michelle fleury reports.said revenue for this quarter would be lower than forecast. trade tensions between china and the us we re tensions between china and the us were partly to blame as well as fewer people choosing to upgrade their iphones. apple shares fell more than 6% on the news. in a letter to investors, the boss of apple, tim cook, said we did not foresee the magnitude of the economic deceleration, particularly in greater china. he went on to add, we believe the economic environment in china has been further impacted by rising trade tensions with the united states. the financial markets, this is likely to add fuel to the fire after another day that saw the main us indexes swing back and forth from negative into a positive territory. investors are worried that weakness will ultimately hurt the us economy. as well as trade markets also worried about the federal reserve and their plans to raise interest rates this year. could it be another factor that could choke growth? comments from the white house on

michelle fleury there in new york. that donald trump is still planning to go ahead with next week's state of the union address despite the house speaker nancy pelosi strongly urging the president to delay the speech due to the government shut down. and this all comes as the deadlock has passed the one—month mark. while it is now the longer shut down in us history, cutting off funding for about a quarter of the federal government, leaving some 800,000 employees without pay. economists estimate the shutdown will shave off a small percentage of economic growth per week, in dollar terms it is costing the us economy just week, in dollar terms it is costing the us economyjust over $1 billion each week. the shutdown continues. the motley fool told me why they think the president can end the deadlock. i think the ball is in donald trump's court because donald trump has decided to tie he is wall to the budget and he has made this pl between mexico and america plank of his presidency. he sees that as a simple —— this wall. he do

that was michelle flory. —— fleury. couple of hours there has been some positive news for investors. china has confirmed that talks will resume with the us next week, aimed at ending the trade war between the two sides. rico hizon is following the story in singapore. i have a sense of deja vu here. we have been here before. is anything going to come of it? this mightjust be the happy new year's news that we are all waiting for. but of course, keeping ourfingers are all waiting for. but of course, keeping our fingers crossed that there will be genuine progress next week. there is a vice ministerial level meeting hopes to end a dispute which is inflicting increasing pain on the two global economies and dragging global markets lower, and the two nations have been locked in a trade warfor the two nations have been locked in a trade war for most of 2018, disrupting the flow of hundreds of million ‘s worth of goods, and stoking fears of a global economic slow down. —— hundreds of million ‘s of dollars. china's economic minist

michelle fleury reports from the fed.he word of the day as fed officials said they would ta ke day as fed officials said they would take a wait and see approach to policy. by unanimous decision officials decided to leave key interest rate unchanged. to 2.5%. they also indicated their balance sheets, which grew considerably in the wake of the financial crisis, would remain sizeable. after the decision was announced, jerome powell said the us economy remains strong but he also learned of crosscu rre nts, strong but he also learned of crosscurrents, citing slow in growth in china and the eu as well as brexit and trade talks and he seemed to have a warning for politicians in washington about the damage should there be a second us government shutdown. if there was going to be a permanent or lasting effect it would be from a longer shut down or perhaps a second shutdown and that would be through the channels of lack of confidence and the ability of making policy in the us. the reaction was instant. part of the reason is that it

michelle fleury reports from michigan.ing, the business of a small manufacturing company is booming. this man credits donald trump or the positive change here seen at his own shop. tariffs on imported steel and made it easier to convince customers to buy locally. what resonated with me on the economy is the promise of the donald trump gave us that he wa nted the donald trump gave us that he wanted to bring jobs back to the united states and back to america and help american families, and i believe that is exactly what he is following through on those promises. donald trump can't claim full credit for the strength of the us economy, it started under his predecessor, barack obama. but to understand his popularity here in the industrial midwest, you need look no further than business confidence. especially among small business owners. this chart shows how optimistic small—business owners in the us have been over the last ten years, and this bike coincides with the moment donald trump was elected. the strongest economy i have

carmaker is trying to put its best foot forward at a time of uncertainty for the industry, as michelle fleuryeports from america's motor city. ladies and gentlemen, the 2020 cadillac xt6! chasing the luxury market and profit, the new family crossover vehicle. market and profit, the new family crossovervehicle. bigger market and profit, the new family crossover vehicle. bigger cars mean bigger profits. the cadillac xt6 on show for the first—time here in detroit. the other star of the night was gm's cheap executive. can you tell us what you think the prospects are for the us car market? are we headed for a downturn? with either market remaining strong. i am excited, we are advising our technology electric vehicle technology. there is plenty of opportunities and gm is intent on leading. get into that position has required some tough choices. to shore up their fortunes in the future, the company plans to stop making cars at five plants in north america, including this one. for the employees who have sacrificed a lot to keep gm afloat in the past, this change comes at a higher price. we had to go

michelle fleury has the details. machines whirring, sparks flying.has seen at his own shop. tariffs on imported steel have made it easier to convince customers to buy locally. what resonated with me on the economy is promises that donald trump gave us that he wanted to bring jobs back to the us and back to america to help american families and i believe that's exactly what he is following through on those promises. donald trump can't claim full credit for the strength of the us economy. it started under his predecessor barack obama. but to understand his popularity here in the industrial midwest, you need look no further than that business confidence. especially among small business owners. this chart shows how optimistic small business owners in the us have been over the last ten yea rs. the us have been over the last ten years. and this spike coincides with the moment donald trump was elected. the strongest economy i've seen in my lifetime. justin runs the economic development partnership. he says the president's tough talk on trade is popular. but

michelle fleury, new york. our new york business correspondent michelle fleury has the story.he might get to that as at that sign the fact that trade negotiators on both side spent an extra day, so i making any we we re spent an extra day, so i making any we were only thinking they would meet for three days, be met for three, a sign that perhaps there is some progress being made. what we do now is that on the price day, a lot of the focus was on china's badge to buy a substantial amount of agriculture energy and manufacturing that from america. what the people from the erased trade representatives off where pushing fire where some site —— sort of clarification of the timetable. senior—level by x amount of grains from american farmers, the question is of what time period lopez happened that we can hold you accountable to? read as this of the many parents both countries have introduced on each on his exploits? what we have at the moment is just a trace where america has if you want increased tariffs, but what is already there remains in place, the only change is perhaps time par

jane: a brief time ago i spoke with the bbc's business correspondent michelle fleury. id say progress, but how likely is a deal before this deadline? michelle: well, if you listen to donald trump's tweet a what he said in the ov office, he seems confident there is a comprehensive deal to be done. when you tk to people more oadly, there is a huge degree of skepticism the scale of what america is asking from the chinese, which is structural changes to their economy. given that china has laid out plans for made in china 2025 to ikcus industrial policy on developing areasartificial intelligence, robots, moving may from the state-led economy to an american-stye capitalist economy, that seems to be a tall order. that being said, in a sign of bugoodwill, china agreed t5 million tons a day of soybeans. so they are willing to negotiate, but not as far as americans would like. been tensions ha growin just how high are the stakes? michelle: many people have questions about the mood music yoing into these talks wenu consider that the u.s. government laid out charges against the hug

and michelle fleury has the details of what's ahead on wall street today. will be focused on the outcome of two days of trade talks in beijing between the us and china. detailed figures showing how the us and china trade war is affecting imports and exports are among economic releases to be delayed this week as the partial shutdown of the us government drags on. the commerce department's release of the international trade report for november is postponed and a notice on their website says that the agency will not be publishing any data during the shutdown. but don't worry if you're at a loss with what to do, you can turn your attention to las vegas, where the consumer electronics show kicks off. joining us now is simon french, who's the chief economist at panmure gordon. america's leading stock exchange facing potentially new competition, nine firms trying to create an alternative stock exchange which they say will cut costs 12 are on by companies that have responsibility to generate profits to their shareholders and that will be pushing up prices and there

and michelle fleury has the details of what's ahead on wall street today.overnment shutdown enters its 33rd day and wall street is focused on company results. ibm shares rose sharply after the technology company reported stronger than expected revenue in the fourth quarter. stronger sales in its cloud and services businesses help offset pressure from a strong dollar. procter & gamble is likely to report a drop in second—quarter revenue. kimberly—clark's fourth—quarter profits expected to drop. both struggling with rising raw material costs. four is scheduled to report this fourth—quarter profit. the american car—maker is in the middle of restructuring and has warned that results would come in below wall street expectations. that is michelle with the latest on what will happen on wall street later today. let's now turn to davos, where uk trade sectretary liam fox is currently trying to drum up support for trade with the uk after brexit. he warned that quick deals with the uk could be harmed by attempts to block "no deal". some countries do not yet believe th

and michelle fleury has the details of what's ahead on wall street today.ttention to the release of the minutes from the federal reserve's policy—setting meeting back in december. they are likely to show how fed officials viewed mixed signals from the us economy at the end of last year with what they see as the biggest risks. late on tuesday the world bank revised down its global growth forecast for 2019 to 2.9% from 3%. looking forward there are also a couple of earnings on tap. the wine and spirits constellation brands report its results for the third quarter. strong demand for corona beers is expected to lift revenue and investors will also be looking for an update from the company on its investment in the canadian cannabis company called canopy. also given the fierce competition amongst retailers markets do not expect much from bed bath & beyond. heavy discounting is eating into its profits. the company is likely to post a drop in profits for the third quarter. joining us us mike amey, managing director and portfolio manager at pimco. nice to see you, h

and michelle fleury has the details of what's ahead on wall street today.market back on, you might be thinking? the index of america's biggest companies has now risen for five days in a row, which hasn't happened since back in september before all those worries about erections and bear markets took hold. but there are still plenty of factors around which could alarm investors. what the federal reserve will do next is top of that list. the data out on friday will collect a lot of attention. forecasts are for prices to have slipped slightly in the past month, but to still be increasing atjust over 2% per year. but if inflation has actually picked up, well, investors may start worrying about more interest—rate hikes that could stop this recent market surge in its tracks. joining us us now richard dunbar, senior investment strategist, aberdeen standard investments. good to see you. i mean, it is such a mixed picture in the us at the moment, but one thing we picked up on what macy's with a 18% fall in its share price courtesy of relatively poor, not disastrous,

michelle fleury is there.owerful vehicle etc made, the shelby gt 500. it's not the only highly anticipated debut here at the detroit's motor show. the car—maker is about to expand its partnership with bw at the time it's cutting costs to meet the challenges of electric vehicles and the push towards autonomous driving. he was the board president of global marketing. if you are smart it reduces your capital and investment in things that customers don't see, like platform. i'm not going to get into specifics but there will be new news on ford on multiple fronts, we've been working with books wagon and other companies, these are important ways to become more efficient and make vehicles more capable. and message echoed at the bw stand. the german car—maker investing $800 million and creating 1000 jobs to build a new electric car at its plant in tennessee. and it could still use more capacity to build cars according to the bw boss. we are build cars according to the bw boss. we a re really build cars according to th

michelle fleury has the details of what's ahead on wall street today.abor department will release the final employment report of 2018, offering a snapshot of the us economy at a time of volatility on the stock market. economists at goldman sachs predict 195,000 jobs were created in december. that's higher than the 180,000 jobs that many others are forecasting and it compares to 155,000 workers hired in november. the unemployment rate is expected to remain unchanged at 3.7%. while hiring remains strong, weak manufacturing data has rattled the markets. fearing a slowdown, investors expect the federal reserve, america's central bank, to take a break from hiking rates. so, they will be paying close attention to what fed chairman jerome powell has to say when he sits down with former fed chairs janet yellen and ben bernanke at an economic conference in atlanta. that will be a bundle of laughs! joining us is richard hunter, head of markets at interactive investor. ona on a serious note, a lot of talk about these markets shining a light on china a demand from

here's michelle fleury. it's continued to be plagued by fears of a global slowdown.er the latest economic report out of america for any signs of trouble in the us economy which, so far, has seen fairly robust growth. now, this thursday sees the release of a barometer of factory activity. the ism manufacturing index is expected to dip to 57.9 from november's very strong reading of 59.3. remember, any number over 50 is considered a sign of expansion. now, a separate report on wednesday showed that business confidence among us manufacturers was already at its weakest point since october 2016. the big car—makers like ford, toyota and fiat chrysler are expected to release sales figures for december. car information specialist edmunds is forecasting a 0.3% increase from december 2017. they noted, in a recent statement, that car—makers are really pulling out all the stops in december to close the year on a high note. that is michelle from new york. joining us us sophie kilvert, senior investment manager at seven investment management. it is nice to see you. and behind as is

and michelle fleury has the details of what's ahead on wall street today.day but, for investors, many of the same headaches plagued the markets at the end of 2018. the trade war between the us and china isn't over. global growth is slowing. and the strength of the us dollar is making life tougher for us exporters. plus, you can forget the jolt of caffeine from tax reform, which helped lift corporate profits and stock prices at the start of last year. so, what does 2019 hold? well, the earnings calendar is off to a slow start. the pace of companies turning in their report card doesn't pick up until later in the month. well, we should get a glimpse into the health of us manufacturing. economists expect the purchasing managers' index for december to drop to 53.9, as heightened economic worries take their toll. that would be the second monthly drop. now, this is still only an amber—light warning, rather than a flashing red signal. readings above 50 indicate an expansion in manufacturing. michelle in new york looking at what the markets have in store. joining us

and michelle fleury has the details of what's ahead on wall street today.deral reserve's december meeting reveal more caution among policymakers than their statement at the time implied. the message that the central bank in america can afford to wait before raising interest rates again as it considers the risks to the economy. none of this will stop investors from looking for new clues on interest—rate policy when the chairman of the federal reserve speaks this thursday. as for economic data, look out for weekly jobless claims. the number of americans claiming state unemployment benefits is likely to have dropped to 225,000 at the end of last week. we will see next week ifa of last week. we will see next week if a partial government shut down spurs federal workers to request funds. joining us is jane foley, senior currency strategist at rabobank. let's talk about the asian markets and the broader markets, because we have seen a few days where the asian markets seemed to be on a roll, thinking positively, but they are taking a breather now, what are investor

michelle fleury reports from outside the federal reserve in washington.ed officials signalled they would take a wait and see approach to interest rate policy. by unanimous decision, officials inside here voted to leave a key interest rate unchanged, in the range of two and a quarter, two and a half percent. they also indic indicated that the balance sheet, which grew in the wake of the financial crisis, would remain sizeable. at press conference with the fed chair, he said the us economy remains strong but he also warned crosscurrents, citing slowing growth in china and the eu, as well as dixit and trade talks. the reaction from the financial markets was insolent, the dowjones industrial average was up from 450 points on the news. part of the reason is it caught many people by surprise. after all, for the past few years, the federal reserve had been raising interest rates. now it is taking a pause. michelle was on fed watch. joining us is sophie kilvert, senior investment manager at seven investment management. good morning, sophie. so if we start with th

and michelle fleury has the details of what's ahead on wall street today.losses in europe as well as china. 0ne—time pension costs eating into its earnings. investors looking ahead will pay close attention to airline stocks, jet blue, southwest airlines all scheduled to report quarterly earnings this thursday. after a steep rise in fuel prices which put pressure on profits all street wa nts which put pressure on profits all street wants to know how they are faring. there will also be keeping an eye on any indications that this partial government shut down entering its 34th day is it hurting business at the major carriers? there is turning in the report cards on intel, starbucks and pharmaceutical company was still my is scope. joining us is kokou agbo—bloua from societe generale. you either head of float strategy, explain to me what that is. we look at market flows and positioning across all asset classes and the advice investors in terms of investment strategy. given that what you do and you have been looking at the overall macro view of what's been going

to point out the founder of the company and ceo has connections to the leadership in china —— michelle fleurynd up spying on other governments on the half of the chinese authorities. the firm, as i say, has consistently denied this, beyond this link that the founder has two the chinese leadership there is little for evidence out there but of course national security concerns seem of course national security concerns seem to be gaining ground, because if you look at what germany has said the last they don't want to buy... don't want their companies to use huawei equipment in the roll—out of sg, huawei equipment in the roll—out of 5g, and in the uk you had an ep last month saying they would not be buying technology from huawei to be used in uk emergency services. so it is starting to take a toll on this firm. doesn't huawei called a little bit of leveraged because it has 5g know—how that very few companies in the world have? you know, those companies, that department is meant to be huge. they spent a fortune developing technology, so to try to buy it from other firms would be increasingly costl

michelle fleury is in new york. what is the story?ountries and infrastructure product, perhaps not such a surprise given his background and the amount of work he's done at the world bank trying to focus very much on sort of using infrastructure development as a means of helping many of the banks clients to climb out of poverty and address some of the big issue is whether it's climate change, the refugee crisis, but all of it will reignite questions about who leads the world bank next, who will his successor be? traditionally it's been an american picked by the us with the treasury department taking the lead. the treasury department has issued a statement and a spokesperson said to the bbc that they look forward to working with governors to appoint a successor but many countries are unhappy with this. they would like to see someone who is not an american lead to what is essentially a global lender to reflect perhaps the needs of some of the countries. i remember the interviews he gave when he took on the job, talked about how it was a

michelle fleury joins us from wasghington.ly is?|j have any detail on what this progress actually is? i think we are hoping to find out in the next hour 01’ so hoping to find out in the next hour or so what the americans have achieved at this meeting. normally, during this kind of talks, you often get a framework documents with a lot of blank spaces left and to be filled in later at the details are right there. what we are beginning to here is that it is unlikely in this particular case, if you listen to donald trump, the mood music coming from the oval office has been broadly positive, he is very keen to try and achieve some kind of deal. let me redo this that mickey said this would not be a small deal with china, this is either going to be a big deal or it will be a deal that would just postpone for a while. what i take from that is that the us is willing potentially to postpone that in a march one deadline if need be if they think they can get a bigger much more comprehensive deal but at the moment, lee still seems to bea b

michelle fleury is in new york.e of what's going on in terms of the international market? well we are waiting to find out any moment now what the kind of final tally will be for car sales for the year in america. the figure that is being bandied around his 17 million, and whether that turns out to be correct, we have seen sales over 20 million since 2015 here in the us. pretty impressive record levels, but if you look what has happened to the stocks of these companies today, they've all been negative. because people believe the future will not be as good as the past two years has been for the industry. a lot of that has to do with the fears driving the market in general at the moment, which is the prospect that perhaps growth is decelerating, slowing down, or in some parts of the world, maybe a reception. —— recession. people may be buying fewer cars, which is where that anxiety creeps in. there is his concern that consumers are not going to be rushing out to buy new vehicles, but perhaps spending more money on seco

michelle fleury is there.n car industry, the big three car—makers are here: general motors, ford and chrysler. i am not at one of their stands, i am at the chinese car stand, gac motors, this vehicle i am standing next to, the company wants to bring it to america, chinese vehicle, to be sold to the american market, already very popular in the home market. talking about sales in china beginning to slow down, what i'm hearing from the executive so far in detroit is a sense of optimism, that yes, sales a re detroit is a sense of optimism, that yes, sales are slowing, but the big picture for those who plan in many yea rs, picture for those who plan in many years, not monthly increments, is that sales will continue to grow in the market even if hitting pause right now. are there are more fundamental decisions about what transportation is going to be like for all of this? the simple idea of us for all of this? the simple idea of us all having cars increasingly feels a little untenable ? ? us all having cars increasi

our business correspondent michelle fleury is in washington, where the talks are talking place.is there on american negotiators to get the deal, given that american companies are starting to say that the white house, this is really hurting us? anecdotally we are hearing from companies like apple, they say in greater china the revenues are down by $5 billion. harley—davidson is talking about the difficulties the trade war is costing on its business. the anecdotal evidence is pointing to the fact that despite what administration officials are saying, it does seem to be having an impact on american companies. the question is, word is that lead to? on one hand, concerns over national security in the case of huawei, that is partly behind this. there is also a split vision over what the direction of these two giant economies should be. on the one hand you have the alerts model in america, the state led model in china. that is what the americans would like to see change. it is a big ask and it is unclear if the chinese can meet them on that. president hollande probably feels he has the

michelle fleury, new york. if the shake up a euphemism for cuts?s also news out of that one land rover. you may recall back in november general motors was announcing substantial cuts in the united states. the backdrop to all of this is one of global capacity. there is too much of it in the car industry. in other words car companies around the world that make more cars that there are people who wa nt to more cars that there are people who want to buy them. as a result of that, they are starting to try and alter their production need to reflect that. the palm is for those who work in the industry, that means paying in the form of lay—offs. presumably they‘ re also paying in the form of lay—offs. presumably they're also thinking about making different vehicles. presumably they're also thinking about making different vehiclesm seems to be a switch is certainly here in america or other parts of the world as well, away from small 4—door cars towards the border —— sporty and utility vehicles. that is where the car makers think they can make more money int

michelle fleury is in new york. any hope for sears? and has a 24—hour lifeline.ash by 4pm tomorrow, $120 million. eddie lampert is the chairman of sears who put ina lampert is the chairman of sears who put in a bid for the company at $4.4 billion to stop the offer was rejected by the company in part because all of this was going to be financed through loans, none would be put forward in cash, and that is why you now have this reprieve last minute negotiations. that means more uncertainty for the thousands, tens of thousands of staff waiting to find out what is the future of a department store that really was once the walmart of the country or the amazon of the country. let's talk about amazon. it seems unstoppable and in some ways the fa ct unstoppable and in some ways the fact that online commerce would become a big deal has been no secret. people have been talking about it for 20 years. what is it that amazon is doing that everyone else is struggling to do?” that amazon is doing that everyone else is struggling to do? i think we a lwa ys else is struggling to d

michelle fleury in washington. quite pleased by the outcome of this meeting. it is a real change in policy if you think back, the federal reserve, the officials in the building behind me had for the last several years been ona had for the last several years been on a tightening policy. he had been trying to get rates slightly higher and higher, back to what we would consider more normal levels after the financial crisis. now they are indicating they will take a break. he did not know how long this will last. they are calling it time to be patient, while they consider what is happening with the economy and one of the learnings we heard about in the past confidence short while ago, he talked about crosscurrents and cited specifically slower growth in china and the european union, the unknown outcome of brexit and he talked about the recent government shutdown here. in the last minute the trade talks between the us and china, how did they play into this story? trade of the net across current the fed is referring to. l

let's talk to michelle fleury, north america business correspondent. where are we going with this?entially declaring a national emergency. in the meantime we are on day 21 of the shutdown. it is going to be the first friday use out of the federal workers going without pay tax. we have from the chair of the federal reserve this week and he was talking about the fact that at the moment a shutdown doesn't necessarily have that big an impact on the us economy but longer term it could and certainly when it comes to doing hisjob it is getting tricky because one of the nine departments shutdown is the commerce department which produces a huge amount of economic data that they rely on to try to assess the state of the us economy. is there a sign that president trump maybe thinking about not necessarily backing down but coming to some sort of compromise? the politics of this are very difficult. he is looking towards an election of 2020 and what will happen then. 0ne election of 2020 and what will happen then. one of his campaign promises was that he would build a wall and it would be paid b

joining us now is our north america business correspondent, michelle fleury. got the down, all three major indexes opening sharply lower, all down more than 1%. over my right shoulder, a sea of red right now. the only thing that is showing green is actually gold which is often seen as a safe haven for investors. the hangover from is often seen as a safe haven for investors. the hangoverfrom 2018 carrying over into this year. there was disappointing data from chinese factories. presumably, that is linked to the ongoing trade war between beijing and washington?“ you have these concerns about slowing chinese growth, and manufacturing confirmed what some investors suspected, that you are seeing manufacturing slowing in china, the trade dispute is bite, that feeds into this broader concern that feeds into this broader concern that people have that globally growth is slowing. that then ties into the commodities pictures. we have seen the price of oil falling because people assumed in part that demand for oil would be less safe growth slowdown. we also had a report f

michelle fleury joins us from new york. what have the two sides been saying about the talks?een made on is the question of forced technology sharing, the idea of american companies doing business in china sharing trade information that they perhaps didn't want to. the other thing we had from the us trade representative put out a statement saying that they had made progress, in particular on china's commitment to try and buy more goods, whether they are agricultural or industrial products from the us. no time for that but these are the statements coming out from both of these parties after three days of pop. one more spot any actual firm action?|j mentioned more spot any actual firm action?” mentioned china had made progress pledges to the us on buying more goods from american firms. one of the things that the us was pushing for is details going forward above the time i for that, that doesn't seems to have happened yet. in other words, it's great to have pledges but we want to make sure the chinese follows through on this. in the past, we have seen china pledging to balmer to

michelle fleury — our north america business correspondent — is at the show.ng term, they still expect this to be a car market which ultimately... it is already the biggest in the world, but it will ultimately go from vehicle sales in the 20s to vehicle sales in 13 million. in the us, they are coming off record sales. the forecast we are hearing for 2019 shaul deceleration here in the united states with higher interest rates making it more costly for car buyers to go out and get new wheels, that the same time, this is still not a bad place. where the gloom comes in is the fact that car are forced to make very difficult choices at the moment, choices about how to use the profits from today to fund the future. i'm talking about autonomous vehicles, electric vehicles, ride sharing, all the buzzwords we keep hearing about at shows like this. some notable absences though. no sign of bmw, mercedes—benz or audi at the show this year. what to be read into that? well, one person said to me that part of the reason behind this is that car—makers are going whether custome