this is the business briefing. i'm sally bundock. losing friends on wall street. facebook posts its slowest growth ever as antitrust and privacy concerns mount up. plus — two days to go. will brexit put the squeeze on britain's winemakers, or uncork their potential? and on the financial markets — the coronavirus outbreak continuing to

weigh on stock markets. fed chiefjerome powell warning it is adding to global uncertainty as he kept us interest rates on hold. let's start with facebook, because shares in the social media giant were down sharply after its fourth—quarter results. that's despite another set of mind—boggling numbers — let's show them to you. revenues for the three months to december were just over $21 billion — up by around a quarter on the same time last year. more than a third of that was profit. investors, though, are used to much faster growth from facebook — 25% is the slowest growth rate in its

history. but how much bigger can it grow? almost 2.9 billion people use one of facebook‘s services at least once a month, including instagram and whatsapp. and since january of 2019, facebook shares have risen by over 50% to hit a new record high, valuing the company at $636 billion. and that's despite a number of high—profile investigations into whether it has too much market power, as well as general concerns over privacy. from san francisco, here's our technology reporter zoe thomas. facebook wants to show it's listening to the concerns of users and regulators. during a call with investors, chief executive mark zuckerberg said the company was paying for an intense year ahead. it's going to focus more on privacy and on combating false information. but those initiatives will likely be expensive and facebook‘s costs

are already going up. in to pay us regulators $5 billion over privacy violations. that fine has yet to be paid out. but facebook has another dark cloud on the horizon. possible lawsuits over its dominance in online advertising, which makes 98% of its revenue. it is going to increase its revenue streams, investing in artificial intelligence and augmented reality as well as mobile payments. but its effo rts mobile payments. but its efforts to create a new digital currency have also run up against concerned regulators. in the last few months, several of its big—name partners have dropped out of the plan. with this increased scrutiny and a us election on the horizon, mark zuckerberg's prediction that 2020 will be an intense year, seems likely. zoe thomas, bbc news in san francisco. james erskine from marketing consultants the big shot joins me now. good morning, it's nice

to see you, james. good morning. what do you make of this news? where else could a company in the world makes so much profit and not seizure results react in a warm way? i would put it down to the rising costs and the duration of the company. in your report just there duration of the company. in your reportjust there it's interesting to see facebook being associated with something that was not a roaring success, its currency, libra didn't perform very well. it doesn't even exist. that's right. a pipe dream that didn't exist and didn't sit well with users. i always let things down to the four component parts of the relationship. the uses of the platform, something that is often misunderstood. the increase in users is an increase in users is an increase of 2% on the main facebook platform, they don't break it down by the other platforms. that is quite interesting. if you look at the shareholders, they have reacted

in the way they have because of the interest in costs and the increasing competition as well. so even last week from the makers of vine, there was a new up makers of vine, there was a new up cold byte which is a short form video up. the while these are directly competitive to facebook, it is still vying for attention. more people looking for eye balls. attention. more people looking for eyeballs. the other two, the other two stakeholders are the other two stakeholders are the advertisers in this relationship. the advertisers haven't seen a new, shiny toy from facebook for quite a long time. it's a very effective tool and i think looking forward one thing that could get advertisers excited is it is rumoured soon, it may be in the next 12 months, people will be able to advertise on whatsapp. james, what do you think the future looks like ahead? you could have seen shareholders looking for an excuse shareholders looking for an excuse to take some money off

the table, considering how well they have done. i think there are three options. one, when i looked at my whatsapp over the festive season, it was whatsapp brought to you by facebook. so they are using the facebook brand to brand all of their different ups. they aren't working in isolation anymore. —— different apps. the other thing that also points towards the outcome of the devil as i was in the detail, there was a new note in their quarterly reports, which was the family average revenue per person. effectively, that was talking about how much revenue they we re about how much revenue they were making from each individual across all of their apps. individual across all of their apps, so that was quite interesting. the next thing is around competition. in the past they have bought instagram to get that younger audience. what else can they look to acquire or launch to make sure they are talking to multiple audiences in multiple ways? all right, james, thank you so much was

interesting. fascinating stuff. and there is more detail on our website as well. let's turn to brexit now, because it's just two days until britain leaves the european union. all this week we are looking at the potential opportunities and risks for different industries. father and daughter ian and rebekah sargent own laurel vines in east yorkshire, one of england's most northerly wineries. will brexit uncork their potential, or squeeze their profits? people don't really realise you can go grab this far north. we got over 12,500 vines growing at the moment. —— you can grow grapes. we don't know how long the trade delays going to be, barriers, are we going to get any barriers, are we going to get a ny extra barriers, are we going to get any extra imports access? 80% of our equipment is from

europe. these tanks, we ordered those six months in advance of when we were normally to ensure we have them in time. we have now stockpiled about 10,000 bottles in order to prepare ourselves to have in excess of a year's ourselves to have in excess of a yea r‘s quantity. ourselves to have in excess of a year's quantity. there is uncertainty. i think that is the biggest single concern. i think this is the fourth time we have been contingency planning. it is not a level playing field at this moment in time are dating because of the uncertainty, certain supplies are taking advantage of it. we are taking advantage of it. we are seeing 10— 15% increases in materials. capsules go on top of the wine bottle, they have increased in cost, the wine courts have increased already with the supply companyjust blaming brexit. we will be exploring, how can

we get some backups from british suppliers? i think we have to turn brexit into a positive thing. we have to embrace the changes and see how we can help our market continue to grow. the family business there, ian and rebekah sargent. let's go to asia now — and the economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak on china. rico hizon is looking at some comments coming out of the us. rico, what can you tell us? that's right, sally. well, one of president trumpnot very close advisers appeared and said the united states will keep tariffs on china, even if the corona virus begins to weigh on the chinese economy. mr navarro stressed the tariffs are in place because the mean land gauges in massive unfair subsidies does make the mainland. —— the mainland. the coronavirus, sally, has now

killed 170 people and infected more than 7700, and companies in the mainland have shutdown stores, factories and closed offices as the country works to contain the spread of the virus. some have warned of severe disruption to supply chains in china, with some predicting the impact could last up to six months. there are even if you economists who are even if you economists who are saying the if the virus continues to escalate and further suspend production, the economy could weaken up to 5% this quarter. sally. thank you, rico, good to see you. now let's brief you on some other business stories: tesla shares have surged to a new record high after the electric car maker posted the second quarterly profit in a row, on record vehicle sales. tesla says it will deliver over 500,00 vehicles this year. its shares have more than doubled since its last set of results, valuing the company at over $100 billion, more than german car giant volkswagen. microsoft shares also

hit a new record high after the latest numbers beat wall street estimates. it's seeing strong growth in its cloud business, where it is battling its rival amazon in renting out computing power to companies. revenues at its cloud division known as azure were up 62%. the number of cars built in the uk fell to its lowest level in almost a decade in 2019, with a further decline expected this year, that's according to the society of motor manufacturers and traders. production was down by 14.2% to 1.3 million vehicles, the lowest since 2010, hit by brexit uncertainty as well as changes in the industry, including the move away from diesel and towards electric. you are up—to—date on all the latest business

stories. new figures reveal a large increase of prison officers in england and wales cricket board off work because of stress. over 1000 frontline workers took time off last year because of stress as danny shaw reports. there isjust this foreboding inside your belly. the fear of a prison officer. bob worked in some of the most challenging jails in the country, dealing with violence and disorder and having to help prisoners who harm themselves. this former soldier who doesn't wa nt this former soldier who doesn't want his real name to be known eventually cracked under the pressure. i started to be, on occasions, sick on the way to work. physically vomiting. my sleep was disordered.

my personal relationships were strained and certainly i lost one relationship through the period. i started to shrink back socially as well. the stressful nature of prison work is seldom talked about and the impact on staff, even less so. figures obtained by bbc news are suggesting increasing numbers of prison officers in state run jails are suffering from mental health problems, 1900 last year. alanjones became depressed after a prisoner hit him with a chair. he sustained serious injuries to his arm, a metal plate had to his arm, a metal plate had to be inserted. the former prisoner officers sued the ministry ofjustice for failing to handle the incident properly and one, but he said his mental health suffered due to a lack of support. i always thought i would be covered, you know? if anything happened, that the prison service would have something in place to look after me and say everything will be fine, there is this

in place, that in place. and... i just felt so alone. the prison service says that have access to drama support, occupational health advice and counselling, 24 health advice and counselling, 2a hours a day. danny shaw, bbc news. this is the briefing from bbc news. the latest headlines: the chinese government is now saying at least 170 people are confirmed dead from the coronavirus outbreak. the world health organization will meet later today to decide whether to declare a global health emergency. the white house has warned president trump's former national security advisor that his new book cannot be published unless classified information is deleted. comments in the book, it's reported, directly contradict the president's defence in his impeachment trial. on the eve of the brexit, the former head of the european commission, jean—claude juncker, has told the bbc he expects negotiations between britain and europe

will be "very tough" — especially when it comes to fishing. now it's time to look at some of the stories that are making the headlines in the news media across the world. we start with the financial times, which leads on the economic fallout from the ongoing coronavirus crisis. the ft says businesses are evacuating staff and closing down operations in china, with concerns the situation will hurt the global economy. next, the daily telegraph, and a photo of british mep nigel farage, waving a unionjack to say goodbye to the european parliament in brussels. britain leaves the eu tomorrow and the paper says prime minister boris johnson will accept post—brexit border checks rather than allow the uk to align with european regulations. on the bbc news website, we're asking the question will the bank of england cut interest rates? a decision is due

later today. the base rate is currently 0.75%. if there is a cut it'll be the first nearly four years. the new york times reports on some good news for the electric car—maker tesla. it made profits of more than a $100 million in the fourth quarter last year. the company suffered heavy losses during the early part of 2019, but it seems to be rebounding. and finally, some news about the bbc, which has announced big job cuts and a major reorganisation of how its news operation works. the guardian says the corporation will have "an increased emphasis on its online output", rather than its television and radio stations. so, let's begin with the coronavirus situation. with me is jane foley, head of foreign exchange strategy at rabobank. jane, let's look at the financial times. talking about all the different companies globally having to make difficult decisions about how

they are grappling with