for northern ireland, wales and england. we're expecting a dry day with some sunny spells, mild two with the south—westerly winds and of course we have halloween on thursday, so for the trick or treaters in the evening, it's not looking bad at all. and again every bit as mild, those temperatures could still be hovering around 15 celsius. and then next on the list, the fireworks. if you're celebrating over the course of the weekend, it's looking mostly dry across much of the country. and then the weekend itself again, more of the same. temperatures around the mid—teens.

a jam—packed week of earnings from five of the big us tech companies, starting with a for alphabet. from a to bp. the oil giant reports better than expected results, but it's their lowest set of profits in almost four years. and from bp to hsbc, as profits soar at europe's largest bank as it gets set for a major shake—up. welcome to business today, i'm mark lobel. enough on the alphabet, let's turn to the numbers. brace yourselves for a packed fortnight of earnings which kicks off in the us in three and a half hours with the first of this week's five us megacap tech companies reporting after closing. alphabet, the parent company of google will tell investors just how it's fared in the third quarter

of the year. microsoft and meta follow with their earnings tomorrow, and apple and amazon report on thursday. the so—called magnificent seven also include tesla, whose better than expected numbers came out last week, and nvidia — we'll have to wait a bit longer to hearfrom them. they report earnings on 20th november. let's cross live now to jamie mills o'brien, investment director at global investment company aberdeen2. in the past three months, alphabet�*s shares have dropped 2%, there have been fears google may be broken up to curb its search engine dominance. our investors right to be concerned?— our investors right to be concerned? . ., ., concerned? thanks for having me. i concerned? thanks for having me- i think— concerned? thanks for having me. i think the _ concerned? thanks for having me. i think the interesting - me. i think the interesting thing is if you look at what the shares have done and what is being proposed in terms of remedies, it is almost remarkable that shares have not

been weaker given what actually is being spoken about, a threat to what is the core business at google, the search business, the goliath that generates all the goliath that generates all the profit for the business. they are in effect proposing a massive change to the business model, in many ways it is surprising that investors have taken this on the chin. that being said, this process that we are talking about is going to take a long time, so initial remedies have been proposed, we have to wait until next summer until we get more detail and the appeal process. at the same time, there is lots of technology shifts going on beneath the surface and they are moving faster than the legal process. so the monopoly that google is being charged with, that could change quite quickly. there is lots of dynamics and i think tonight will be interesting to frame those in a certain context. perhaps one of the reasons is what else google is doing in

embedding ai, they have a long track record and have been doing this for over ten years. with so many tech companies now investing in al, is it still such a safe bet? i investing in al, is it still such a safe bet?- investing in al, is it still such a safe bet? i think there is an interesting _ such a safe bet? i think there is an interesting point - such a safe bet? i think there is an interesting point aroundi is an interesting point around google which is the business that was foundational to the technology of ai is now perceived as an ai loser in the investment community. google has a lot of work to do to demonstrate that it can monetise ai and its core business and tonight we may get information around that. your second question around ai being a safe bet, the conversation has become more than two way. last year was the great reviewer with chat gpt and we have moved on to seeing huge amounts of spending going into building ai. and we are yet to see that transmission mechanism, particularly for the consumer, usually the

smartphone is the way technologies are put to the consumer and monetised and we have not seen that. we have not seen an app or apple doing anything particularly interesting on the ai side. that being said, i think on the edges we are seeing lower hanging fruit ai revenues coming through and meta is one of those stocks last quarter when we saw ai of those stocks last quarter when we saw al was generating very strong revenues for meta. plenty to watch out for this week. thank you forjoining us. thank you. the british energy giant bp has revealed its latest profits numbers, $2.3 billion dollars in profits in the last quarter. that's better than expected but it's their lowest profits in almost four years. bp has been hit by a drop in refining profits and weaker oil trading as global economic activity has been slow, especially in china. nitesh shah is? head of commodities research at wisdomtree. he told business today how weak oil prices were having an impact on profits in the big oil sector.

oil prices are weaker largely because demand is weakening, particularly in china. and supply remains quite strong. the china story seems to be a country that seems to be transitioning strongly, it seems to be moving out of hydrocarbon consumption, away from oil and gas more towards renewables and other forms of cleaner energy. and at the same time, its economy has struggled over the last year or so, it has been quite disappointing on that front, so it is not needing as much energy as people have expected in the past. we are seeing lots of new production coming in from the us, guyana, brazil, but also if you look at the organisation of petroleum exporting countries, they control about 45% of global oil production, while

they are being on a production restraint over the last few years, they are set to unwind at the end of this year and that could add more barrels of oil into the global market. let's look now at europe's biggest bank — hsbc. profits are up 10% from july to september. during which time pre—tax profits stood at $8.5 billion. last week hsbc announced a major overhaul of the bank's structure, splitting things geographically into eastern and western markets. amid a backdrop of rising international trade tensions. all part of a plan by the new boss — georges elhedery — to simplify operations and cut costs at the is9—year—old bank. i've been speaking to ortenca aliaj, the banking editor at the financial times. i asked her what she thinks the ceo's intentions are regarding this big restructuring of the bank. well, his messages very much

that he wants to simplify the structure of the bank, make it more streamlined so that it clients better. and today he very much this division between east and west was symbolic only and it was by no means a precursor to being any future split of the bank. what is very clear... , �* ., ., ., clear... isn't there a formal slit clear... isn't there a formal split coming. _ clear... isn't there a formal split coming, a _ clear... isn't there a formal split coming, a hedge - clear... isn't there a formal l split coming, a hedge against china and west tensions rising, what is your gut instinct on this? it what is your gut instinct on this? , ., ., this? it is hard to say, because _ this? it is hard to say, because the _ this? it is hard to say, because the memory l this? it is hard to say, l because the memory of this? it is hard to say, - because the memory of the campaign is very fresh, albeit slightly different because they wanted to spin off their asia business which is where most of the revenue comes from. but i don't think any ceo and particularly one that is head of hsbc wants to be the ceo

that breaks up the bank, the most that you can really read from it is putting yourself in a position where if things were to really go haywire, you would have some option.— have some option. profits are u . have some option. profits are up sharply. — have some option. profits are up sharply, share _ have some option. profits are up sharply, share prices - up sharply, share prices reflecting that, what you think is behind the banks recent successes?— is behind the banks recent successes? , ., , ., successes? interest rates. you know, successes? interest rates. you know. that — successes? interest rates. you know, that has _ successes? interest rates. you know, that has really - successes? interest rates. you know, that has really been - successes? interest rates. you know, that has really been the | know, that has really been the big driver of the huge profits on the banks have generated. we have seen several banks beat expectations both in europe and the us and particularly hsbc which takes deposits, interest rates have given a huge boost, but what we are seeing now is the interest rate environment will change, they are going to go down and so banks have to really figure out a way of getting what they call sticky money, which generally means they want to focus on things like wealth management, advisory, so we will have to

see how that affects their performance.— see how that affects their erformance. ., ,,�* performance. looking at hsbc for that sticky _ performance. looking at hsbc for that sticky money, - performance. looking at hsbc for that sticky money, what i for that sticky money, what could they do? what are the options open to them? well, you really want _ options open to them? well, you really want to _ options open to them? well, you really want to focus _ options open to them? well, you really want to focus on _ options open to them? well, you really want to focus on the - really want to focus on the wealth management business which is what we have seen them do and that has obviously been a benefit to them this quarter, that was a big driver of their pre—tax profits, but everyone wants to get into wealth management and do better at it, so it is really a massive area. i also think geographically speaking they will focus on the markets where they are the strongest, which is clearly at the moment the asian markets, so that is something we are seeing in the way that he restructured the bank as well. in other news.... and america's largest bank — jpmorgan chase — has begun suing us customers for cheque fraud — saying they improperly withdrew funds by taking illegal advantage of a temporary technical glitch that went viral on tiktok.

the glitch in late august let customers deposit big checks in atms and withdraw funds immediately before the checks could clear, even if the checks later bounced. apple has released an update that enables artificial intelligence features in some of its latest iphones. the new apple intelligence will help users to proof—read text and remove unwanted objects from photos. the release is a big milestone for apple, whose ai strategy has come under scrutiny for lagging behind competitors like samsung and google. us coffee chain starbucks has threatened to fire corporate staff who fail to work at least three days a week in the office, according to reports from bloomberg. last year, dozens of staff signed a petition protesting against the call for a return to office working. starbucks ceo bryan niccol says the office is the best place for staff collaboration, as he tries to reverse falling sales.

you are up—to—date, that his business today.

let's return to them middle east where the hamas—run health ministry in gaza says an israeli air strike in the northern town of beit lahia has left at least 93 palestinians, killed or missing, including 20 children. many are said to be under the rubble of a four—storey residential building. witnesses say neighbours have been trying to drag bodies from the debris. the victims are reported to include families displaced by the renewed israeli offensive in northern gaza, which has claimed hundreds of lives. israel's military says its looking into the incident. it comes after a vote in the israeli parliament on monday banning the un's palestinian refugee agency unrwa from working within the country. israel alleges that some unrwa employees were involved in the october the 7th attacks.

with me is our reporter richard irvine—brown