big tech stocks rally on hopes of an interest rate cut as inflation rises in line with expectations. president biden moves to hike tariffs on china. we'll look at how us—china trade tensions could impact asia in 2025. hello and welcome to business today. i'm steve lai. we'll start with some breaking news from south korea and president yoon suk yeol has defended his decision to impose martial law last week. in a public address, the president hit out at the opposition party accusing them of creating a "national crisis". the benchmark conisbee index

was affected but has since recovered. that is off the back of tech companies railing on tuesday. the latest data showed that prices rose 2.7% in november compared with a year before. that's in line with what analysts were predicting. markets reacted positively to the news with the tech—heavy nasdaq topping 20,000 points for the first time. inflation has generally been cooling throughout 2024, but concerns around the cost of living have been a hot—button issue. for more, i'm joined by economist paul gruenwald. a slight uptick in the inflation numbers, we are kind of going sideways. may one good piece of news was shelter inflation went down a bit but in line with expectations, so no big surprises as far as the market is concerned. looking back over the year, what are your overall thoughts on inflation this year?

going cards we think the fed. going easy. if we get the cut, may be priced in we might get three or four, we have the fed staff into stopping at 3.5 but we would put upside risks around that given the policy intentions of the incoming trump administration. speaking of that, treasury secretary janet yellen has come out to say that incoming president trump's tariff plans could put inflationary pressure , cause for concern? we have a large tax cut bill and more fiscal stimulus than

under trump than harris, so that could be inflationary and if we take workers out of the labour force and that could push up inflation as well. fin push up inflation as well. on all three of _ push up inflation as well. q�*i all three of those main piracy france, it looks like we have a positive inflation impulse potentially coming out of the new administration. does that concern you? it concerns me in the sense the fed will have to factor that into its policy decisions and the risk in our view is the fed stops cutting much earlier than expected. some forward pricing suggests the fed could stop cutting when it gets to about four. we are not as aggressive, we are about 3.5 but the risks to the focus under the new government are that inflation pressures are higher and the fed would have to stop cutting rates earlier. the nasdaq hitting 20,000 points wasn't the only record broken on wednesday. elon musk�*s net worth surpassed the $400 billion mark, a historic first, as the value of his companies tesla and spacex surged.

0ur north america business correspondent michelle fleury has the latest from new york. the richest purses in the world just got richer. elon musk now boasts a net worth of $400 billion, making him the first person in history to ever hit that milestone. —— person. shares in tesla, his electric vehicle, rose to a new record high on the same day the tech heavy nasdaq index had 20,000 points for the first time in its history. tesla have rallied 69% since the election of donald trump but it was a sale of shares at his privately held firm spacex value the company at $350 billion that supercharged his wealth. the move boosted the founder's network $439 billion according bloomberg. last week delaware judge read jacketed musk�*s pay package but even if it is remote, from's but he will

still be the world's richest person and as miss come ——mr musk prepares to lead efforts to streamline government operations it is perhaps a sign wealth and power in america have become even more closely intertwined. have become even more closely intertwined-— intertwined. tiktok requested an emergency _ intertwined. tiktok requested an emergency injunction - intertwined. tiktok requested an emergency injunction to i an emergency injunction to prevent it from becoming unavailable in the us. a law taking effect on the 19th of january demands the b cell because of alleged links to the chinese state, links that tiktok has denied. president—elect donald trump has invited chinese leader xijinping to his inauguration according to reports from our us partner cbs news. trump reportedly offered xi an invitation in november, shortly after securing victory in the presidential election. it remains unclear if the chinese president has accepted the invitation. trump will become the 47th us president during the ceremony in washington on 20 january.

staying with us—china relations, and washington has increased tariffs on imports of chinese solar products as trade relations continue to deteriorate between the world's two biggest economies. the new taxes target chinese solar wafers and polysilicon, as the biden administration looks to protect the domestic clean—energy industry from cheaperforeign imports. the new measures will take effect at the start of 2025. asian economies are bracing for the impact of these latest tariffs, along with the new taxes that president—elect trump is set to impose. a new report by the asian development bank says the impact on the region in the short—term is minimal. albert park, chief economist at the adb, gave his reaction. when ever tariffs are going up in the asia—pacific region, it

is bad news. that creates a headwind but i think the intended trump tariffs, the threat to raise tariffs on china by 60% and on other countries ten to 20%, one byproduct of that will be that some countries in the region could benefit from that as they did in the first trump administration if they can replace chinese exports to the us and fill in those gaps. d0 us and fill in those gaps. do ou see us and fill in those gaps. do you see that being the way things will head then that other countries. start other countries. ... start avoiding other countries. start avoiding doing business with the us? i avoiding doing business with the us? 4' , avoiding doing business with the us? ~ , .. , the us? i think every country will have _ the us? i think every country will have to _ the us? i think every country will have to make _ the us? i think every country will have to make its - the us? i think every country will have to make its own - will have to make its own calculation. i think as you noted, we think the overall effects may be a little bit more mitigated than the first trump administration. that is partly because china has already secured more of its trade to other parts of the world in response to the first set of tariffs from the us and then as well, china's economy as it has grown has become less

export—dependent, so both overall exports and exports to the us how a lower share of its gdp than before. of course, high tariffs will still hurt china in terms of its ability to export goods to the us and that will have knock on negative effects to countries in the region that are supplying inputs to china and those tend to be some of the east asia high—tech exporting countries but it could benefit the countries where china tends to supply inputs and then they process those inputs and export those to the united states. those opportunities could increase. 0verall, those opportunities could increase. overall, we think the impacts on third—party regions will be somewhat mixed. how are you weighing the broader risks of a trump presidency? we know it is more isolationist and confrontational. in addition _ and confrontational. in addition to that, there are

more concerns about economic policies and global impacts. many think policies will be inflationary, restricting migration or deporting illegal immigrants will be a negative supply shock and increased wages and prices as well if there are more tax cuts or greater spending, defence spending etc, this would increase budget deficits and also create pressure for inflation and this could lead the fed to have high interest rates for longer. we know interest rates are coming down, but the trajectory of those rate cuts will be slower next yeari rate cuts will be slower next year i think under a trump administration and that has effects on asia because the us fed interest—rate rides a lot of financial space and pressure in the region and in an area where there are still a few economies with elevator debt to gdp levels i think that would reduce the ability of central banks in the region and

asia—pacific to reduce their interest rates and support a more robust economic recovery. whatsapp and instagram are back online after a global outage hit several meta—owned apps. some users were unable to access the apps at all, while others reported problems with refreshing their feeds. facebook has yet to confirm whether all of its issues have been resolved. the outage has impacted social media users across asia, europe and the us. do not change chrissie cream says it has been hit by a cyber attack which disrupted its online systems. some us customers have been unable to make online orders as a result of the hack which occurred in late november but has onlyjust been disclosed. in a filing the company said it is working to resolve the issue while adding it is —— its brick and mortar shops remain open. and a reminder of that breaking news from south korea, and president yoon suk yeol has defended his decision to impose martial law last week. in a public address,

the president hit out at the opposition party, accusing them of creating a "national crisis". i will be back. goodbye for now.

hey, it is lucy with the catch up. a welcome announcement and a dream come true. we are starting tonight by remembering sara sharif and a heads up, you might find parts of the story distressing. she endured more than two years of abuse before her body was found with dozens of injuries at a home in surrey last year. today her father here on the left and her stepmother have been found guilty of her murder. her uncle was found guilty of causing or allowing the death of a child. here is a bit of what police said outside court. the murder of a child _ said outside court. the murder of a child is — said outside court. the murder of a child is shocking _ said outside court. the murder of a child is shocking but - said outside court. the murder of a child is shocking but the l of a child is shocking but the horrific nature of the abuse she suffered during her short life has made this case particularly disturbing. the

day justice for her particularly disturbing. the dayjustice for her has been served. , ., ., ., served. ten-year-old sara has been described _ served. ten-year-old sara has been described as _ served. ten-year-old sara has been described as caring, - been described as caring, cheerful and a chatterbox. she loved singing and dancing and wanted to win the x factor. next, there are no big surprises but fifa confirmed saudi arabia will host the men's world cup in 2034. it was the only country who bid for the only country who bid for the tournament but there was concerned about a lack of clarity over that process. the choice has been criticised because of the country's treatment of women, lgbt people and its involvement in the oil industry. and here is ten seconds of (unknown term). she

said winning the competition was a dream come true. that is it from us. hello and welcome to sportsday from the bbc sport centre with me chetan pathak. coming up on the programme: a seventh defeat in ten matches. manchester city's hopes of progressing in the champions league hang in the balance. but no problems for arsenal as bukayo saka edges them closer to the knockout stages. and as fifa confirms the 2034 world cup is heading to saudi arabia, we'll bring you all the reaction to a contentious decision.

welcome along. thank you forjoining us. we start with the uefa champions league and more problems for manchester city — pep guardiola's side now have just one win in their last ten matches in all competitions after a 2—0 defeat tojuventus in turin. both goals coming in the second half — dusan vlahovic heading the home side in front — they've had their struggles