us stocks record their best weekly gain. will this optimism last? and what lies ahead for thailand as the reign of a new prime minister begins. hello and welcome to business today. i'm steve lai. let's begin in the us, where stock markets have recorded their best week of the year. the s&p 500 index rose by 4% while the nasdaq added around 5% in the week ending on friday. with less than three months to the us presidential election, the economy is a key issue for winning over american voters. for more on what is driving markets, we'rejoined by ryan sweet, chief us economist at oxford economics. he explained the market reaction and what he expects with volatility

in the months ahead. data last week on retail sales shows the consumer continues to chug along, initialjobless claims fell in the recent data, so i think that knee—jerk reaction was premature and the economy is not anywhere near a recession. whether or not this is sustained, we are getting close to an election. typically in election years there is volatility, so i wouldn't expect... i would expect history to repeat itself. i understand oxford economics has been running models on what might happen with the economy irrespective of who wins the election. what are the models telling you? for each candidate fiscal policy will become more stimulated into 2025 and 2026. for each candidate, it is a re—inflationary scenario because fiscal policy will be more stimulative. under donald trump we will have

more immigration restrictions and tariffs and that is much more inflationary that is what is in our focus. under kamala harris, the inflationary impact is less. she came out with her first salvo in her economic agenda, not a lot of surprises. price gouging is getting a ton of attention. that deviates from economics 101 where when the federal government gets involved in setting market prices, you will lead to inefficiencies, shortages. i think this is more a political chatter, that will poll well rather than potentially becoming economic policy. and the feds symposium will be watched closely this week. what are your expectations? not a lot. i thinkjerome powell will take a big picture approach because he will not front run the rest of the fomc by signalling whether a 25

or 50 basis point change is coming in september. also we will get data on august employment and that will make or break the decision, whether they cut by 25 or 50. one thing is clear is that it is nearly as slamdunk that the fed will be cutting interest rates in september. investors in china will no longer have a key indicator to measure sentiment in its $8.3 trillion stock market. starting from monday, the country's stock exchanges will stop releasing daily data on overseas fund flows. analysts say this is an effort by the government to prop up the market, which has seen a record withdrawal of foreign funds in recent months. byd is one of the earliest entries in pakistan's electric vehicles market which has been slow to take off because of a lack of charging infrastructure. sellthrough mega motors.

the foxconn has been visiting india. he defended accusations that his company did not give jobs to married women at its iphone assembly unit in the country. this story has been tracked for us and we are joined from mumbai. do you have background into the allegations and what has been said? this relates to _ and what has been said? this relates to a — and what has been said? this relates to a report _ and what has been said? this relates to a report by - and what has been said? ti 3 relates to a report by reuters where they alleged systematic discrimination by foxconn saying that the government preferred unmarried women over married women because they had fewer family responsibilities in this led to a massive amount of media backlash injune when the report came out. the centre of government even went forward and asked the state of tamil nadu where foxconn owns its factories to hold a detailed

investigation and now on his maiden visit he wills come forward to counter some of those pr where he said there is absolutely no discrimination and that foxconn hires irrespective of marital status and gender of employees. interestingly he was speaking at the launch of a massive hostel facility that will house some 18,000 women who would be working for foxconn�*s iphone assembly unit in the state of tamil nadu. he also took the opportunity to talk about the fact that foxconn has been doing billions of dollars of india —— business in india and they will be investing more. the already invested someone $4 the already invested someone $11 billion the already invested someone $1; billion but they want to put more money into the country areas such as battery storage. that gives you a sense of how important india has become for this company which is trying to diversify away from china but clearly they have been running

into some cultural issues and on this maiden visit he is trying to address some of those issues. in thailand, the parliament has picked paetongtarn shinawatra as prime minister. she's the daughter of billionaire tycoon and former leader thaksin. she faces the difficult task of reviving the stalled economy and avoiding a military coup which has been imposed by a previous governments.- which has been imposed by a previous governments. right now thailand has _ previous governments. right now thailand has gone _ previous governments. right now thailand has gone through - previous governments. right now thailand has gone through a - previous governments. right now thailand has gone through a lot l thailand has gone through a lot of political chaos in the previous prime minister, the first democratically or democratically installed prime minister after nine—year—old coup led government only survived for one year. the main opposition party which was also a democratically illiterate that party was also forcibly dissolved by the constitutional courtjust before the prime minister was forced out of office. thailand is in a state

office. thailand is in a state of political turmoil. economically the economy has been mediocre. there have been a lot of big government policies, there have been verbal commitments and talk about but no clarity over whether they will be implemented. that includes infrastructure such as the land bridge, a major rail line linking bangkok to china, as well as a major digital wallet programme which the current ruling government has been campaigning on fora ruling government has been campaigning on for a long time. no clarity over whether that will be actually implemented at this point. australia's lowest—paid workers are seeing a bit of relief. an increase of almost 4% in the minimum wage came into effect injuly after months of discussion among trade unions, employers and the government. from sydney, phil mercer reports. good afternoon. may i please have a hot meal? hazel soriano is a part—time sales representative in sydney but still needs help from charities for a hot meal. i just have to struggle day by day. the earnings i would probably

receive just covers the rent but not with the food, electricity that you need to pay as well. it is really hard. australia's minimum wage for workers aged over 21 is about us$16 an hour. in the last five years, increases have been overtaken by inflation. it is terrible to see the people come in here who might have a full—time job, but are falling further behind each day. the working poor is too kind a term. businesses really have too much of an upper hand, mate, and they have had it for — in australia — for the past ten years. but some industries argue that annual increases to the minimum wage are not sustainable and are pushing some businesses, especially in hospitality, to the brink of collapse. we, as an industry value the workforce, certainly they are the most valuable asset that a business has. at the same time we need to be

mindful that small businesses can't always continue to pay a certain amount of increase every year, over and over and over again. it sends many of them to the wall. when utilities are up, when cost of goods are up it is just too much pressure for restaurants and cafes. increases to the minimum wage affect about a fifth of australia's workforce — or 2.5 million people. the amount is set by the fair work commission, which is the national industrial relations tribunal. it considers various factors, including inflation, unemployment and the general health of the economy. however, workplace experts believe that increasing pay need not be a burden for companies. instead, it should be an opportunity. those wage increases spur innovation in organisations. to compensate for a wage increase they focus more on, well, how are we going to be more productive to offset those wage increases? trade unions insist that a 3.75% increase to the minimum

wage is not enough, while business groups say it's too much. recent tax cuts have helped australia's lowest paid workers, but many insist that their struggles will continue. phil mercer, bbc news, sydney. libya's central bank has suspended all operations after senior employee was kidnapped in the capital of tripoli. the bank announced the abduction of its information technology director in a statement on sunday. they said he was taken from his home by an unidentified party and other employees had been threatened with kidnapping. the central bank is the only internationally recognised depository for all revenues that are vital to the economy. that is it for business today

from singapore. i will see you again at the same time tomorrow.

hello and welcome to sportsday. i'm 0lly foster. haaland scores for city in his 100th appearance as they start their title defence with a win. it's an underwhelming la liga debut for kylian mbappe, as the champions real madrid are held at mallorca. and sabalenka serves up her sunday best to beat swiatek in their cincinnati semifinal. hello there. the manchester city manager, pep guardiola, hailed erling haaland's scoring record as he helped them start their premier league title defence with a 2—0 win at chelsea.

the norwegian striker, the golden boot winner