this is business live from bbc news with victoria fritz and maryam moshiri. the wolves of wall street go vegan, as plant burger maker beyond meat cooks up the most successful stock market flotation since the financial crisis. live from london, that's our top story on friday 3 may. shares of vegan burger maker beyond meat sizzle on their debut in new york as investors bet on the growing popularity of pla nt—based foods. hsbc prepares the ground for a round of cost—cutting,

even as the bank posts much better results than analysts were expecting. stock markets in asia—pacific edge higher on friday ahead of us jobs figures. oil prices extend their slide. and we'll be getting the inside track on the big stories in tech this week including mark zuckerberg's vision for facebook — that's all with our editor rory cellan—jones. today we want to know, are you prepared to give up meat? would you swap a steak for a plant—based burger? just let us know — just use the hashtag bbcbizlive. hello and welcome to business live. we start on wall street, where investors have developed a ravenous appetite. thursday saw the most successful stock market debut since the financial crisis a decade ago. the star company isn't some future giant of the tech sector,

but a meat company that doesn't use meat. so what is everyone so "bullish" about? global population growth and rising affluence is driving demand for meat and dairy products. the un thinks livestock demand will be up by more than two thirds by 2050. but there's growing concern about the environmental and health impact. that's why companies are developing pla nt—based alternatives to meat protein. sales hit $3.3 billion in the us alone last year. beyond meat is one of these companies. its shares soared 163% on their debut on the nasdaq on thursday, valuing the company at over $3.8 billion. but other companies are getting involved. this year burger king launched a 0% beef whopper in partnership with rival impossible foods. and the biggest meat processing firm

in the us, tyson foods, used to be an investor in beyond meat, but has now sold its stake to develop its own products. fraser mckevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at consultancy kantar is with me now. thank you forjoining us. . this is proof, if any were needed, that vegan and vegetarian options are really growing in popularity and there is a huge appetite for them. yes, they are certainly here to stay. whether the valuation of beyond meat is right, it is extraordinary to have a vegan unicorn in a sense of the us stock market, what we know is that consumers are consistently moving towards eating less meat. that is not so much about would you give up meat and eat a meat free burger? it is more about the vast majority of people showing that trend of eating less meat, they are actually what you might call flexitarian but one

in 20 of us don't eat any meat or perhaps we can as well but a quarter of us are trying to cut down on the meat we eat which is where the market is. so that is basically a lot of people who want to make a difference. what are the reasons people are moving into these areas? for some people, it is around animal welfare, they simply don't want to eat an welfare, they simply don't want to eatan animal welfare, they simply don't want to eat an animal that has lived and breathed and then had to be sorted but right at the top of the list, beyond that, in some notion of health, wanting to eat healthily. around a third of the food and drink we eat is chosen for some reason of health. i might eat less meat to lose weight, i might eat less meat to have more of my five a day. secondary, down on the list, i think there a growing awareness of the environ mental impact of raising livestock and how much land it takes comparing to growing crops, and how much water it takes for cattle, for example. all of those reasons are moving people to eat in a different way which is one of the reasons why the company has had so much success in its flotation but it has not made

a profit or said how it will make a profit. why do you think it has become so popular?” profit. why do you think it has become so popular? i think they have got a real challenge here because the flip side of a lot of non—meat meals are eaten by flexitarians, is that you don't need to eat a specialist non—meat product if you are not going to eat meat, you can just eat vegetables and salad and have something else with your pastor. they've got a lot of competition. it is notjust, as you mentioned earlier, the specialist companies doing non—meat products. the big players are out there as well, the likes of craft heinz and nestle, they all have vegan and vegetarian options. critically on food and drink, it is not enough just to have the product, you need to be able to bring it to market and those existing companies already have the relationships with the consumers through brand and with the retailers as well to get it on the shell. would you ever eat a meat free burger with yellow it is not for me, like many people, i'm cutting back on the meat i'm eating but i would ratherjust have vegetables. thank you forjoining

us. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news. scandinavian airline sas says it has reached a deal with unions to end a week—long strike by pilots that has grounded 4,000 flights since last thursday, hitting 380,000 passengers. ceo rickard gustafson said the airline and unions agreed on a 3.5% salary increase for this year and that flights would be resumed as soon as possible, but were likely to take up to 2a hours to return to normal. the founder of insys therapeutics, john kapoor, has become the first pharmaceutical boss to be convicted in a case linked to the us opioid crisis. a boston jury found kapoor and four colleagues conspired to bribe doctors to prescribe addictive painkillers, often to patients who didn't need them. the uk treasury will keep ip and 2p coins following a consultation, saying they will continue to be used "for years to come". in 2017, debit card and contactless

payments overtook cash payments in the uk for the first time. but the treasury estimates that 2.2 million people in the uk are still reliant on cash, particularly the elderly, vulnerable, and those living in rural areas. i still like my ip and 2p coins, i use them, i use them for charity and things like that, and my kids collect them. i quite like the fact they are staying around. now from small money to really big money. global banking giant hsbc has just come out with its results for the first three months of the year. and they are much better than expected, profits up by almost a third, but is the outlook not looking as cheery? christine hah is in singapore. christine, talk us through exactly what hsbc has been saying. well, you know, if you remember, hsbc had quite a challenging fourth quarter and they had missed earnings expectations for 2018 so there was

quite a lot of worry coming into this quarter that the negative trend would continue giving the ongoing us- would continue giving the ongoing us— china trade war and slowing economies in the uk and china, both of its own markets. this quarter, very strong asian rice, which is where it still gets most of its profits, as well as successful cost—cutting measures that put into place last year, are really helping the numbers. accordingly, its shares rose over 2% after the earnings were announced. going ahead, the bank is very much recognising continuing headwinds in the global economy and of course the financial sector, with its chief executive saying they will continue and will have to continue to focus on cutting costs and controlling their investments in order to balance risks and revenue growth for the rest of the air. definitely a positive start for now to the financial year but by no means any indication how the rest of the year might go for hsbcjust yet. thank you forjoining us. let's look at the markets.

things rose at the end of the session in asia with the exception of mcquarrie, a bank on the other side of the world, who said that despite their profits rising, shares we re despite their profits rising, shares were coming down about 6% last time were coming down about 6% last time we had a look. in europe, which opened about 30 minutes ago. quite a bit of corporate news coming out. air france—klm's first—quarter losses deepen as the airline group joins its competitors in blaming higher fuel costs and too many seats flooding the market. societe generale sa is unable to halt the slide in its investment bank. shares of socgen have been trailing those of larger rival bnp paribas this year, suggesting shareholders are yet to be convinced. and adidas' profits in the first quarter beat analysts‘ expectations by about 10% despite failing to meet rising us demand due to supply chain problems. another of president trump's picks for a board seat on the us federal reserve has

dropped out of the running. stephen moore, a vocal critic of the central bank, had himself faced mounting criticism over political bias and sexist comments about women. here's michelle fleury. two nominees 01’ names were being floated to join the board of governors in the federal reserve, america's central bank, there was a lot of controversy about these two figures. one of them was herman cain, who dropped out about a month ago, withdrew himself. this was because if you think back to the time when he was running for president himself, there were allegations of sexual harassment. those started to be dredged up again and i think before any of that took steam, he pulled out. in the case of stephen moore, a trump ally who has been very vocal in supporting the white house's economic policies and handling of the economy, he was someone who had come under criticism for comments he had made about women, jokes that he had made. but also for some aspects of his economic views. all of this has been rumbling on in the background. there were signs that a number of gop members were wavering in their support.

now we have learned that he, too, has withdrawn his name for consideration. of course, the wider context all of this, is we have seen donald trump in the past take a competitive or unorthodox approach to institutions in washington, and i think the federal reserve was no exception in this case. joining us isjeremy thomson—cook, chief economist at world first. he isjoining us for a look at he is joining us for a look at the markets. how are you? very good. looking forward to the weekend. tell me about it! let's talk about important figures coming out of america today, thejobs important figures coming out of america today, the jobs figures, important figures coming out of america today, thejobs figures, the employment figures, why do they matter and what are we expecting? they are probably the most important figures for the us dollar and the economic watchers like myself at the moment because we have seen such a big push forward for the us economy over the course of the past couple of years. the key for the maintenance of that or the continuing throughput of economic growth is how many people are taking up

growth is how many people are taking up newjobs growth is how many people are taking up new jobs and growth is how many people are taking up newjobs and if they are, what kind of wages they are being paid and we will find out at about 1:30pm uk time. markets are expecting around 200,000 people to take on new jobs which is roughly what we expect ona jobs which is roughly what we expect on a monthly basis. if we see more people coming out of not being employed or not looking forjobs, participation rate, we call it, looking to rise, that could show that there's a lot more growth coming from the us economy. let's talk about the us economy because we had some us government data showing on wednesday that stockpiles of oil have hit record levels and we have seen have hit record levels and we have seen the oil price absolutely tanking as a result. it collapse, it was down about $4 which does not sound like much but in the oil market over the course of an intraday period is quite a big shift. there's been a lot of concern around oil since the trump against iran, talking about the waivers on iranian oil coming into global markets, we thought that it would really impinge upon supply and the price popped as a result but those figures come as you said, have shown

the impingement on supply has not been as noticeable as previously thought and hence why the price has come a bit lower. russia is talking about pushing out to more oil. we have also heard from china and from other oil producing nations as well, that they are not going to stop pumping out more oil, hence the wea kness pumping out more oil, hence the weakness in the price. 0k. pumping out more oil, hence the weakness in the price. ok. we will come back in a few minutes with you to talk through the big paper stories. still to come, we'll be getting the inside track on the big stories in tech this week, including mark zuckerberg's vision for facebook. that's all with our correspondent rory cellan—jones. you're with business live from bbc news. no sign of recovery on the high street, according to research from accountancy firm bdo. their latest figures show sales fell 0.4% year on year in april. that's on the back of

a fall of 3.4% last year. sophie michael is head of retail and wholesale at bdo. shejoins us now she joins us now from the newsroom. your data contradicts figures published by the cbi last week which said retail sales rose for the first time in five months in april. why do your figures time in five months in april. why do yourfigures contradict time in five months in april. why do your figures contradict other figures? well, this is a figure which shows the like for discretionary spend. it does not ta ke discretionary spend. it does not take account of food and grocery. we have seen consistently that the spend by the consumer on discretionary spend has been falling. it is a concern in april because actually, there were some really good shopping conditions in april. we had easter, which fell in march last year. we had good weather. we had school holidays. we also had anecdotal evidence of more people taking their vacations in the uk. so all of that should have

really given a good shopping experience and a positive like for like, particularly when we had quite a big drop last april, which is what we are comparing against. a big drop last april, which is what we are comparing againstm a big drop last april, which is what we are comparing against. it is not great, is it, when you consider all of those struggling chains like debenhams, monsoon, who are looking to shut stores through some restructuring procedures. how damaging our cvas, company voluntary arrangements, to the high street? we are certainly seeing a number of store closures. a report out yesterday by local data company showed that the net loss in 2018 was 7500 stores. more closures than openings. we have got to remember that a substantial amount of the consumer spending still takes place in bricks and mortar stores. 0ver four out of £5 is still spend in—store. whilst we seeing these closures, it needs action and we do need to see our high streets and

stores surviving. thank you for joining us. go to the website for plenty more news on there, the business live page has this story about shopping centre owner intu, and it says net rental income is down thanks to cvas which we were just talking about. that's on the website. you're watching business live — our top story. shares of vegan burger maker beyond meat have soared on their wall street debut, as investors bet on the growing popularity of plant—based foods. a quick look at how the markets are faring. now, let's find out about some of the big tech stories this week. rory is with us. we are going to start

with facebook, a pretty busy week. it is or isa with facebook, a pretty busy week. it is or is a busy week for facebook. it is making use co nsta ntly. facebook. it is making use constantly. we have had the big facebook development conference, where mark zuckerberg is supposed to lay out the vision. it is all about privacy... according to him. yes, i love this, he said on stage at the developers conference, "i know that we don't exactly have the strongest reputation on privacy right now, to put it lightly". apparently that was met with silence in the hole. everybody knows the problems they have got. everyone is a bit suspicious of their plans for it, which are to make facebook a much more private place or to promote things like whatsapp and encryption and so on. some people think that is great and other people watching over the kind of abuse that is happening on facebook are saying it will make it much harder to police. this is the interesting thing, i'vejust seen the interesting thing, i'vejust seen popping up on the wall street journal, facebook reported to be launching a cryptocurrency payment

system, an extraordinary thing. a bid to have its own currency. you have got to us, is that a great idea when it has got all of these trust problems as it is and the whole cryptocurrency area is riven with strands of fraud and scandal and trust issues there? he is still battling that. another big facebook story of a night, they have moved to ban some far right figures, describing them as dangerous, that is why they have done it this time, the people that are dangerous. you know, some people will be cheering that. they've got a lot of conservative critics, though come in the us, facebook, so it is walking a tightrope. we had results from google's parent company, alphabet, disappointing, but advertising is very much the focus to distinguish it from rivals. let's not forget, these are giant advertising businesses. google and facebook between them dominate the world of online advertising. any hint that things are slowing down in terms of

growth is received really badly and thatis growth is received really badly and that is what happened, wall street was absolutely shocked by only a modest growth in advertising from this behemoth. i think the shares fell 7% at one stage. don't forget, these are companies with almost $1 trillion valuations which is a huge amount of value. what i picked out, one of the issues apparently was a deceleration in on adverts on youtube. this kind of illustrates what is going on, here. youtube, incredibly powerful profit engine over the recent times, again, it needs cleaning up, there's a lot of bad stuff happening on youtube and a p pa re ntly bad stuff happening on youtube and apparently in the process of trying to clean some of it up, youtube is finding that people are clicking less on adverts and that is bad news for google's bottom line.|j less on adverts and that is bad news for google's bottom line. i also read more more people are going straight to the likes of amazon when they want to buy something and not searching for things like a hairdryer amazon quite quietly has

become a kind of search rival. exactly. used to used to go to google for everything but quietly in the back ground, peoplejust sometimes, as a shopping search engine, go to amazon. until it becomes a verb. to amazon! i'm not sure about that. let's talk about transplants, you wait eight years for a kidney transplant and then suddenly, it turns up on the back of a drone. this is a drone story. i really wa nted a drone. this is a drone story. i really wanted to do this because it is about drones. we have heard a lot about drones over recent years, but not an awful lot of practical uses. this is a really interesting one, a donor kidney delivered to surgeons ata us donor kidney delivered to surgeons at a us hospital via drone. it only went three miles but it is a symbol of the fact that people are finding important uses. a lot of technology involved, custom—made drone capable of carrying the additional weight of the organ, on—board cameras, organ tracking, communications and safety systems, a short flight, but an

illustration of what they can do. we have seen far more of this in places like africa. yes. there is a really innovative scheme to deliver blood. i was about to mention it. it is in a couple of african countries, so lots of experimentation going on. perhaps more interesting than the idea that amazon has been pushing of having your parcels delivered by drone. do we really want our skies buzzing with drones as well as our streets buzzing with amazon delivery vans? and kidneys. it would be like a cheap version of back to the future. if it is kidneys, fine but some be getting an extra toothbrush delivered by drone, perhaps not. always good to have you on the programme. thank you forjoining us. and enjoy your bangle a day weekend. i will try! —— and enjoy your bangle a day weekend. iwill try! —— bank and enjoy your bangle a day weekend. i will try! —— bank holiday weekend. in a moment, we'll take a look through the business pages but first here's a quick reminder of how to get in touch with us. stay up—to—date with all the day's

business news as it happens on the bbc business live page. there's insight and analysis from our team of editors, right around the globe. and we want to hear from you, too. get involved on the bbc‘s business live webpage at bbc.com/business. on twitter we're @bbcbusiness. and you can find us on facebook @bbcmoney. business live — on tv and online. what you need to know, when you need to know. absolutely. jeremy is back with us and we are talking about beyond meat, a major story that has brought wall street to life overnight and the main point we are making is about vegan burgers and sausages. we asked you at the beginning of the programme to tell us whether you would change the way you eat and perhaps have these kinds of products and you have been tweeting in d roves, a lot and you have been tweeting in droves, a lot of you clearly very hungry. this one says, "this burger is delicious. i stopped eating meat because of farming methods and environmental issues, not because i didn't like the taste". that is the

key, the fact of the matter is, if you want to have meat but you don't wa nt to you want to have meat but you don't want to eat meat because of the environmental all the moral issues, this is the product for you. but if you just like vegetables then why bother with yellow this is the thing, we have seen a lot of change within food over the course of the past 20 years, there was low—calorie, then low carbohydrate and then gluten free and things are now we are starting to talk about meat alternatives and this is the first one that has had a real societal tinge to it as well. "do this for the benefit of everyone else on the planet and the planet itself". if you like vegetables and you are a vegetarian and you are happy to continue to eat mushroom risotto or whatever, then go ahead and do that but if you want a substitute for a juicy quarter pounder, then you have to go for something like this. i am not, you know, i'm not sold on it, if i'm honest, if it looks like a burger, i wa nt honest, if it looks like a burger, i want it to taste like one. a p pa re ntly want it to taste like one. apparently they say it also bleeds like a burger as well it bleeds beetrootjos.

like a burger as well it bleeds beetroot jos. —— like a burger as well it bleeds beetrootjos. —— beetroot juice. like a burger as well it bleeds beetrootjos. —— beetrootjuice. but he mentioned the environmental benefits about this, they are not necessarily the health benefits that people like realise because they are still 18% fat and very high sodium levels, salt. yes, you look at things like gluten—free options, gluten free bread for example has a lot more sugar than normal bread and obviously people eat gluten free bread for allergy reasons, which is fine, but they are not intrinsically healthier than stuff we may have grown up healthier than stuff we may have grown up with for the past 20 or 30. ahe grown up with for the past 20 or 30. a he more tweets, "i'm a meat lover andi a he more tweets, "i'm a meat lover and i hate to say this, this which is inevitable for a better world". john says, "if i want a burger, i will have a burger and if i want some beans, i will have them". thomas says the burgers are delicious, "there's no reason not to eat them besides pure pig—headedness". i see what you did there. victoria says, "no! just don't eat meat! you don't eat

substitutes there is good. is that you? honestly, substitutes there is good. is that you ? honestly, this substitutes there is good. is that you? honestly, this talking has to stop. i thought it was on whatsapp! let's talk about 1p and 2p coins. the government was maybe petition to get rid of the 1p and the 2p and £50 note for money—laundering reasons, i don't think anybody is money—laundering with bags of 2p coins. apart for a maybe? stuffed under the bedside table but what is the use of them at the moment? people say charities would miss out you have a jar of 2p coins. people say charities would miss out you have a jar of 2p coinslj people say charities would miss out you have a jar of 2p coins. i think choice is king, the more choice you have, why take it away? because they are not have, why take it away? because they a re not really have, why take it away? because they are not really that useful. as you say about people paying on debit and credit cards, cash is no longer king. not at all and it has not been to 2017. jeremy, i know not to ask you for a £5 note next time i'm short of a bit of money! lovely to see you, though. thank you for joining us. that's it from business live today.

there will be more business news throughout the day on the bbc live webpage and on world business report. we'll see you again tomorrow. -- happy —— happy friday. enjoy your bank holiday, if you have one. good morning. the bank holiday weekend is nearly upon us. if you have got any outdoor plans, well, take some notes because it is going to turn much colder through today. certainly much colder than last yea r‘s certainly much colder than last year's may certainly much colder than last yea r‘s may bank certainly much colder than last year's may bank holiday. we have got a cold front which will bring wintry showers to the north—west of scotland. some sunshine across the south—west of england but elsewhere, quite cloudy with some showery outbreaks of rain expected. a northerly wind bringing in that arctic air. temperatures across many northern parts about 7—11. in the far south of england, temperatures are still holding on, to about 14 or

15. through tonight, still some showers clearing southwards. still some snow showers affecting the far north—east of scotland, perhaps around the north york moors. looking at the blue on the map, we are looking at a fast developing into saturday morning, temperatures in major towns and cities down to about 1-4 major towns and cities down to about 1—4 celsius. certainly in the countryside, it will be lower than that so you could be waking up on saturday morning to a touch of frost. but the skies should be relatively clear. for many, a sunny start to the weekend. we have got this north north—easterly wind bringing in that cold air all the way from iceland and the arctic. it will feed its way across all parts during saturday. showers likely down the eastern side of england, the north—east of scotland, a bit of clout elsewhere after that chilly start with some sunshine. maximum temperatures at best about eight, up to 11 or 12 degrees. going into

sunday, we have got an area of high pressure situated towards the west which is allowing this cold northerly wind to develop right across the uk. with that high pressure, it means it is mostly settled and largely dry throughout sunday. there could be a few showers along the north and east of scotland and the eastern side of england but otherwise dry. sunny spells throughout sunday and temperatures once again way below the average for the time of year, 10—13. into bank holiday monday, there could be the odd shower or two again across northern areas but really for most of us, a dry day and fairly bright with some sunshine. again, temperatures are struggling at 10-13. it temperatures are struggling at 10—13. it could well be the coldest bank holiday monday on record since its inception in 1978.

you're watching a bbc news election special with me, joanna gosling, as we bring you the results of local elections which have been taking place in england and northern ireland. it's bad news for both the conservatives and labour as voters turn away from the two main parties. sadly, the big parties are being punished for what's happening over brexit and their forgetting the local issues. members of parliament saying that we need to be having a people's vote on a second referendum, people in sunderland have said, we're just not accepting that from the labour party and i have lost ten councillors tonight because of that brexit situation. it's been a good night for independent candidates and the greens, as well as the liberal democrats who have made significant gains in the results announced so far.

it's a fantastic morning.