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[00:00:00] MUSIC
[00:00:02] Now on BBC News. The latest business
[00:00:07] business news from across the globe.
[00:00:09] globe. Business Today. Exodus fears
[00:00:21] fears investors pull billions of of dollars out of Binance as the
[00:00:24] the hacked crypto exchange reopens
[00:00:26] reopens for withdrawals. Oil prices
[00:00:29] prices dip despite more attacks on on tankers in the Gulf as talks raised
[00:00:32] raised the prospect of a diplomatic
[00:00:35] diplomatic solution to the war. The
[00:00:37] The AI bears take a breather. Tech Tech shares stabilise after Friday's
[00:00:41] Friday's trillion dollar sell off
[00:00:44] off and stressed out campaigners campaigners warn of the toxic effects
[00:00:48] effects of workplace stress. We'll We'll get some coping tips from a
[00:00:52] a leading expert. Hello. Welcome
[00:00:54] Welcome along. This is Business Today. Today. I'm Ben Thompson. We're going
[00:00:57] going to start with fears of a bank
[00:01:01] bank run on the cryptocurrency exchange exchange Binance after it suffered
[00:01:03] suffered the biggest ever crypto crypto heist last week. Binance reopened
[00:01:07] reopened for withdrawals for a few few hours on Sunday, and it's admitted
[00:01:10] admitted that billions of dollars dollars have been taken out by customers.
[00:01:13] customers. But the scale of that that is still becoming clear. So So let's run you through the numbers.
[00:01:17] numbers. And Binance says it suffered
[00:01:19] suffered a net outflow of $3.6 billion
[00:01:22] billion that happened on Sunday. Sunday. But according to the Financial
[00:01:26] Financial Times, that figure is already already higher $5 billion based on
[00:01:29] on crypto analytics firm DefiLlama
[00:01:32] DefiLlama DefiLlama. Either way, way, it is still a fraction of the
[00:01:35] the total funds held by Binance,
[00:01:37] Binance, which it claims is $171
[00:01:40] $171 billion. Binance has, of course, course, pledged to cover any investor
[00:01:44] investor losses, but just how much much long-term damage has been done
[00:01:47] done to Binance and cryptocurrency
[00:01:49] cryptocurrency in general by last last week's security breach. Let's
[00:01:52] Let's talk now to Katharine Wooller, Wooller, who's a banking and financial
[00:01:55] financial services strategist for for the IT company Softcat. Good
[00:01:58] Good to have you here. And let me me start with that. How damaging
[00:02:02] damaging is this Reputationally to to the industry do you think? Yeah,
[00:02:04] Yeah, sure. Look, it's a big problem. problem. Binance is the world's largest
[00:02:08] largest crypto exchange. So a place place where private individuals or
[00:02:13] or businesses or institutions can can buy and sell crypto and a range
[00:02:15] range of other activities such as as sending crypto and earning interest
[00:02:18] interest by market share. Binance Binance is the largest organisation
[00:02:21] organisation in the world of its its type by a significant margin.
[00:02:24] margin. That's in terms of the assets assets it's holding and also those
[00:02:27] those daily traded volumes. And of of course it is the largest hack
[00:02:30] hack in history. It's roughly four four times the size of the largest
[00:02:34] largest previous hack, which was was an exchange called Bybit in February
[00:02:37] February last year. So, you know, know, Reputationally it is big, but
[00:02:41] but in terms of sort of relative relative size, what was stolen in
[00:02:44] in the hack is a relatively small
[00:02:46] small proportion of what a huge asset
[00:02:48] asset class for over 2 trillion USD. USD. That's all the crypto in the
[00:02:52] the world together. So it's if you you phrase it another way, it's about
[00:02:55] about £1 worth of crypto for every
[00:02:59] every £400 worth in the world. So So bad news sort of reputationally
[00:03:02] reputationally bad news if you hold
[00:03:04] hold crypto. There was a $100 billion
[00:03:07] billion sell off as a result. But
[00:03:10] But equally, you know, the crypto
[00:03:12] crypto industry as a whole has a
[00:03:15] a number of other historical occasions occasions where bad news has come
[00:03:17] come out, whether it was the FTX FTX exchange collapsing or sort of
[00:03:21] of bad news related to regulation, regulation, and often that bad news
[00:03:24] news can be shrugged off. And some
[00:03:26] some of what's been lost in terms terms of value, I'd expect to see
[00:03:30] see come back. What it has done is
[00:03:33] is encourage other platforms to improve
[00:03:36] improve its security and make changes
[00:03:38] changes to its system to make sure
[00:03:40] sure that they are secure, that in
[00:03:43] in itself is very beneficial. I wonder, wonder, though, what the industry
[00:03:46] industry could be doing to reassure reassure investors that their savings,
[00:03:49] savings, their investments are safe?
[00:03:51] safe? Yeah. Of course. So look, I
[00:03:55] I think from a cyber point of view, view, it's really interesting. So
[00:03:58] So the entry point for TraderTraitor TraderTraitor who are being credited
[00:04:01] credited with the hack is actually actually relatively simple. It's
[00:04:04] It's what's called an end point compromise.
[00:04:06] compromise. So that's when a hacker
[00:04:10] hacker manages to get unauthorised unauthorised access to either an an individual device or a computer.
[00:04:14] computer. Typically within Binance Binance network. So that raises lots
[00:04:17] lots of interesting questions around around custody. So that's how exchanges
[00:04:20] exchanges or custody providers look look after their customers. Crypto
[00:04:23] Crypto and specifically what's called called virtual keys. So that is the
[00:04:26] the way that you essentially access access your crypto. It's a piece
[00:04:29] piece of code which allows you access.
[00:04:32] access. So a lot of exchanges would would keep their crypto offline in in what's called cold storage. That
[00:04:36] That means it's not connected to to the internet. So inherently harder
[00:04:39] harder to hack. And of course, there's there's lots of elements of traditional traditional financial infrastructure
[00:04:43] infrastructure that apply here. So So if you think about things like
[00:04:46] like insurance, you can insure against against cyber attacks when of course
[00:04:48] course appropriate risks have been been managed. Regulation depending
[00:04:51] depending on where the exchange is is located, the specific regulations
[00:04:54] regulations called Dora, the Digital Digital Operational Resilience Act, Act, which has applied since January
[00:04:58] January last year and that is designed designed to ensure financial infrastructure
[00:05:01] infrastructure can withstand and and respond to and recover from those
[00:05:05] those failures, often from cyber cyber attacks. Catherine, good to to talk to you. Thanks for explaining
[00:05:08] explaining all that for us. Thank Thank you. Katharine Wooller there there at Softcat thanks. The price
[00:05:12] price of oil has dipped on hopes
[00:05:14] hopes of a diplomatic solution to
[00:05:16] to ending the US-Iran war, but oil oil prices do remain at their highest
[00:05:20] highest level in months. Iranian Iranian negotiators wrapped up three
[00:05:23] three days of talks in Qatar on Sunday. Sunday. Well, in the last few hours,
[00:05:27] hours, Iran's foreign ministry said said it's considering a two day plan
[00:05:30] plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz,
[00:05:32] Hormuz, but only if the US agrees agrees to conditions including sanctions
[00:05:35] sanctions relief. Meanwhile, shipping shipping in the Gulf is still under
[00:05:38] under threat. These images were shown shown on Iranian state television
[00:05:42] television claiming to be two oil oil tankers that exploded after striking
[00:05:45] striking mines whilst travelling travelling through what they say
[00:05:48] say was an unauthorised route in in the strait. Now we can't verify,
[00:05:51] verify, though, when those pictures pictures were taken. Oil prices are
[00:05:54] are at their highest in months. The The international benchmark Brent
[00:05:57] Brent crude is down 4% this morning.
[00:06:01] morning. It's about $108 a barrel. barrel. While Middle East energy energy analyst Kate Dourian has been
[00:06:04] been telling us about the current current status of the conflict. The
[00:06:08] The Israeli elections were inconclusive.
[00:06:10] inconclusive. So Mr Netanyahu is
[00:06:12] is is going to remain as caretaker. caretaker. So and we know what his
[00:06:16] his position is. He wants you know,
[00:06:18] know, he wants Iran. He wants more
[00:06:22] more attacks against Iran. He wants wants regime change. But at the same
[00:06:25] same time, we're seeing some diplomatic diplomatic moves. Qatar obviously
[00:06:29] obviously is one of those Gulf countries countries that was really, really
[00:06:32] really hit hard by the closure of of the Strait of Hormuz. And, you
[00:06:35] you know, because they don't have
[00:06:37] have the option to move their tankers
[00:06:40] tankers and export LNG, which is is why we've seen such very, very
[00:06:43] very high prices for gas in Europe
[00:06:46] Europe in recent weeks. They've come
[00:06:48] come off a little bit, but it's,
[00:06:51] it's, you know, the market is also also bracing for the possibility
[00:06:55] possibility that after the midterm midterm elections in the US, there there may be renewed attacks against
[00:06:59] against Iran. Iran has said that
[00:07:00] that there would be no geographic geographic limits to its response.
[00:07:04] response. So, you know, we're still
[00:07:05] still in a state of no war, no peace,
[00:07:09] peace, diplomatic efforts ongoing. ongoing. But the US doesn't seem
[00:07:11] seem to be involved. It's between between Qatar and Iran. So we just
[00:07:15] just have to wait and see. But prices
[00:07:17] prices have come off on, on expectations expectations that there may be a
[00:07:20] a diplomatic solution. Kate Dourian Dourian there. Now let's turn to
[00:07:24] to Wall Street because there could could be a bit of a calmer start
[00:07:27] start to November, with US shares shares set to open higher after a
[00:07:29] a brutal sell off at the end of last last week. Well, fears over the valuation
[00:07:33] valuation of tech shares and the the vast amount that's been bet on
[00:07:36] on AI saw around $2.5 trillion wiped
[00:07:39] wiped off the tech dominated Nasdaq
[00:07:42] Nasdaq 100 index last month. But But the big question Will the calm
[00:07:46] calm last. Let's talk to Janet Mui, Mui, who's head of market analyst
[00:07:48] analyst at RBC Brewin Dolphin in in London. Janet, good to see you.
[00:07:51] you. And let's ask that question
[00:07:53] question will the calm last do you
[00:07:55] you think? Hi. Hi. Thanks for having
[00:07:58] having me. I'm doubtful that the the car will last because I think
[00:08:02] think in the near term there are are still quite a lot of risk event.
[00:08:05] event. For example, tomorrow's midterm
[00:08:07] midterm election and also the ongoing ongoing geopolitics, the fluctuation
[00:08:11] fluctuation in oil prices and the the uncertainty in US interest rate
[00:08:14] rate direction. Of course, the AI AI trade is is one of the biggest
[00:08:18] biggest risk out there because in in the latest earnings season, there
[00:08:22] there are evidence that some companies companies are starting to miss their
[00:08:25] their earnings estimate. And there's there's evidence that they're still
[00:08:28] still pouring in hundreds of billions billions of dollars into this AI
[00:08:32] AI capital spending and their free
[00:08:34] free cash flow has been eroding. eroding. So this concern is unlikely
[00:08:38] unlikely to go away because we're we're talking about AI investment
[00:08:41] investment that, you know, multiple multiple years in the horizon and and the returns are still uncertain.
[00:08:45] uncertain. And Janet, you say some some are missing, some are not though.
[00:08:49] though. And there are real winners winners and losers from this AI boom.
[00:08:51] boom. Just talk us through
[00:08:57] that. Yeah, sure. So basically, I I think the expectation first of of all for earnings is still too
[00:09:01] too high. So there are companies
[00:09:03] companies that are beating earnings
[00:09:06] earnings estimate because their fundamental fundamental business are very strong.
[00:09:10] strong. However the size of the earnings
[00:09:13] earnings beat has been smaller compared
[00:09:14] compared to last quarter for example.
[00:09:17] example. And because of the size size of this AI build out, I think
[00:09:20] think investors are very concerned concerned that, you know, those large
[00:09:23] large tech companies that historically
[00:09:25] historically have very huge cash cash flow, they're actually using
[00:09:28] using all of that to build AI. And And so if you're an investor, you
[00:09:31] you care about profits, you care care about cash flow, you care about
[00:09:33] about debt. And there's also evidence
[00:09:35] evidence that even super profitable profitable companies are having to
[00:09:39] to borrow huge sums of money to fund fund this AI. And obviously investors
[00:09:43] investors are concerned about that. that. Yeah. And one of the big issues
[00:09:46] issues has been as you touch on the the vast amounts of money that have
[00:09:49] have been pumped in and waiting for for the payday, waiting for the return return and for some companies that's
[00:09:53] that's coming sooner than others. others. And, you know, is that purely purely what investors are focused
[00:09:57] focused on right now, a return on
[00:10:00] on that investment? Yeah. I mean
[00:10:03] mean for cloud companies, the likes
[00:10:05] likes of alphabet Amazon, Microsoft
[00:10:10] Microsoft and meta, their cloud computing computing business is profitable
[00:10:14] profitable because the demand for for AI computing is going through
[00:10:17] through the roof. On that front is
[00:10:19] is is pretty clear for some companies,
[00:10:22] companies, the AI build out for smaller
[00:10:24] smaller size companies, midsize companies,
[00:10:28] companies, they're having cash flow flow issues. They have to borrow borrow a lot. And fundamentally,
[00:10:32] fundamentally, they're not that cash cash rich. We talk about the mid-sized
[00:10:34] mid-sized cloud computing companies companies and those companies are
[00:10:38] are having to actually issue debt debt at double digit percentage in
[00:10:42] in the debt market. So I think that's that's the problem. And if you talk
[00:10:44] talk about software companies, obviously
[00:10:48] obviously AI could be very beneficial beneficial to companies with a good
[00:10:51] good ecosystem, but there are many many companies in the software sector
[00:10:54] sector that are losing that competitive competitive edge due to AI. So in
[00:10:58] in short, there's a lot of uncertainty. uncertainty. But you're right, there there will be winners and losers.
[00:11:02] losers. Jana, always good to talk talk to you. Thanks so much Janet
[00:11:04] Janet Mui that RBC Brewin Dolphin. Dolphin. Thank you. Now if you're
[00:11:07] you're back at work this Monday, Monday, how are you feeling? How
[00:11:10] How are your stress levels? Well, Well, amid geopolitical turmoil,
[00:11:13] turmoil, fast changing technology technology and the constant threat threat of restructuring, the world
[00:11:17] world of work is a pretty stressful stressful place right now. Campaigners
[00:11:19] Campaigners are trying to raise awareness awareness about it and the impact
[00:11:23] impact it can have if left unaddressed, unaddressed, unaddressed. We've been
[00:11:27] been speaking to a human performance performance expert who's trained trained people working in some of
[00:11:30] of the most high pressure environments environments from the US Air Force
[00:11:33] Force to the sales floors at Goldman Goldman Sachs. He took us through
[00:11:36] through some of the advice that he
[00:11:37] he gives. Stress in and of itself
[00:11:40] itself actually is is not the issue.
[00:11:41] issue. And the avoidance of stress stress certainly isn't the answer.
[00:11:45] answer. But stress in the absence absence of recovery does become problematic.
[00:11:49] problematic. So the main message message is we need the stress that
[00:11:52] that actually creates the opportunity opportunity to optimise performance. performance. The opportunity for
[00:11:56] for us to grow as humans. But we
[00:11:58] we also have to pay attention to
[00:12:01] to where the growth happens and the the growth happens in the recovery
[00:12:04] recovery phase when we talk about about these stressors. So that's
[00:12:08] that's an important word. The stressor stressor is the thing that's delivering
[00:12:11] delivering the stress to the individual. individual. We often talk about them
[00:12:14] them in very big kind of macro descriptions descriptions like what's happening
[00:12:18] happening in the Middle East, what's what's happening in my company, the
[00:12:21] the brain fundamentally doesn't like like that because it feels like it
[00:12:25] it has no control. We're just reacting reacting to whatever this thing is
[00:12:28] is going to do to us. So so for example, example, what we need to do in those
[00:12:32] those situations is start to pay
[00:12:33] pay attention to what we can control.
[00:12:36] control. And that shifts the focus focus from external to internal.
[00:12:39] internal. Now I'm going to decide
[00:12:41] decide how I interact with this situation, situation, however big, however complex,
[00:12:44] complex, I'm going to do it on my
[00:12:47] my terms and that calms the psychology psychology down. And that then in
[00:12:51] in turn calms off physiology down, down, which is very important in
[00:12:54] in our ability to sustain our performance performance without getting exhausted,
[00:12:58] exhausted, overwhelmed or burning burning out. That is your business business this hour. We'll see you
[00:13:01] you very soon. Bye-bye. MUSIC
[00:14:20] gains. Follow our coverage right
[00:14:21] right here on BBC News. MUSIC
[00:14:42] Nearly two years since Donald Trump returned to office, where does
[00:14:45] does America stand? Oil disruptions
[00:14:48] disruptions caused by the war in in Iran have driven up the price
[00:14:51] price of diesel. Will voters strengthen strengthen his hand or change the
[00:14:55] the balance of power? So I'm asking asking you to pretend that I'm on
[00:14:59] on the ballot. Our team explore what's what's shaping the vote and what
[00:15:01] what it means for America and the the rest of the world. You're live
[00:15:05] live with BBC News. The US midterm
[00:15:08] midterm elections 2026 on BBC News.
[00:15:13] News. Hello. Welcome back. I'm Mark Mark Lowen. Let's return now to our
[00:15:16] our top story this hour. Both Ukraine Ukraine and Russia say their emergency
[00:15:20] emergency alert apps have been hit hit by cyber attacks. Ukraine warned
[00:15:24] warned late on Sunday that its air air alert app appeared to have been
[00:15:28] been compromised after citizens received received false notifications. Later,
[00:15:31] Later, Moscow said that an app belonging
[00:15:33] belonging to its emergencies ministry ministry had been targeted. A little
[00:15:36] little earlier we heard from the the Ukrainian MP Oleksandr Merezhko.
[00:15:39] Merezhko. He is the chair of the the foreign Affairs Committee in
[00:15:42] in the Ukrainian parliament and says says his government hasn't been able
[00:15:45] able to fully confirm who was behind
[00:15:47] behind the cyber attack. But it has has suspicions. We don't know for
[00:15:51] for sure who to blame, but seemingly
[00:15:54] seemingly it was Russia and attempt attempt to cause panic in Ukraine.
[00:15:58] Ukraine. But it definitely