this is business live from bbc news with rachel home and alice baxter. king for a day! amazon founderjeff bezos briefly becomes the world's richest person. but wall street nerves about the company's massive spending push him back down to number two. live from london, that's our top story on friday the 28th ofjuly. sales at amazon rise — but profits plunge — as the e—commerce giant spends big on expansion overseas. also in the programme. making america grow again. will the latest figures on the us economy bring president trump closer to his 3% target? in europe things getting off to a

muted start. and chlorinated chickens, the electric mini and tech titans — we'll be looking at what's been a busy week in today we want to know does great wealth bring great responsibility? yesterday amazon founder jeff bezos was, briefly, the richest person in the world — what would you do if it was you? just use the hashtag bbcbizlive. hello and welcome to business live. we start with retail giant amazon — it has seen its shares fall sharply after its latest figures disappointed wall street. the good news — it is raking in huge sums of money as its sales keep expanding. the bad news — it's spending a fortune on developing its business — and that is making investors nervous. let's show you the details. total sales in the three months tojune jumped almost a quarter compared to last year —

to just under $38 billion. unfortunately — they spent almost all of it! operating expenses surged to well over $37 billion. that means there wasn't much actual profit — a comparatively measly $197 million — and down 77% on last year. amazon is investing massively in everything from tv and movie content — to new warehouses for the global expansion of its business. like this — the deal it announced last month to buy the supermarket chain whole foods for over $13 billion. amazon has been putting increasing pressure on bricks and mortars retailers in the us. optimism about the company's future has helped to push up amazon's share price. since january amazon shares have risen by more than 40% to a new record — making the company worth about half a trillion dollars. which has proved very

lucrative for this person — the firm's founder — jeff bezos. on thursday, he became the richest person in the world — overtaking microsoft's bill gates. but it was a brief reign. as the share price has come down again, he has dropped back into second place. joining me now is ben preston. amazon don't tend to go for big profits, so why were wall street disappointed this time? well, the shares are indicating they will be down a little today. in the context today i think they're still likely today i think they're still likely to be satisfied with these results. it's the same old amazon in lots of ways. the amount they sell gets larger but they don't let those profits fall to the bottom line. they prefer to reinvest into the future. it's a formula that's worked

well for them. building an empire is understating it, he is going global, seems to be getting into every aspect of our lives, tv investment, original content, where do you think they're going to go next? that's rightt they're going to go next? that's right t all started with the smartphone which has redefined the way we live a lot of our lives. we connect with people in different ways. we take public transport in different ways and we shop and pay for things now in different ways. the next thing perhaps is the living room, they've been successful with the amazon echo device, and he is hoping that will force more of us to engage with amazon and become prime subscribers. of course also supermarkets, we mentioned the acquisition of whole foods and also they're moving into cloud services, data storage which is proving incredibly profitable already. that's been a very successful story for them. it's a newer business for

them than retail but it's been more profitable. it continues to grow rapidly. how do you compare amazon to other big tech companies, facebook, apple, results from facebook, apple, results from facebook and from alphabet already this week, it is a very different business, but they do tend to get grouped together. it's amazing how quickly those companies have continued to grow. the share prices this year have reflected that with strong performances. amazon is slightly different in that the other companies tend to make a greater share of profits today, whereas amazon insists on reinvesting that for the future. as a group they've all done fantastically well. our job as investors is to try to judge how much of that future growth is priced into the shares today and make the investment decision accordingly. ben preston, thank you very much. op preston, thank you very much. op other stories making the news.

the it failure at british airways in may that left thousands unable to check in baggage cost it $76m. that's according to the airline's owner iag. about 75,000 passengers faced severe disruption when ba's system failed over the second bank holiday weekend in may. ba said it was caused by an engineer who disconnected a power supply. air france—klm is buying almost a third of virgin atlantic, leaving sir richard branson‘s parent company, virgin group, with a minority stake in the airline he founded. sir richard said he would remain "very much involved" after the deal. germany's transport minister has announced a recall of 22,000 porsche cars to remove what he says is illegal emissions—controlling software. he said that luxury make porsche would bear the cost of the recalls of the affected 3—litre diesel cayenne models. we have had figures through from

ba rclays, we have had figures through from barclays, millions of customers around the world, they've seen a jump around the world, they've seen a jump in half—year profits but will have to pay out an extra £700 million to meet compensation claims for mis—selling payment protection insurance, that's ppi. ba rclays shares up barclays shares up over i% on the london markets this morning. lloyds also having to put aside additional money for claims, as well. let's ci’oss money for claims, as well. let's cross over money for claims, as well. let's cross over to asia now. let's go to asia, where coffee giant starbucks is splashing out in china. it is buying out its eastern chinese partners, spending $1.3 billion on the 50% of the business it doesn't already own. it's the biggest deal starbucks has ever done. mariko oi has more from singapore. chase the reaction to this given

it's the biggest deal the chain has ever done? yes, it goes to show how important china has become for the coffee chain, it is in fact the fastest growing market outside the united states. especially with the number of stores. as you mentioned, they already own 1500 outlets fully but spending 1. 3 billion to buy the rest, 50% stake in 1300 other stores. the goal is to own 5,000 stores. the goal is to own 5,000 stores in mainland china by 2021. but the announcement came just as the company announced a fall in income for the three months tojuly because its growth in the united states has been somewhat slowing down. so i guess this big announcement in china going to prove to investors how important china is and how it's going to grow even more in the chinese market. thanks. let's stay in the region. asian stock markets

sagged on friday — that's after us tech shares retreated from recent rallies. in tokyo, the nikkei closed lower as the market was dragged down by some disappointing earnings reports and that fall in us technology shares. across the pond, the tech—heavy nasdaq's streak of all—time high closes ended thursday with apple, google—parent alphabet and netflix shares all slumping. one bright spot though over in china — with stocks ended higher on with the shanghai benchmark index recording the sixth consecutive week of gains, bolstered by recent solid economic data. shares in europe ending on a muted note. in a few hours, the united states will announce second—quarter gross domestic product numbers, while consumer spending, manufacturing and service—sector data are due next week. smaira has more now on what's ahead on wall street today. on friday we get the latest growth

figures for the economy. the gdp is expected to have gone up to 2. 6% for the last three months of this year. that would be a big improvement on the previous quarter's gdp, which came in atjust 1. 496. quarter's gdp, which came in atjust 1. 4%. as a candidate for president, donald trump campaigned on bringing the gdp to 4-5%. donald trump campaigned on bringing the gdp to 4—5%. sips then. since then they have tempered anticipation. among companies reporting on friday is the world's largest publicly traded oil producer, baker hughes, the second largest oil fields services provider. goodyear and american airlines. joining us is james bevan, chief investment officer at ccla investment management.

thank you for coming in. let's pick up thank you for coming in. let's pick up talking about us gdp. we had that 1. 496 up talking about us gdp. we had that 1. 4% figure for the first three months. president trump and his advisors hoping for 3% for the second three months of the year. we have had strong data, some strong corporate earnings out, do you think they might do it? absolutely not. it's great to hope but that is not a number that i can get to. i think if you stretch all the numbers and say let's be optimistic, you could say we get to 2. 9 but actually if you think about the lower case numbers we have also seen, could be as low as 2. we have also seen, could be as low as2.2 we have also seen, could be as low as 2. 2 buti we have also seen, could be as low as 2. 2 but i don't think we are going to see three. the run rate for the us economy is much lower and i think this is going to be a year that looks like 2014, 2015, 2016, no real change, bad luck, mrtrump. some analysts saying that number was achievable at the height of the tech bubble. absolutely, the one - i

think probably thought to himself i don't want to asroi the boss and say it's going to go back to where it came from, i am going to have to pitch a number less than the promise made but i guess that's where it came from. i can't get that number myself in terms of the lead indicators and if you look at the structural content of the us economy it doesn't have the capacity to drive that growth right now. what would the us need to do to achieve that number? invest heavily, it could be a greater output, more productivity improvements. at the moment we have a challenge in that there is not enough investment, companies have been using cash to buy back their own shares. that's great if you are a chief executive, you keep earnings roughly where they are and everything is fine. however in terms of building a bigger economy they have to be investing in plant and machinery, that's not happening. thank you. you are going

to ta ke happening. thank you. you are going to take us through the business papers later. still to come... we will look at a busy week in the world of business. you're with business live from bbc news. barclays has reported a heavy loss in the second quarter, hit by the one—off costs of a big disposal in africa and a further knock from mis—selling payment protection insurance to uk customers. theo leggettjoins us from the business newsroom with more. how significant are these results? they're they‘ re pretty the)” re pretty significant they're pretty significant but you have to move away a little bit from that headline figure, if you look at the day—to—day operations of the bank and operating profit, and that was £2. 3 billion, that's up from £2 billion last year, an increase of about 13%, not bad but less than a nalysts about 13%, not bad but less than analysts were expecting. operating costs have gone up quite a bit. there are a lot of reasons for that.

one of them being increased security to protect against cyber attack. but of course those headline figures will be dominating and the story of the bank's restructuring is also a big story today. that is where the africa business comes in. barclays has had to write off a significant amount of money, it lost £1. 4 billion on the sale of a 33% stake in ba rclays billion on the sale of a 33% stake in barclays africa group and it also lost another billion on the value of its remaining 15% stake but this kind of brings to an end the process the chief executive had implemented of trying to narrow barclays focus, focus and zoom in on core businesses and increase profitable. he says that process is at an end and shareholders are going to start to benefit. barclays has announced it's to pay out more for the mis—selling payment protection insurance to uk customers. it has, this goes on and

on. it is going to pay out another £700 million or at least provide another £700 million against future claims. barclays had already set aside more than £9 billion for this kind of thing, it has used £7 billion of it, so still £2 billion in the kitty. the pace of claims has been accelerating, it's up since the same period last year so it is setting aside another £700 million to make sure there is enough in the cupboard to meet future claims which it expects will go up. incidentally, ba rclays it expects will go up. incidentally, barclays isn't the only bank doing this. yesterday we had lloyds saying much the same thing, also setting aside a further £700 million against ppi claims. thank you. check out the tablet to all the latest headlines. you're watching business live. our top story...

sales at amazon rose in the three months to june but sales at amazon rose in the three months tojune but profits plunged as the company invested in global expansion. the boss briefly became the world's chip man but went back to second place. —— richest man. a quick look at how markets are faring. the dax and the foot cedar are down. and now let's get the inside track on the other big economic news of the week. philip hammond has told business leaders he wants companies to have full access to the single market and customs union for two years after brexit. the chancellor of fixture

has been talking to the bbc and emphasise the importance of the transition day. my view on transition day. my view on transition is well known. i believe it will be in the interests of britain and the eu if, after we leave the european union and the single market, and the customs union, on 29th of march, 2019, there is then a period, call it transitional interim period, during which we will allow our economies to adjust to the new situation rather than having a cliff edge in march, 2019, which will cause immense disruption to businesses and citizens. how significant is this? it is quite a move. there has been a two stage process in the past was that you get march and then you have a transitional period. then the next period, the full deal you do overtime. what he is saying is, on

the day after the 29th of march, everything stays pretty much the same. if you were going through the borders he would not notice. you stay in the single market and the customs union. he is saying you come out of those you behave as if it has not happened. some people say it looks like a duck and it sounds like a duck, it is still a duck. what you don't want our hold—up at the port. he said this is the easiest way he was saying this morning to the bbc he has indicated he thinks he has cabinet support for this. there have been split between liam fox, boris johnson, david davis, the minister responsible for getting us out of the european union. they have always been a bit reluctant. it looks as if he is beginning to win the argument with the help of business leaders.

is this his version of the transition deal? this is his deal. ina way transition deal? this is his deal. in a way you would not notice what has changed. the fact he has managed to win over... if he has managed to unite the entire cabinet behind his version of a brexit deal, this is a real achievement for him. liam fox is in washington and to reason me is out of the country. —— chorizo me. it looks like business leaders are feeling a bit more relieved that the least disruptive path is the one the chancellor wants to find. when it comes to negotiating post—brexit trade deals, you have mentioned things like chlorinated chicken, all of which we have highlighted in how compensated all of this will be. the

chlorinated chicken and the hgh powers, this has shown how difficult it is to do. —— cows. sometimes it is corine and sometimes something else that you do not get all the problems you can. —— chlorine. there will be some harsh truths. what i would point out is we already export 2596 would point out is we already export 25% of all about goods and services to the us. this is not the trade relationship which is broken. it does work pretty well. there will be trade off. if we want to export our beef, will we have to take their chicken? 40 years worth of relationship with the eu which has the own standards which we have been beholden to, it will be very difficult. when you say we can get a trade deal done, i am sceptical.

let's talk about amazon. it is now worth half $1 trillion. what is your reaction? everybody says their shares reaction? everybody says their s ha res we nt reaction? everybody says their shares went down to is that this is pa rt shares went down to is that this is part for the course for amazon. —— their shares went down as well. amazon has been able to say quick you just wait for your money. i will reinvest. when they have made a profit, in the first ten or 20 yea rs, profit, in the first ten or 20 years, they have sunk everything back in. now it is coming at us as a company from all sides. i expect the boss will not have to wait very long before he is the richest man in the world again. now, it hasn't been the easiest of summers for british airways. you'll probably remember the chaos at heathrow back in may when thousands of people were stranded because of a big computer failure at ba. they've also had several walkouts from cabin crew staff over pay. but this morning, the company that owns them —

iag or international airlines group — has said it made a profit of around a billion dollars in the first half of the year. the problem was caused by disconnection of power and the unauthorised and reapplication of the power which caused a power surge and damaged the physical infrastructure of the data centre. we have addressed the issue. we clearly apologise to all our customers who were disrupted. the results we have released today show the underlying performance of the airline is excellent. passenger numbers continue to grow well in excess of the capacity we are adding. the airline has strengthened its financial performance and its competitive performance. the airline

has taken a hit. we have also seen some very strong competition. there are issues we need to address. some of these have been handled well and some of them we could have handled much better. we will get better going forward. the measure of success is how it can sustain increase in competition and challenges over a long period of time. five years from now i would expect british airways to be in the top ten of airlines worldwide. we can be confident that we will be one thatis can be confident that we will be one that is performing well. that was the chief executive of iag. what other business stories has the media been taking an interest in? james is back to talk this through the business pages. this headline from the seattle times. a lot of the newspapers are covering this story that the boss of hours and briefly became the world's richest man

before slumping back down to number two. do great riches come with great responsibility? what should we be doing with these levels of wealth? ifi doing with these levels of wealth? if i were him i would use my money in scientific research to help find a cure of aids. a couple of other tweets have also suggested a similar tack. that is interesting. amongst the world of the super rich here is unique in his lack of philanthropy. i'm not sure that is necessarily true. we should acknowledge that people like mr gates has given around 30 billion, he has made a vast contribution to philanthropy. there is a history in the united states of leading players providing large sums of money. he is spending around $1 billion a year on his

rocket business. it is all very well saying he should give the money away. he would have to sell the shares. why should he want to do that when he is still building the business? if you were to say what is the real motivation ofjeff bezos, it would be to build a ghastly successful business. amazon has changed varsity over the years. it started selling books online. —— boss glee. the business is transformational. they will sell more close this year than macy's. i think he will do this he did tweak it, what should my stance be on philanthropy question i think he will do a lot more. i do not think we should criticise him for lack of progress. we will have to leave it there. that's it from business live today. we'll see you again tomorrow. still no signs of hot, summery

weather on the way. things remaining pretty unsettled. here it is, spinning out across the north—west of the uk. this feature will moving during the course of friday afternoon to bring wet and windy weather to england and wales. for we reached that point there is sunshine. there will be heavy and persistent rain. for scotland and northern ireland, the showers will continue to rattle through during the day and there will be sunshine around. some sunshine for northern england, wales, the south—west of england, wales, the south—west of england turning much wetter into the afternoon and turning windy with gales across the south—west and cloud continuing to thicken up. bar

the odd shower, it should stay largely drive. the wind will increase as well. later in the day will see the rain arriving. the rain will see the rain arriving. the rain will move through with strong winds. by will move through with strong winds. by dawn it should clear most areas. hanging back across the far south east. showers continuing for scotla nd east. showers continuing for scotland and northern ireland for that there could be some cool spots to start saturday morning. the weather front will clear from the south—east it could return not was recalls the day. scotland and northern ireland are dominated by the area of low pressure that there will be blustery showers on saturday. for england and wales some good spells of sunshine. it could really become very wet with heavy rain at times. top temperatures 18 to 22 degrees. cooler where you have the showers. into sunday, a better

looking day for southern areas. northern and western parts will continue to see frequent and heavy, maybe century, showers in between some sunshine but feeling on the cool side because of the breeze. it will feel quite cool breezy. there will feel quite cool breezy. there will be some sunshine but also showers which could be heavy and country, particularly on sunday. hello, it's friday, it's 9am. welcome to the programme. more than 80 people died in the tragedy in june. our more than 80 people died in the tragedy injune. our reporter will have the latest on the results in the next few minutes. how easy is it to buy deadly diet pills online? the pa rents of to buy deadly diet pills online? the parents of a young woman who died from taking them tell this programme they're shocked at how little is known about them and how to tell the signs of people using them. more setbacks for donald trump in his bid to scrap the healthcare laws set up

by president obama as the senate rejeths his latest plans. this latest blow comes as the president's new communications chief is forced to say sorry