this is the business briefing. i'm sally bundock. on the road to profitability. electric car maker tesla comfortably beats wall street's expectations and posts a profit in the third quarter. elon musk promises it will stay in the black. what's wrong with the indian rupee? it's been the poorest performing asian currency this year. and it looks like it could get worse. and we'll be live to our team in asia shortly to talk us through the market rout — it began on wall street and as you can see the sell off is continuing now across asia — the tech stocks like tencent are among the biggest losers. it's been quite a trip in recent months for the electric

car maker tesla, but now it has finally reported a quarterly profit long promised by its chief executive elon musk. the california—based company beat expectations and made a profit of $311.5 million in the 3 months to the end of september, as it accelerated production of its affordable model 3. this news sent shares up almost 10% in after hours trading on wall street. but shares in tesla had jumped even before the earnings release, after a notorious short—seller of tesla stock — these are investors who bet on the share price falling — said it believed the model 3 was now "destroying the competition". but the company still faces challenges. it's yet to appoint a new chairman after us regulators forced elon musk

to step down from the role for misleading investors with his tweet in august that said funding was secured to take the company private. anna—marie baisden, head of autos at bmi research joins me now. good to see you. firstly, in the black. a quarterly profit, the third time they have done this in 15 yea rs. time they have done this in 15 years. i would time they have done this in 15 years. iwould imagine time they have done this in 15 years. i would imagine many are breathing a sigh of relief. absolutely. and they have done it as a business with the cars because previously there were carbon tax credits involved. this shows that they can do. they have production and delivery issue sorted out so the model three now has some good margins. sir elon musk of missing it will stay in profit now. do we think the company can do that? now that

they have their production issues sorted out and the logistics were a big roblin, getting deliveries out to market, that seems to be smoother. one of the big questions is whether they will need extra funding to do that because it has cost them a lot of money to get to where they are now on to get to meeting these targets so that will be the next big step. so the model three is being delivered in the us and people are getting hold of them. having been on the waiting list for a long time. here in the uk we are looking at maybe next year? and in europe around that time. how about asia and china? will they start production in china, aren't they? they will build the model in china. it isa they will build the model in china. it is a huge electric vehicle market and with the us china tariffs as well but accelerated their move towards local production. so they are now looking at when they can bring that mark —— to market in china as well. elon musk has been in

a lot of hot water. we mentioned the tweet that he put out that they will ta ke tweet that he put out that they will take the company private when it turned out that he did not. they need to find a new chairman. that was one of the consequences of that tweet. the authorities saying that they need to remove him as chairman and chief executive. what is your ta ke and chief executive. what is your take on that? i think it is important that he is only stepping back from one of those roles because whether or not you like him he still driving force within the company. and his brains, they are important as well. absolutely. it is important to keep in there. that they do need somebody else in the leading role. somebody who knows the company as well, i guess you cannot nod as well as he does, that someone who does know the company. that the idea is that the chairman has to keep elon musk in check in terms of his maverick style behaviour, of not sticking to the rules. there are questions about who may be offered to ta ke questions about who may be offered to take on that position. yes. a few

names have been floated around. james murdoch was mentioned. it would be very important as to how the two got on to keep the business performing as well as it has been. lovely to see you. thank you very much for coming in. keeping an eye on tesla as always. i have tweeted as well our coverage of their result if you would like to dig more deeply into the actual numbers, take a look at that story. were to at the financial markets now. markets in asia have all opened in the red this morning after massive falls on wall street wednesday. let's go to our asia business hub. what is happening now? it has been difficult in asia. that is correct. carnage in the markets all across the audit. the uk is down over 3%, shanghai, australia, everybody is down. the issues are quite the same. we keep talking about this but the us china trade war, weaker corporate

earnings are the rising interest rates in the us as well. i think it is really the uncertainty about the us china trade war, that nobody knows exactly what will happen next. that is really starting to bother investors because in just the last week, beijing announced measures to boost confidence and it worked for about two days. shanghai composite rose but then after that we started to see a sell—off. so those issues continue to linger. i think it is also important to mention that while feeding all the red on the market boards, why it while it might make you nervous, stock markets around the world have had a good year, not merely on wall street where shares have risen quite significantly and of course president trump likes to boast about that. however here in asia as well. there is some profit—taking going on as well.“ asia as well. there is some profit-taking going on as well. y so much for now. —— thank you so much for now.

the indian rupee has been the worst performing asian currency this year — and it's causing big problems for india's economy. earlier this month the rupee touched an all—time low of 7a against the dollar, and there are concerns that it could depreciate further — which has left policy—makers in india worried. the bbc‘s sameer hashmi starts his report from new york city. it has been two months since this man moved to new york city to pursue a masters degree at columbia university. in that short time, the cost of his education has gone up sharply. he borrowed $35,000 but since he received the loan, the indian currency has lost 10% of its value, making it more expensive for him to repay the debt. he is not alone. there are thousands of stu d e nts alone. there are thousands of students from india are struggling with the impact of a weaker currency. i was planning my masters

with my finances according to the state of things at the time. other people are also feeling it in india. this factory manufactures lights that are used for eliminating streets and stadiums. they import 30% of the components required to make these products. and with the rupee weakening, the cost of components has risen substantially. companies like these start working on these products six to eight months in advance. the costing is based on the value of the currency at the time they get the order. that is why the rapid fall of the indian rupee in recent months is starting to have a severe impact on the profitability of these businesses. the rupiah has lost nearly 20% of its value against the dollar in 2018. the worst is not over yet. analysts expect the indian currency to fall further in the months to come. rising crude prices has been

the biggest reason for the steep fall. india imports 80% of its fuel and as oil prices rise, the country has to use more dollars to pay for it. that puts pressure on the rupee to fall further and if prices continue to rise, it could disrupt the pace of economic growth that india has witnessed over the past few years. now let's brief you on some other business stories. microsoft exceeded analysts' expectations in its latest quarter's revenue and profits. the software giant attributes the growth to more businesses signing up for its azure cloud computing services and office 365 software. microsoft shares up more than 21% over the past year, rose 2.5% in after—hours trading. the state of new york has taken legal action against exxonmobil, accusing the oil giant of misleading investors about the risks of climate change to its business. exxon allegedly downplayed

the potential costs of new greenhouse gas regulations, despite assuring investors it had accounted for the risks. the company has pledged to fight the allegations in court. shares of cathay pacific airways dropped more than 6% today to a nine—year low after it said data of about 9.4 million passengers had been accessed without authorisation. cathay says that in addition to 860,000 passport numbers and about 245,000 hong kong identity card numbers, the hackers accessed 403 expired credit card numbers. that is a pretty serious reach of data at cathay pacific. that is business briefing. the equality and human rights

commission has warned that britain is in danger of becoming a two—speed society that's hard to fix. its latest report to parliament on discrimination says there's been some progress, but also greater struggles for the disabled and ethnic minorites. mark easton has the details. the fight against what she called burning injustices was the prime minister's top priority when she took office. >> we will make britain a country that works not for a privileged few but for every one of us. battle will be the mission of the government i lead. and together we will build a better britain. today but a report from the e h ra better britain. today but a report fromtheehrac better britain. today but a report

from the e h r a c says the picture is still bleak for the living standards of the most at risk and forgotten groups, particularly disabled group and ethnic minorities. child poverty and infant mortality are rising and government welfare reforms are blamed for putting more vulnerable people below the poverty line. the report does recognise some improvements on education attainment, political involvement and workplace equality. but it warns of the mark backward move on but it warns of the mark backward m ove 0 n a ccess but it warns of the mark backward move on access to justice, personal security and says increasingly work is no escape from poverty. so what we are seeing for the first time since the 1990s we are seeing an increase in infant mortality. three children in this country live in poverty and that rises to half four minorities. the report says the government should reinstate the binding targets of reducing child poverty that were dropped in 2015 and calls for more flexible working to help disabled people and women into the workplace. the government

equalities office has said the government is committed to tackling burning injustices and building a country that works for everyone. for more on that story, breakfast will be at 6am with charlie stayt and naga munchetty. this is the briefing from bbc news. the latest headlines: donald trump has criticised the us media after pipe bombs were sent to prominent democrats, including barack obama and hillary clinton. asian stock markets have suffered further falls after another sharp drop on wall street. japan's nikkei index has slipped by more than 3%. a leading saudi dissident has told the bbc that people feel betrayed after the country acknowledged involvement in the death of jamal khashoggi. let's look at some stories that are making the headlines

in the media across the world. we begin with newyorktimes.com. it reports that pipe bombs have been sent to several prominent democrats, including former president barack obama and former secretary of state hillary clinton — setting off an intense investigation. the metro here in the uk leads with theresa may's address to backbenchers. she gave what's described as an "emotional" bid to win back support for her brexit plan. the front page of arab news looks at crown prince mohammed bin salman saying that the middle east can be the new europe and he vowed to see ther region thrive economically. the front page of the ft online is looking at the news that us stocks fell sharply in late trading on wednesday, wiping out the last of this year's gains on swelling concerns about a slowdown in the global economy.

and finally, bbc news online, with many others out there, has the story about a uk police force's search for a ross geller "lookalike" thief. the friends actor david schwimmer responded with a video of himself carrying beer in new york with the caption: "officers, i swear it wasn't me." the very alike, it has to be said. bat they do look very alike. with me isjoseph sternberg, a columnist at the wall street journal. let's get stuck in. we'll start with the new york times in its coverage of what is happening with regards to those pipe bombs, et cetera. it talks about the intense search for who is behind this but at the same time, how this brings to the fore this issue of the lack of stability and politics in the us. right.