, withjohn timpson taking over the family business. now the company has almost 1900 stores in the uk and ireland, and one shop in beijing. they‘ve gone into china! newmarket!

new market! here to give us the inside track is john timpson, the company‘s chairman. welcome to business life. successful business in the uk and ireland. what tempted you about china? the chinese! laughter —— welcome to business live. laughter -- welcome to business live. looking around the world, they wanted a model to copy, they found us, and thatis model to copy, they found us, and that is what is happening. do you think it is the start of more? not much pointjust having one. yes, a silly question. but you have a lot of shoes over there. we have one, there will be more fairly soon. 0bviously there will be more fairly soon. obviously we have to learn how to do it, we have one or two of our people over there. a long way to go. i‘m

not getting excited yet, but it is a very interesting new direction for us. very interesting new direction for us. can i ask you this? i know you we re us. can i ask you this? i know you were watching the interview with john as well from argos. their model was very similar... asking if this is the future, you know, click & collect, picking up in supermarkets, and you‘re opening up a lot of the timpsons in supermarkets around the uk. is that the future because it is with the footfall is? we are in pretty much every high street you wa nt to pretty much every high street you want to be end, and we are opening lots of shops together with supermarkets, all the big format, particularly tesco and sainsbury‘s. most of them are little pods in the car parks, near the entrance. you obviously are doing something right with your business, growing and so on. what is interesting is how you draw up your business plans, 15 yea rs draw up your business plans, 15 years in advance? there is this

little trick i do every three years asa little trick i do every three years as a way of stimulating... you know, we don‘t have forward planning meetings or anything like that, but i write a chairman‘s report for 15 yea rs‘ i write a chairman‘s report for 15 years‘ time. i write a chairman‘s report for 15 years' time. how do you know what is coming up? of course you don't! but it takes you away from today. instead of writing a forward plan, most people for word —— people‘s/ is just from today, and they say the sales will go faster than costs so they make more money, so they can put that to bed and so on, but my forward plan, my annual report for 2032, which i havejust written... laughter it is trying to guess what will happen. actually, do you know what? the most interesting thing about it is the thing is that absolutely don‘t change. and the thing that matters most to me is the fact that in 2032 one of the bits of our culture we have to keep, and we will

still be making sure we take great people and let them get on with it, what i call upside—down management, it‘ll still be how we run our business. which is in your book? absolutely. we have to wrap it up, but upside—down management... absolutely. we have to wrap it up, but upside-down management... the book is cold keys to success and it is 50 different quirky things we do to make a difference, and the way to give great service in shops, part of the secret to our success, we allow the secret to our success, we allow the people who sell to our customers to do it how they want, and they do it as long as we pick great people. 0k, thank you. upside—down management. i wonder if we can apply that to presenting? could do, i don‘t know! now, are you happy to have your food delivered... by robot? that‘s the question being asked of take—out food

customers in san francisco. this is not a trial. it‘s the first full scale roll—out of technology that could mean the end of the road for scooter delivery riders. take a look at this. we think the best approach for this kind of system is one where, you know, there‘s constant human oversight of the robots. the architecture we‘ve chosen is one where a person is capable of controlling one or two robots, and over time it would build into more and more autonomous operation so that there is one person then controlling five, and then ten and so on, so effectively multiplying the ability of a given person to do more work

over the set of robots that they‘re overseeing. what other business stories has the media been taking an interest in? laurence gosling isjoining us again to discuss. burger king, new tv at, designed to interact with your device, and google don‘t seem to like it? interact with your device, and google don't seem to like it? no, because it was only running for three hours and they disallowed the softwa re three hours and they disallowed the software that allowed this app to p0p up software that allowed this app to pop up on your phone or google bomb device. saw the commercial on the tv use the trigger words to activate —— google device. the yes, it would tell you where to get it, pay it back, so it is kind of stealth marketing and i am sure somebody thought it was a clever idea. i'm sure it got a bit of coverage. we asked whether people like the idea 01’ asked whether people like the idea or if it was too invasive. the two

best responses — advertising just needs to be targeted. tom says simply for something i want to own 01’ simply for something i want to own or desire, and those things don‘t matter to me. look at this picture. what is going on with swiss chocolate and applindt? they are suffering because we all are getting more healthy —— what is going on with lindt? but the cost is going up because of the cocoa beans... yes, clearly this with cannot draw their own kauko. the other thing, interestingly enough... why not? they are very good at cowes for the milk, but... you know, this is a luxury item. it is expensive and thatis luxury item. it is expensive and that is how they position themselves. it is easter now so we will all go and buy some chocolate and we willjust buy the cheapest chocolate and consume it quickly.

but what about the chocolate? chocolate and consume it quickly. but what about the chocolate ?m chocolate and consume it quickly. but what about the chocolate? it is higher quality because it is only manufactured to be on the shelves for short time so can eat it and it is not quite as unhealthy for you. ah! 0k, see you soon. happy easter. that‘s it from business live today. we‘ll see you again tomorrow. good morning. it is not going to be as warm as last weekend but the upcoming easter weekend is not looking too bad for the weather. it will feel rather cool. some sunny spells and just a little rain splashing through at times. back to today, a bright start for many, particularly for southern and eastern areas. and you can see these lumps of cloud beginning to spill m, lumps of cloud beginning to spill in, and that really is story. things are clouding overfrom in, and that really is story. things are clouding over from the north—west. cloud will tend to increase here and the cloud will be thick enough up towards the

north—west to give some very light and patchy rain and drizzle. the best of the brightness by four o‘clock this afternoon will be found across the channel islands, particularly in southern parts of england. some spells of sunshine, cloud floating through as well. maybe up to 15 degrees here. much of the anglia and wales as well and maybe a spot of rain over the pennines. for northern ireland and western scotland, thick clouds and outbreaks of rain but eastern scotla nd outbreaks of rain but eastern scotland may well hold on to some brighter spells for the likes of aberdeen and edinburgh. through this evening and tonight, the thick cloud with some outbreaks of rain will topple its way southwards and eastwards so many areas cloudy overnight as a consequence, so not particularly cold except for the far north of scotland where there could bea north of scotland where there could be a touch of frost. into tomorrow, a story of thick cloud, some outbreaks of rain at times. the rain turning heavier through the

afternoon through northern ireland, southern scotland and singing in northern england, the midlands and wales. to the south—east, —— sinking in the northern england. things brightening up in northern ireland and scotland but with showers and a fairly cool and fresh fields of the weather. in the saturday, all of us get into the school and westerly winds have not worn by any means but for many a fair amount of dry weather and some spells of sunshine. some showers particularly across northern and eastern areas of scotland. top temperatures, 9—15. in sunday, easter, looks like outbreaks of rain spreading southwards throughout the country. a bit of uncertainty about where it will be wettest, and there will be some dry weather and sunshine as well. 11—15 . hello. it‘s thursday — it‘s 9 o‘clock, i‘m chloe tilley, welcome to the programme. for more than two years, a mother thought her daughter had been cannibalised by a drug addict just out of prison. paula yemm says she was let down appallingly by the police and the authorities.

we‘ll hear from the family of cerys yemm just after 9:15. also today — grammar schools should give priority to children from every background. that‘s what education secretary justine greening will say later, when she counters claims they‘re just for the privileged few.