this is business live from bbc news with susannah streeter and sally bundock. in a blow to president trump, democrats capture the house of representatives in the us mid—terms. mr trump's republicans lose the house, but strengthen their grip on the senate — as voters focus on healthcare and immigration. so we'll be asking, will any of this have an impact on donald trump's trade war with china? we will be getting a reaction right around the world. also... we will be getting reaction right around the world. we'll be hearing from president trump's former chief economic advisor, who says the ongoing trade war with china will simply result in unwanted taxes on american consumers. and the us mid—terms delivered many firsts for women — how important is diversity in both politics and business? tell us your view.

just use the hashtag bbcbizlive. hello, and welcome to business live. americans have been to the polls in a fiercely contested midterm elections, and the democrats have taken the house of representatives — which could act as a brake on president trump's ability to carry out his agenda. the health of the economy has been one of the major issues in the campaign. so just how has it been performing? well, from july to september it grew at an annualised rate of 3.5% — faster than had been expected — and helped along by strong consumer spending. meanwhile, unemployment is at 3.7% — the lowest in almost half a century. last month more than 250,000 jobs were created. all of this well have had a factor

in voting behaviour but health care and emigration were also important. megan greene, global chief economist at manulife asset management is with me now. what does this mean for the economy? means there will be a lot of greg clark, hard to find bipartisan support, and a market like that so it could be hard to divine equity agreements —— it means there will be agreements —— it means there will be a lot of gridlock. i think importantly we might get an infrastructure spending bill. it will not be the trillion dollar trip ynysddu one donald trump pop lima promised during his campaigns, something smaller —— it will not be the trillion dollar one that donald trump promised during his election campaign. as you say, gridlock to a

great degree, and also it doesn't mean the democrats can rollback anything he has put in place already? yes, the tax bill has already? yes, the tax bill has already happened. it will stay, the democrats control that back. a lot of people asked if we will get something different on trade. this is traditionally a democrat, not republican policy, so i don't think we can expect much change on trade. when it comes to the workforce and economy, and economy, and we talk about immigration being a big hot topic, and we have seen more diversity in terms of those wanting seats in the house of representatives, which many argue is a big thing —— good thing, what does this mean for employment going forward ? this mean for employment going forward? historic lows, this mean for employment going forward ? historic lows, but emigration has been a real issue. there has been a skills shortage and a bunch of factors likely still not seeing significant wage growth in the usa, which is weird, not usually how it works. with a tight labour

market normally you do get that. the president has power over two things, trade and emigration. i will point out a lot of democrats who seats in the house won from conservatives in those kind of areas, and they will wa nt to those kind of areas, and they will want to hold onto their seats in 2020 so i wouldn't expect much change on emigration either. you talk about drug prices, the differences between republicans and democrats, because health care was a top issue in this election? it was in the economy or even emigration. it was health care. that's right, a lwa ys it was health care. that's right, always a hot button issue in the us, health care, and you had 0bamacare versus the american health care act undertrump, and versus the american health care act under trump, and i think now there isa under trump, and i think now there is a bit more certainty 0bamacare is here to stay, at least for two more yea rs here to stay, at least for two more years so at least we can trade on that. but in terms of drug pricing,

it is too high in the us. as an american who is also a uk citizen i know our drug prices are a lot higher and i think both parties will agree on something that will have implications for health care companies. and big pharmaceuticals as well. thank you, megan. we will talk more details about trade, but also the diversity in the two houses. absolutely. rickard numbers of women standing, well, currently sitting, in congress. —— record numbers. we will feed that once those stuck to come in. we have some already. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news. the money—laundering scandal at denmarks' danske bank has claimed another scalp. the chairman 0le andersen is being forced to step down after pressure from the bank's biggest shareholder. the chief executive resigned earlier in the year over payments totalling $230 billion made through the bank's estonian branch. hsbc says some of its us customers' bank accounts were hacked in october. the bank is warning the hackers may have accessed information including account numbers and balances —

as well as users' names, addresses and dates of birth. the bbc understands about i% of the bank's us customers were affected. small—to—medium manufacturers in the uk say they expect output to drop for the first time in seven years during the next three months. they're blaming a slowdown in the number of orders, in the run up to brexit, according to a report by the confederation of british industry. the study also found that smaller companies were reining in their investment plans. britain is due to leave the eu in less than five months. investors across asia were watching those results from the us mid—term elections as they were coming through with great interest. absolutely. china has been the biggest target of donal trump's efforts to reform us trade, but other countries in the region have been feeling the impact too. joining us now from singapore is our asia business correspondent karishma vaswani. karishma, what kind of reaction have

we seen? well, we've seen a slightly muted reaction. some asian markets falling on the back of that result from the united states, but i think many investors in this part of the world a re many investors in this part of the world are still die jesting, to many investors in this part of the world are still diejesting, to be honest, what this means for them, and in particular what it means for president trump's america first policy —— still die —— digesting. many asian investors have said to me more than the midterms it is how he tackles the us trade war going forward that matters more to them than anything else, and whether these mid—term results will actually change the narrative ought on coming out of washington regarding the us and china trade war. i think the big theme for these countries since president trump took office has basically been observing an america that has renegotiated or an is

trying to renegotiate its relationship with this part of the world. he pulled out of the us—led ttp, the tra ns—pacific world. he pulled out of the us—led ttp, the trans—pacific partnership, and also taken the view that bilateral gales are the way to go in asia, not multilateral. in the trade war itself has really changed economic dynamics of this region over the last 18 months or so since he has been in office —— bilateral deals. and in particular since we have started seeing those tariffs come into effect, because so many of asia's economies are tied to china especially in terms of products supplied to the mainland and the fa ct supplied to the mainland and the fact that they will now the tariffs slapped on them when they go into the usa. this is a trade war that only looks like it will continue. whether or not these mid—term results change any of that in force president trump to back down, we're not seeing any signs of that just yet. it remains to be seen. thank you very much, karishma. later in the programme we've have a special interview karishma has done with gary cohn — a former chief economic advisor to president trump.

so let's take a quick look at how financial markets around the world have reacted to the results coming in. as karishma mentioned, a bit of a muted reaction in asia. shares lost a bit of steam after democrats won control of the us house of representatives, the nikkei turned lower — but the hang seng and australia's all ordinaries have clung on into the green. in europe, we can't assure you that at the moment but, yes, as you can tell, a strong opening so far in europe. the ftse 100 tell, a strong opening so far in europe. the ftse100 up by nearly 196, europe. the ftse100 up by nearly 1%, despite some pretty disappointing retail numbers this morning. for more on this we will pass you back to sally. thank you. joining us us now is russ mould from aj bell. you have been sulking all this up. give us your thoughts? you haven't seena give us your thoughts? you haven't seen a blue red wave, so nothing

terribly shocking either way and i think it is one less thing for markets to worry about so now they can go back to focusing on the real stuff, the fed, china and trade, those other big issues, particularly the drilling, cutting quantitive easing, raising rates, and their balance sheet has gone down by 7% and so has the us market. something you noted late last night. i don't know how small this is, but a large company in the us with a profits warning in the housing sector? company in the us with a profits warning in the housing sector7m company in the us with a profits warning in the housing sector? it is something you're always looking for, all talking about how fantastic the us economy is but at the same day we have a president who says the fed is going crazy because it is tightening policy to quickly, so that is interesting. think about the sector of mortgages, housing. you had that profit warning. i? expectations too optimistic, maybe, but us mortgage affordability is at a 10—year low nearly —— affordability is at a 10—year low nearly — — why?

affordability is at a 10—year low nearly —— why? every time they go a quarter of a nearly —— why? every time they go a quarterofa point,... nearly —— why? every time they go a quarter of a point,... so they are getting a little bit. but compared to before. yes, 3596 before the financial crisis so we are nowhere nearly but it record high house prices, you don't need that. one thing to be remain for consumers, and companies. the dollar is going up, their interest bills and wages are going so there are some pressures building at the time when markets are still at a record high and analysts were expecting all—time re cord and analysts were expecting all—time record high earnings to keep going higher despite all the headwinds. elections are the way, now let's get down to the real stuff, cash flow and profits. —— are out of the way. bricks and mortar retailers, we heard figures there today showing that yet again? marks & spencer results, shares down this morning. the slight positive, clothing and home, a fifth of their sales coming

from online. starting to get the online business right, but food was down nearly 3% at marks & spencer is, very unusual, clothing and home town 1%. still very tough for the high street bellwether, but their marketing spend is down, they are cutting costs and capital investment deeper than expected, so that is also perhaps feeding into a slightly slower economy, companies retrenching. quickly, wetherspoon, tim martin, the boss of that company, very strong brexiteer, and he says looking forward things could be tougherfor he says looking forward things could be tougher for him? yes, passionate brexiteer, and talks about european products he has to replace like courvoisier, but seeing the national living wage and the minimum wage is going up, they are paying that happily and are not cutting customers to —— not putting up their prices for customers to compensate. so short—term losses for them.

prices for customers to compensate. so short-term losses for them. thank you for speaking to us on business live. still to come... we'll be hearing from president trump's former chief economic advisor, who says the ongoing trade war with china will simply result in unwanted taxes on american consumers. you're with business live from bbc news. eurostar has released its latest financial results today. the train operator has seen a rise in passenger numbers and boost to sales, helped by the introduction of its amsterdam service this year. here to tell us more is eurostar‘s chief executive mike cooper. hello, thanks for coming onto business live. to what extent is this due to the new service you have launched, because you have others in the pipeline? good morning. we have

had a strong summer period, because the combination of two things, firstly the underlying popularity of eurostar, consumers enjoying the convenient city centre to city centre product we offer, and i think the travel exceeds is much preferred, consumers tell us, from the airport and the aeroplane, but as you rightly say the launch of amsterdam has been great for us. 0ver amsterdam has been great for us. over 130,000 passengers now amsterdam has been great for us. 0ver130,000 passengers now since our launch back in april. three hours 41 minutes from london to amsterdam and i think customers are saying it is right now there is an alternative to the plane between two great cities. a significant rise in business customers as well and the ryder cup i imagine also helped, in paris in september. how are you preparing, though, for the future? in particular, i'm in brexit. good levels of engagement and constructive conversations with all releva nt constructive conversations with all relevant governments, and the commission. we are confident we will have a position in place we we can

maintain our timetable and services, march the 20 tenth —— where we can maintain. also, in the event of an ordeal —— 29th. we are seeing —— in the event of eight no deal we are seeing bilateral agreements between countries. there is a real political will to make this a reality, maintaining services. what about on the ease of movement of people if there is an ordeal, just the time it would take for customers to check m, would take for customers to check in, that kind of thing? we are getting strong reassurances from the different governments now and i think the commission will fall in line. we think there will be a solution both in terms of cross—border travel and some of the customs issues, as you rightly say. it will be maintained as a smooth and co mforta ble be maintained as a smooth and comfortable process. mike cooper, thank you for your time, chief executive of eurostar discussing their latest results. more details on the business live page, including the story about itv being cautious about the future advertising market. your‘re watching business live —

our top story: the us democrats have taken control of the house of representatives in the mid—term elections, dealing a blow to president donald trump. while the republicans have lost the house, they have strengthen their grip on the senate — as voters focus on health care and immigration. a quick look at how the markets are faring... europe, as you can see, quite a strong opening ftse100, and the others, all in positive territory is. in asia a bit more of a muted reaction to those us election results coming in. as we have mentioned... gary cohn is president trump's former assistant for economic policy and the former director of the national economic council. 0ur asia business correspondent karishma vaswani met him in singarpore where he talked about the us economy and the trade war with china. let's have a listen into that

conversation. we've a very strong economy in the united states, and people tend to vote economically. tended to vote with their pocket books, they tend to vote whether they're poor, whether their wages are going up, and how they feel about the economy. so i think there's a bit of a conundrum here — do we want to keep changing or do we want to keep investing in the economic growth we have seen in the first two years? you left the white house because you didn't agree withmany of president trump's policies. now we're in a trade war in china. is that something you agree with? the president and i completely agree on economic growth and prosperity. we completely agree we need to lower the us tax rate to be competitive with the rest of the world. in his first year he was able to lower it down to 21% and we are now competitive with the rest of the world. in those terms, the president andi world. in those terms, the president and i economically agree on everything. but not the trade war? trade is very important to the

united states. we are not a manufacturing economy, so the way i look at the us economy, if us citizens can buy products cheaply they have more money to spend on goods, and once they buy their goods they can take the additional money they can take the additional money they have and save it. and we do need a higher savings rates in the united states. i look at tariffs as a bit of a consumption tax. we do not want to tax our consumers when they will spend their disposable income on what we produce which services. you have spent a lot of time with president trump. yes. what is your sense of how he is handling this trade war? the president and i agree that china have to open their markets to companies throughout the world, not just markets to companies throughout the world, notjust us companies but global companies deserve should have access to china. they should be able to do business in china as chinese companies can come to most parts of the world and do business in their markets. the united states, we are inventors, we invent intellectual

property, we invented technology. we create things, we need to get paid for what we create. we can't have other countries steal our number one asset which is what we create. while we buy their asset which is what they produce and send to us. the president and i com pletely to us. the president and i completely agree on the end objective. we may have different paths on how to get there but we do agree on the objective. how do you think he has done so far with negotiating with the chinese? look, the president has the style, his tactics. people have questioned him all the way through. the president is moving forward on trade, he is moving forward on protecting companies, protecting us jobs. companies, protecting usjobs. he understands that is what he ultimately has to do. that was gary cohn, the former economic adviser to president trump. megan greene is back with us now. you were listening to that. what did you make of what he had to say about the white house, the trump administration's trade policy?|j think administration's trade policy?” think he is absolutely right, it is

not really about tariffs, they are a bit of a sideshow. it is more about things like intellectual property, and at the centre of all this is who will be the world leader in things like machine learning, quantum computing, and both the us and china wa nt computing, and both the us and china want that title. in artificial intelligence. it was incorporated into china's medium to long—term growth strategy and i don't know why they would be incentivised to back down on that or why the usa would be either. given the us is demanding it, i'm not sure what china can do and offer to the us to show it is scrapping its entire industrial policy. let's just scrapping its entire industrial policy. let'sjust make it clear. to what extent have these midterm results impacted, if at all, what might happen next in this trade war between the us and china? when it comes to decisions about tariffs, that kind of thing, he doesn't have to get approval from congress? no, congress has delegated that power to the president so as long as that is not reversed he has as much power now as he did before the mid—term elections. this should not take much

ofa elections. this should not take much of a difference on trade at all u nless of a difference on trade at all unless the democrats decide to try to withdraw that delegation, but i doubt that will happen. but it is interesting how the tariffs really are splitting states. for example, in indiana they have a very strong steel and history but also a very strong soya bean industry but it is joe donnelly democrat incumbent who has lost his seat and it shows how difficult these issues are because they do split state economies as well? things like trade and tariffs, the policies the us is pursuing, they don't make a lot of straight economic sense but they make a lot of political sense, so i think when people are trying to figure out how it impacts them, it takes a while for them to work that out because they are hearing all these very clear, simple political messages which don't spell it out. we see this all around the world, and latin america, how popular iss operate. it is too bad we are reinventing the wheel. when we talk about argentina, president trump will be meeting their advent summit at the end of

this month, and there is a hope they may have some sort of talks about trade —— meeting there at the summit. i think they went starts in talks, the chinese might agree to buy more of our stuff, which they have already done incidentally. like isaid, the have already done incidentally. like i said, the us is looking for china to scrap its industrial policy and thatis to scrap its industrial policy and that is a medium to long—term thing, like turning a tanker. it's hard to guess what china can offer an sign ona guess what china can offer an sign on a piece of paper to show they are doing that now in the short—term. i think trade will probably get worse before it gets worst. who has been hit hardest in the meantime? china or usa? the stock market performance suggests china. yes, but looking at economic indicators you are starting to see that come through in us data now were in others are soaring, not what you would expect given the tariffs. there is a question of who can last longer and china starting out from a much weaker position, started flowing at the end of last

year, whereas the us economy is growing really strongly, but that being said china has a lot more tools to use because it is a much more centrally planned economy. how can china show it is actually doing what the us says in terms of intellectual property? what can it do to say, we are not doing this any more, we are respecting this? firstly, they have to admit there is a problem. the chinese government is insistent that chinese are not stealing ip from western companies, so they would have to admit it, the beginning, but then they would have to show they are cracking down on it. now let's talk about the women who are going to be in the us congress for the very first time, two muslim women. congratulations to them, and also we have the new york democrat, the 29—year—old. them, and also we have the new york democrat, the 29-year-old. two 29—year—olds! democrat, the 29-year-old. two 29-year-olds! whiten it, quite a result for women. give your take on that. -- quite a night, quite a

result. a really high turnout for female voters. i think it is positive no matter what your political leanings, just because the more prospectives you have the better your policy making, i think. thoughtful disagreement, something... it is quite interesting to have that result, given in the presidential race it was a woman versus a man, and i know hillary clinton and donald trump are two very strong personalities, but the whole hashtag me too movement, the era of the woman, there is momentum? i think that is right and we would like to think so but hillary clinton wasn't just a woman, like to think so but hillary clinton wasn'tjust a woman, many other things about her, and donald trump not just a things about her, and donald trump notjust a man, so we shouldn't boil down to that. i wasn't doing that, just demonstrated the point. 0n the programme we asked just how important diversity is, and david says "what is important is the person most capable of doing the job is given thejob," person most capable of doing the job is given the job," "regardless of

gender, race or creed." allen says it also means the parties in washington will be a little bit different, which is a positive, so thatis different, which is a positive, so that is good. thank you —— alan says. thank you, megan greene. thanks for watching. bye—bye. hello. a soggy morning for much of the uk. rather miserable. showers may follow in the afternoon. mild at least, but a fairly stiff southerly breeze blowing, but at least it is billing in this milder air, as i say keeping the jelly weather to the west. but with this we have this amalgamation of weather fronts across the united kingdom —— keeping the chilly weather to the west. weather fronts meandering around this area of low pressure, fairly slow moving. the rains continuing

through into the afternoon, particularly across northern ireland, western scotland, bands of showers along with spells of rain moving east, and they will be fairly heavy and there could be some thunder in there, but given the wind direction, 30—40, about average for this time of year, but it will be strong and particularly gusty knew those showers, squally with some hailand those showers, squally with some hail and thunder and it may study the rain later in the afternoon. generally tonight becomes drier for most of us for the next band of rain comes in, pembrokeshire, northern ireland, cornwall. given this clear, dry weather, lighter winds well, it will become chilly and there could bea will become chilly and there could be a touch of frost in central and eastern areas, and these are town and city temperatures. it needs a bright dawn and a much brighter day for some, at least to start. the band of rain moving north across scotland, petering out, then this next band, heavy again for the south, wales, parts of northern ireland and southern scotland but in

the south and east it is dry. just a few showers west. either side of that front, some decent weather and it should be a decent start across the east on friday. still that weakening weather front being swept up weakening weather front being swept up by weakening weather front being swept up by this next area of rain developing. that is around a deeper area of low pressure, a low pressure likely to give gales or severe gale force winds across many western parts of the uk and some soggy weather as well which will then spread eastwards through friday night into saturday then we are left with the legacy of sunny spells and showers, some quite lengthy spells of showers at times, which will be heavy as well, but staying on the mild side. as ever you can get all the warning information from our website. bye— bye. you're watching a bbc news special results programme on the us mid—term elections after a night in which president trump has suffered a significant setback and some gains.

both sides claim victory of sorts... the democrats have taken control of the house of representatives for the first time in eight years. but republicans strengthen their grip on the senate — with a number of democrats losing their seats. president trump calls the results a "tremendous success" — but what does the new balance of power mean for his agenda? today is more than about democrats and republicans, it's about restoring the constitution checks and balances to the trump administration. an election of firsts — congress will represent a wider range of americans, with more women and minority lawmakers than ever before. and an exceptionally high turnout has been recorded, with voting