this is business live from bbc news, with susannah streeter and samantha simmonds. more record highs for the us stock markets, but are they a sign of what's to come in the year ahead for the world's biggest economy? live from london, that's our top story on friday 5th january. wall street was boosted by more positivejob news, so can president trump keep the party going, and will america's lowest paid finally start to feel the benefit? also in the programme... the lure of the long—term. china says it will offer highly skilled foreign workers 10 year visas as it tries to light up economic growth this is the situation on the financial markets in europe following from record highs on wall street yet again. and as apple reveals iphones and macbooks are also affected

by the computer chips flaws, we'll be getting the inside track on that and all the big stories of the week with our economics editor kamal ahmed. today we want to know... just use the hashtag #bbcbizlive. hello and welcome to business live. we start in new york, where the temperatures may be sub—zero but the financial markets are hotter than ever. us shares hit new record highs yet again on thursday, the dow jones industrial average closing above 25,000 points for the first time. it's all being driven by wall street optimism about the state of the world's biggest economy and, despite all the controversy in the white house, the pro—growth policies of president trump.

on thursday, a report showed the us private sector created 250,000 newjobs in december — a third more than was expected. that could bode well for official us jobs numbers out later today. earlier this week, the federal reserve revealed it has boosted its growth forecast for the us economy this year to 2.5% — keeping up the pace seen in 2017. those fed minutes also showed this was at least partly down to the $1.5 trillion worth of tax cuts president trump signed into lawjust before christmas. and these graphs speak for themselves — us shares setting record after record since the president was inaugurated a year ago. despite all of this, millions of working americans have yet to feel the benefit, with average earnings stagnant for the past decade. ethan ilzetzki is a lecturer in economics at the london school of economics. thanks for being with us. these

record figures from the dowjones, but a muted response because people we re but a muted response because people were expecting it but the predictions are it will carry on going. what is your assessment of what is driving it, is it the growth in thejobs market? what is driving it, is it the growth in the jobs market? yes, i think there are the trump tax cuts which have been boosting the stock market for a while but also there seems to bea for a while but also there seems to be a global rise in stock prices, possibly still because of the loose monetary on a scissor of the last few years. it is interesting, isn't it, we had that reassessment of us growth for 2018 but the outgoing chairman of the fed, janet yellen, has said, actually, we have to temper so what the optimism surrounding growth for the us economy, she doesn't think that necessarily those tax cuts planned world really boost the us economy to the extent that has been forecast? absolutely, i think that is quite true. the fact that we are seeing only forecasts of 2.5% growth, which

is quite moderate, on the back of these very ambitious tax plans is actually a little disappointing and the performance of the us economy has been quite disappointing over the past few years. it shows that really the expectations of the market and the federal reserve are that the tax cuts will have very moderate effects on us economy so we are dealing with far deeper structural problems in the economy. which sectors are doing well, and which are struggling? the high-tech sector, the silicon valley sector, continues to take the lead in the us economy, but there is quite a polarised economy in terms of the job market, where these high education high—tech sectors are performing, workers in those sectors are performing very well but the working class is still seeing wages at the same levels as they were in

the 1980s, so not seeing a pay rise in real terms for a generation. supporters of the tax plan would say, because taxes are being cut for big corporations, it means they can put more money into investments and potentially create more jobs. what is your take on this trickle—down theory? i don't think really there is any sign that this is going to have that desired effect, and really the tax plan was not engineered in a way that it would incentivise specifically hiring or wage increases so it is equally likely that the dividends from this tax cut will go to investors and not to workers in the economy. interesting as well, the number of people invested in the stock market, those small investors, isn't as great as it used to be, is it? people seem to have stepped away, so even though we are seeing record gains commit it is only benefiting a few? it is the

same polarisation we see in other effects, so if you have a good job, you have a good pension plan which is invested in the stock market so you are seeking gains, but if you are living pay cheque to pay cheque without a good pension plan, you are neither seeing wage rises all the benefits of the increase in stock prices. even, thank you for your analysis, thank you for coming in. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news... the tech giant apple has said that all iphones, ipads and mac computers are affected by two major flaws in computer chips. it emerged this week that the world's leading computer chip makers intel, arm and amd are all racing to fix bugs with the chips that power most of the world's computers and smartphones. the meltdown and spectre problems could allow hackers to steal data. saudi arabia has taken a major step towards selling off a chunk of its state—owned oil company. saudi aramco is now a joint—stock company, something that is required of saudi companies before lisiting their shares.

there has been speculation the plan may be abandoned. the firm is likely to be valued at about $2 trillion when 5% is sold in the biggest share—listing in history. music streaming service spotify says it now has 70 million paying subscribers. the announcement comes a day after reports that the company plans to list on the new york stock exchange. the firm says it has another 70 million people using its free advertising backed service. a uk parliamentary committee is calling for an extra charge to be made on disposable coffee cups. the mps are concerned about the damage they to do the environment and says a 25p "latte levy" could be used to improvements to recycling facilities. they also say that if the 2.5 billion cups thrown away each year can't be recycled by 2023 they should be banned. china has big ambitions when it comes to growing its economy, and is poising itself to take over from the us as the world's biggest.

but it thinks recruiting top talent from abroad is key and now says it will offer long—term visas to try and lure those highly skilled workers. 0ur correspondent robin brant is in shanghai. tell us more about this scheme? well, the battle for talent across the globe is what this is about. china is changing the terms, two yea rs china is changing the terms, two years ago now it announced that visas will be granted the twenty20 and five years to these highly skilled individuals, that is not possibly going up to ten years, there will be no fee, they can bring their children and family with them as well, perhaps spend up to 180 days working in this country, which sounds very different to the visa process that i go through. this is about getting top talent in key industries and for china, as it looks to expand and changed its

economy, it means things like avionics, and electronic vehicles, and robotics. i think the critics, and there will be some, will look at what, on the face of it, looks like a win—win, all very good in terms of attracting talent in a global market but when it comes to big companies that continue to want to get into china, particularly american firms, they still face tough hurdles, they are required to havejoint still face tough hurdles, they are required to have joint interest here, and there are massive subsidies for state owned companies as well. 0k, robin, thanks very much for that update. let's check in with the financial markets now. asian shares followed on from that record close on wall street. the nikkei closing at a 26—year high. share prices also up in australia, all 0rdinaries index, the hang seng hanging onto positive territory as well. the latest boost for wall street came from a jobs survey which indicated that us private

sector employers had added 250,000 jobs last month — the biggest monthly increase since march and well above economists‘ expectations of a rise of 190,000. all eyes now on official government jobs figures out later today. here in europe, here's the situation since the markets have opened — stocks tracking those rises in asia and the us. we will have to see what happens later today. let's get more details about what is ahead on wall street later as well. apart from thejobs later as well. apart from the jobs numbers, investors will have more economic indicators to look out for. the commerce department will release data for factory orders and those are expected to have risen by 1.1% in november. a month earlier, they had declined, so an increase would be good news. what is not likely to be good news. what is not likely to be that great, though, trade numbers. the us' trade deficit with

foreign countries is expected to have widened to $19.5 billion, about $800 million more than october. balancing the gap has been a big focus for the trump administration. among major corporate reporting earnings is constellation brands, the maker of corona beer, and their profits are likely to have fallen. why? people are not buying as much beer, because it has been so cold. no, i don't really fancy drinking beer when it is cold. i like a latter—day, but whether it is ta keaway latter—day, but whether it is takeaway or not, we will have to chat about that in a moment. joining us is mike amey, managing director and portfolio manager at pimco. do you like a latte in the morning, did you go for recycled cups? iam more did you go for recycled cups? i am more of an americana than a latter—day fan. i am more of an americana than a latter-day fan. i think they are all the same, they come in the same cups! it is the amount of caffeine, if i'm honest, the caffeine to milk ratio! the markets have certainly been very hot, haven't they, and it

has been fuelled by all of this optimism about trump's tax plans? that is right, there are a couple of things going on, the expectation the us economy will improve further, as you were talking about earlier, and the stock market is all about corporate profits and if you cut corporation tax then it has a powerful impact on earnings so what you are seeing now is the knock—on effect of the tax agreement at the end of last year and you get this big boost in the stock market in the early pa rt big boost in the stock market in the early part of the year. we don't wa nt to early part of the year. we don't want to put a damper on the celebrations but let's talk about global debt, which is your business, because that is at a record high, $233 trillion. what is going on? there are a couple of things to say, one is that the reason that stocks are doing well is because interest rates are low and because interest rates are low and because interest rates are low it makes it cheap for companies and some countries to borrow money. so debt levels are still going up and that is something which all central bankers are aware

of so even if rates start to go up, they go up quite slowly, and the other thing is that the amount of debt gumming up has been giving up slower than our ability to pay, which is gdp, so it is not all bad news but there is an important point that there is still a lot of debt out there and if interest rates start to rise rapidly it could create problems for the economy long time. as far as the bond market is concerned, there is an early warning system for recession, the yield curve, a flattening in the yield curve, a flattening in the yield curve, tell me more about what that shows and what potential there could be for a downturn? we are a cheerful bunch in the bond market! what the bond market looks that is expectations for what the market will do over the next years so what we see now in the bond market is that markets are expecting interest rates to go up but once they have gone up, they would go up that much, and that will slow down the economy, and that will slow down the economy, and the reason for that is if

short—term rates do go up, it makes it more expensive for banks to borrow money off you and i will put oui’ borrow money off you and i will put our deposits in, which makes them less enthusiastic to lend money out, so the markets give an early warning signal, in truth it is probably one 01’ signal, in truth it is probably one or two years down the tracks, but it is out there. briefly, retailers particularly that we should watch with grubbing debt piles? yes, retails as one of the other early warning systems because consumers are the first the pinch and you can see that in the numbers coming up so we tell is definitely one to look out for. mike, good to see you, thank you. still to come... kamal ahmed will be here to give us his take on the big stories of the week. you're with business live from bbc news. figures out from the society of motor manufacturers and traders show that in 2017 car sales fell by 5.6% to 2.54m vehicles. it's the first annual

fall in new car sales in the uk for six years. let's talk to mike hawes from the smmt about what's happening. mike, what do you put these figures down to? it's a combination of factors. 0bviously down to? it's a combination of factors. obviously the slower growth in the economy means that consumer confidence is suffering, especially when it comes to big ticket items and office leave the car is the second biggest ticket item you will purchase. 0bviously second biggest ticket item you will purchase. obviously there has also been confusion around diesel and what the government policy will be on that. the decrease of the value in sterling has made the cost of imports more expensive and a significant number of cars sold in the uk are imported. it is diesel where we have seen a significant drop in sales. our people switching to petrol and electric vehicles

instead or do you think they are simply holding off from purchasing at all? there is a small amount of switching. hybrid and electrics are undoubtedly growing but it's a very small base. last year we sold 2.5 million vehicles, only 32,500 were battery vehicles. its growing but it needs to grow much faster. there is some shift from diesel into petrol but most diesel owners are sitting on their hands and waiting to see what the chancellor is going to do, what the chancellor is going to do, what the chancellor is going to do, what the potential changes may be in terms of taxation and access to cities. there is much more clarity now and it generally means new cars are exempt from those restrictions that may come into cities and we hope that gives back confidence to diesel owners. mike, thank you. also, some of the reason why there has been worries about things with ca rs has been worries about things with cars is diesel taxes in cities. absolutely. we need to buy a new car

and we are absolutely factoring out into the equation. 0n the business live website, we also have news of this latte levied. would you pay 25p for your coffee cup? that's a proposal put forward bya cup? that's a proposal put forward by a committee of mps. please let us know your thoughts. you're watching business live — our top story... us shares hit new record highs yet again on thursday. the dowjones industrial average closed around 35,000 points for the first time. it was boosted by more good jobs but the official figures for december are out later today. a quick look at how markets are faring... those key figures are a rout due in

the us later divided whether the private survey was correct. we will have to see what happens from the rest of the day, will that climb continue? and now let's get the inside track on the big economy stories of a week which has seen more record highs for the world's top stock markets and more signs of the great synchronisation of global economic growth. also problems with apple because all of their devices were affected by the meltdown and spectre glitches. kamal ahmed is here to discuss this with us. what have the company, apple, had to say? overnight, appell hasjoined apple, had to say? overnight, appell has joined other companies saying they could be —— apple hasjoined other companies saying they could be affected by the glitches that... i

did mine this morning after reading about it on our website. i think the issue here is interesting and twofold. firstly, transparency. google first notified intel about the potential for an issue google first notified intel about the potentialfor an issue with google first notified intel about the potential for an issue with the bugs in their chips lastjune. there isa bugs in their chips lastjune. there is a notion that how quickly should we have known as consumers? but the problem is if you let consumers know, you let to be hackers know as well? exactly, there is a trade-off between consumer confidence in the devices they have and that. it is also to do with the chips that drive them. as they become more complicated, how do you cover up any security flaws becomes more and more difficult. that becomes difficult.

as we... the only way to absolutely cover yourself against any security risk is to update your toll it system, so to break down and closed out what you have had to completely update, which is of far too expensive. this is the new world we live in where you balance a security risk with speed. that has really difficult implications, doesn't it, for companies around the world? doing that is very expensive, isn't it? that's the big point. we are in a situation now where many people are looking at their hardware and thinking, do i need to update the whole system? are these patches and updates sufficient? and the hackers themselves are looking, what are the bin abilities? how can we get in here, cause damage and hold companies to ransom? now, germany seem to have done the opposite to what is expected and their debt club

is going backwards? although debt is at record levels, be more positive story for 2018 is that the ratio of debt to economic growth is actually falling out, so as growth increases, our debt becomes more under control. as you say, germany has now turned back the clock on debt and it is falling in gross terms, notjust in terms of its ratio with gdp. is this to do with the two speed eurozone economy? possibly, although eurozone growth was much stronger lasted than predicted, it stronger this year, but also this morning german retail sales for november, just announced, very, very strong. although we are concerned about the pinch consumers because of the slight increase in inflation, no evidence yet that consumers are putting away their wallets are consumers are putting away their wallets a re not consumers are putting away their wallets are not spending. german retail very strong. manufacturing across the red zone, very strong.

this is a reasonable stock market growth. the great synchronisation, global growth in all the major centres since the financial meltdown. that is the boost to stock markets around the world. thank you. it is friday, so let's get the latest in our million—dollar idea series. aaron has or has has been looking at how bubble wrap became the world's most popular rap. there is no mistaking that sound. it's bubble wrap. it protects fragile things in transit. but how did it start off? as wallpaper. these two engineers in newjersey were designing a new groovy type of

wallpaper filled with air bubbles. it didn't sell that well. but then one of them had an idea on a flight. he imagined the clouds were cushioning the plane as it was descending, so could his bubbly wallpaper also cushion things? the inventors changed the product to bubble wrap and they got their first customer, ibm, he used it to wrap up computers. nowadays, bubble wrap and its makers, sealed air, more than $700 million a year and it has its spin off uses. some people pop to relax. 0thers put it in their doorways as a burglar alarm. hey, get out of here! there's even an annual bubble wrap appreciation day. it's the last monday of january when people get together and pop to their hearts content. i'm going tojoin them! i don't know about you, but my

three—year—old was more interested in the bubble wrap and she was about her presence. of course! who doesn't like doing that? we have been asking you about whether you think they should be a levy on takeaway coffee cups. april seven, how about addressing those making big cups? and you can also have your own cup rinsed and have a discount if you take it with you. let's bring in mike to talk about the day ‘s business stories. let's bring in mike to talk about the day 's business stories. what you make of this? i think it's a goodidea you make of this? i think it's a good idea actually. 2.5 billion cups is staggering. something has to be done about it and you have to start somewhere. you have to start the discussion somewhere. paul says this is nonsense. this is not difficult to resolve with a bit of design innovation. why does everything have to be taxed? i guess it's to do with the plastic in the interior, which

is needed to stop leakage. i suppose the other parallel here is plastic bags. when you look at plastic bags, when the levy was placed on those in 2015, the annual fall was 85%. yes, i refuse to pay for a carrier bag. you feel guilty now if you use a carrier bag. i have my trusty flask on every train. now this story, waitrose ban the sale of energy drinks to under 16. there waitrose ban the sale of energy drinks to under16. there is waitrose ban the sale of energy drinks to under 16. there is already a health warning on high caffeine and high—energy drinks for teenagers and high—energy drinks for teenagers and younger adults. even as an adult we know the effect it has on you. and younger adults. even as an adult we know the effect it has on youlj we know the effect it has on you.|j think we know the effect it has on you.” think the issue is there is a greater consumption amongst the younger generation than the older generation. schools have been warning about that. thank you very much, mike, for coming to discuss all of that. thank you for being with us business life today goodbye. hello there. it's turning much

colder boros all this weekend with a return to overnight frost but for many of us we should see some crisp winter sunshine. today is a messy picture across england and wales, with an area of low pressure bringing showers, some of them heavy, but also some sunshine. fairly strong winds across the south as well. across the north of the uk, we have an area of rain and hill snow. behind that, turning colder, with strong north—easterly winds feeding wintry showers in. that band of rain and hill snow slowly creeping its way southwards. for northern ireland after a cold start, we should see some sunshine around. england and wales, we will see most of the range across western areas and wales. very blustery across the south for a while. that is strengthening north—easterly winds begin to dig into the north, feeding

in more wintry showers and pushing in that band of cloud and hill snow further south. it will be a cold one in the north overnight, less so in the south. this big area of high pressure doubles in across the north of the uk, introducing that arctic airand they of the uk, introducing that arctic air and they strengthening north—easterly winds. it will be a pretty cold start to the north. that band of cloud and rain will continue to sink its way southwards. becoming confined to the south of the country by the end of the day with sunshine moving southward. a bright day for scotland, northern ireland and the far north of england. very cold here, even cold further south as well. during the course of saturday night, we eventually lose that cloud and outbreaks of rain across the south, skies cleared foremost and it will be a very cold night. a hard, widespread frost with temperatures in the cities further south close to freezing. big area of high pressure

sitting on top of us will some day, meaning for most of us the winds will be light, still quite fresh with a bit of cloud around, but elsewhere after that very cold start, there should be plenty of sunny spells around. one to five or 6 degrees at best. monday, a bit of cloud around and a bit of sunshine across the south this is bbc news. i'm annita mcveigh. the headlines at 9am... growing criticism of the parole board's decision to release serial sex attacker john worboys, who's thought to have assaulted more than 100 women. one of my clients who is absolutely horrified and really, really distressed that nobody had the courtesy to inform her, so she's in the middle of cooking tea for her kids and she heard this on the radio. sales of new cars fall for the first time in six years, amid a drop in demand for diesels. a book containing damaging allegations about the trump

presidency is released earlier than planned, after white house lawyers tried to stop its publication. tech giant apple says that the recently discovered flaws in some computer processor chips affect all iphones, ipads