Original Broadcaster Captioning (Enhanced). Treat it as a searchable index of what was broadcast, not a quotation record.
00:00:01MUSIC
00:00:03Live from Singapore now on BBC News,
00:00:06News, Business Today. The world's
00:00:14world's largest cryptocurrency exchange exchange reopens after a massive
00:00:18massive cyber attack as Binance users
00:00:21users withdraw $3.6 billion worth worth of digital assets and strong
00:00:25strong US demand lifts Starbucks
00:00:27Starbucks sales despite falling short
00:00:30short on 2027 forecasts. Hello and
00:00:37and welcome to Business Today. I'm I'm Vandhna Bhan Binance, the world's
00:00:41world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, exchange, reopened on Sunday after
00:00:44after a record hack last week, with with users rushing to withdraw their
00:00:48their digital assets from the platform. platform. The firm had suspended
00:00:52suspended all transactions in the
00:00:53the wake of the incident, which impacted
00:00:57impacted $6.3 billion worth of digital digital assets. Major organisations
00:01:00organisations including the FBI, FBI, have accused North Korea of
00:01:04of being responsible for the cyber cyber attack, which is said to be
00:01:07be the largest hack in history. Our Our Asia business reporter Archana
00:01:11Archana Shukla explains just how how damaging this hack has been for
00:01:15for Binance. Well, it did test the
00:01:18the confidence of the crypto industry. industry. It was the largest hack
00:01:21hack in the history at $6.3 billion
00:01:24billion moved. And you know, it is
00:01:26is somewhere reflective in the withdrawals withdrawals that happened right after
00:01:30after the exchanges resumed trading
00:01:32trading $3.6 billion of net outflow
00:01:35outflow when on Sunday in phases
00:01:38phases Binance reopened withdrawals withdrawals and deposits. And that
00:01:41that somewhere shows the concern concern that the customers have.
00:01:44have. You know, it is the largest
00:01:46largest crypto exchange. And if a
00:01:48a hack of this nature can happen, happen, there is anybody's money
00:01:52money safe. It has also heightened heightened some amount of concern
00:01:55concern on the use of artificial artificial intelligence for such
00:01:58such attacks. You know, while you
00:02:01you know, Binance quickly got its
00:02:04its hand around this hack, this incident
00:02:06incident and they moved very swiftly swiftly to assure investors that
00:02:09that they would be bearing all the
00:02:11the losses and the money would be
00:02:14be safe within the crypto exchange. exchange. But it does damage some
00:02:17some bit of confidence in the industry.
00:02:20industry. For now, 95% of the assets
00:02:23assets have been restored, Binance Binance has said, and that the remaining
00:02:26remaining ones that they are still still figuring out how to bring that
00:02:30that back. It also raises questions
00:02:32questions on how did a hack of this this nature manage, you know, was
00:02:36was managed on such a big crypto crypto exchange because it started
00:02:40started with a very ordinary engineers engineers laptop. However, later
00:02:43later Binance said that possibly
00:02:45possibly it was a more complex attack attack where, you know, the attackers
00:02:49attackers actually used softwares
00:02:51softwares to hide some of the digital digital some of their digital tracks,
00:02:54tracks, which made it a bit difficult
00:02:56difficult to trace how this was done.
00:02:59done. But it for now, about 90% of
00:03:01of the assets are back. The crypto
00:03:03crypto exchange is back into trading
00:03:05trading with withdrawals and deposits deposits and Binance says it would
00:03:09would be covering all the losses. losses. Now following on from that
00:03:13that cyber hack, Bitcoin payment payment software BTC Pay has warning
00:03:17warning operators to shut down their their systems after reports that
00:03:21that hackers have been draining funds funds from online wallets. This latest
00:03:24latest attack adds fresh concerns
00:03:26concerns about security across the
00:03:28the cryptocurrency industry. Btcpay Btcpay says it's investigating the
00:03:32the attacks and has not yet revealed revealed how many users may have
00:03:35have been affected or how much money
00:03:38money has been lost. Thousands of
00:03:40of Virgin Media O2 staff face redundancy
00:03:43redundancy risk as the telecoms firm firm looks to save money in the face
00:03:46face of billions of pounds of debt debt and tougher competition. The
00:03:50The broadband provider has not finalised finalised the number of roles to
00:03:54to be cut, but it is likely a sizeable
00:03:57sizeable chunk of its 16,000 workforce. workforce. The BBC understands. Virgin
00:04:01Virgin Media O2 has billions of debt
00:04:03debt on its balance sheet and is is tackling competition from both
00:04:06both smaller providers, as well as
00:04:09as giants like BT, which has agreed
00:04:11agreed a deal to acquire rival TalkTalk,
00:04:13TalkTalk, a move which Virgin Media
00:04:15Media O2 has firmly opposed. Now
00:04:18Now Starbucks reported stronger than than expected comparable sales in
00:04:22in its most recent quarter and said
00:04:24said it would resume share buybacks buybacks as its turnaround plan to
00:04:27to improve the coffee chains performance
00:04:29performance reached its two year year anniversary. However, the coffee
00:04:33coffee chains latest quarterly revenue
00:04:35revenue figures and outlook for 2027
00:04:382027 fell short of forecasts as international
00:04:40international sales continue to trail
00:04:43trail domestic US sales. So what what kind of strategy has Starbucks
00:04:46Starbucks used to achieve domestic domestic success in the US? I put
00:04:49put that to Hitha Herzog executive
00:04:52executive director of research at at Parsons Gromek Institute. They
00:04:56They really had a massive turnaround turnaround in terms of operations.
00:05:00operations. So new CEO came in cut cut and slashed a lot of the stores,
00:05:03stores, which is sad for some of of the communities that are now missing
00:05:07missing a Starbucks. However, a real
00:05:10real focus on staffing and really really doubling down on a smaller
00:05:13smaller menu with more hero products products such as these, you know,
00:05:17know, drink mixers that my kids tend
00:05:18tend to love. This is what is really
00:05:21really driving the traffic into the
00:05:23the stores. Now Global Comp was up
00:05:27up significantly around 6.2%. Revenues Revenues were up about 2%. However,
00:05:30However, when you parse that out
00:05:32out and you look specifically at
00:05:35at China, the guidance fell to about
00:05:39about 1% versus 1.4%. And North America America is also slowing down. So
00:05:42So that is something we have to look look at when they start talking about
00:05:46about guidance. That's when we have
00:05:48have to, as investors become more more aware. What are you hoping to
00:05:52to see then from Starbucks in the the years ahead, especially in terms
00:05:56terms of how to bump up those sales
00:05:59sales in international audiences audiences like China? You know, selfishly,
00:06:03selfishly, I would like them to add add more stores because we're missing
00:06:06missing our Starbucks. However, when
00:06:08when it comes to international, they
00:06:11they really need to take almost the
00:06:13the same sort of operational guidance guidance that they applied to here
00:06:16here in North America and double double down on the hero drinks. That
00:06:20That is what is bringing in the store store traffic, especially with the
00:06:24the younger generations. When you you have these drinks that are going
00:06:27going viral on social media, kids
00:06:30kids want to come in. That's what's what's bringing that traffic in.
00:06:32in. And they remodelled a lot of of the stores. So it feels a lot
00:06:36lot different within the stores as as well. Look, we're also going into
00:06:39into silly Season Christmas. That's That's a hit time of the year for
00:06:43for Starbucks isn't it? I mean apart
00:06:46apart from the drinks they also have
00:06:48have products. And you see lines lines out the door for these mugs
00:06:52mugs that they sell or certain drink drink vessels that people put their
00:06:55their drinks in. It is really hitting
00:06:58hitting a mark. And I think again,
00:07:00again, it's because of that pared pared down focus on what is going
00:07:04going to sell and what is not. Instead Instead of having a huge skew mix,
00:07:07mix, they really just focus on very very specific product that is resonating
00:07:11resonating with the customers. And And if they can do that internationally, internationally, it'll be better
00:07:14better for them. You'll see a lot
00:07:15lot more results going into the next next couple quarters, certainly,
00:07:19certainly, and into the next couple couple of years. Now finally, it's
00:07:22it's a big week ahead for Wall Street
00:07:25Street with the US midterms on Tuesday, Tuesday, the Democrats expected to
00:07:28to take control of the House of Representatives,
00:07:31Representatives, while Senate control control remains uncertain. We've
00:07:33We've also got a couple of earnings earnings on deck with tech giant
00:07:37giant Apple reporting on Monday and
00:07:39and McDonald's later in the week. week. Investors continue to await
00:07:43await October's job reports out of
00:07:45of the US, which is scheduled for for release on Friday. Well, let's
00:07:48let's get analysis on all of these these with June Ballou, who is co-founder
00:07:52co-founder and lead portfolio manager manager at Tin Cap. Great to be able
00:07:55able to speak with you. June, I just just want to start off on tech and
00:07:58and last week we saw a huge tech
00:08:01tech sell off and we're going into
00:08:03into this week are earnings from from Apple there. What will markets
00:08:06markets be looking for this week.
00:08:08week. Yeah look the market certainly
00:08:11certainly is going to wanting to to see strength across the consumer
00:08:14consumer products especially with
00:08:17with the indication of for sale of
00:08:19of the new iPhone in particular and and commentary of where that's going.
00:08:23going. Now of course market would
00:08:25would like to see you know, in terms terms of the its investment spend.
00:08:29spend. You remember, one of the biggest biggest problem with a lot of hyperscaler
00:08:32hyperscaler in the over the next next 12 months is actually about about how much money you're going
00:08:35going to spend as a lot of free cash cash flow moving into negative. So
00:08:39So but with Apple, it's less of a a problem, but still is going to
00:08:42to be one of the focus. But I think think the iPhone indication of how
00:08:46how that's leading is going to be be very important. We're hearing
00:08:49hearing you know, reports about there's there's a lot of outages. You know,
00:08:52know, many of the new iPhone won't won't be delivered until early next next year. It might create a bit
00:08:56bit of issue for investors forecasts. forecasts. Now talking about the
00:09:00the US jobs report, which is also also coming out this week, what are
00:09:03are we expecting to see there and and what it signals in regards to
00:09:07to the health of the US economy. economy. Yeah sure. Look we're still
00:09:10still expecting pretty good results results actually on that front. I
00:09:13I think from everything we've read, read, at the moment is health of
00:09:16of the US economy is very strong strong and particularly from what
00:09:19what we're hearing from the companies companies during this reporting season
00:09:22season as well in the last few weeks weeks that they are reporting pretty
00:09:25pretty good numbers. And then the the pricing power of the corporates
00:09:29corporates have been pretty strong. strong. So, you know, consumers pretty pretty much putting up with it. So,
00:09:32So, you know, so it does look like, like, you know, I think the jobs
00:09:35jobs report will continue to be very very strong. And what that means
00:09:38means for the fed narrative is that that there will be interest rate
00:09:41rate increase. And, you know, and
00:09:44and we await their further guidance guidance and how many I guess is
00:09:48is the bigger question here. Look, Look, all of this comes as of course
00:09:51course we are heading into the midterm midterm elections Tuesday night in
00:09:55in the US. This political uncertainty. uncertainty. How are markets weighing
00:09:58weighing that up and how could things things change post the midterm, say
00:10:01say by the end of the week, even?
00:10:03even? Yeah, sure. Like there's a a there's a bit of anticipation into
00:10:07into it because normally share market, market, equity market doesn't move
00:10:10move a lot before and after midterm midterm because the policies and
00:10:14and you know, the tax and the and
00:10:17and spending and there's a lot of of policies can change and move the the market. And usually you see a
00:10:21a bit of rally after the market after after the midterm bit of relief rally
00:10:24rally into December. Now this year, year, the you know, because the changes
00:10:28changes are less clear and it doesn't, doesn't, you know, it's based on
00:10:32on some of the policy that could could potentially move the market
00:10:34market and sectors is really not not that much. So we do think there's
00:10:38there's a if anything, you know, know, there's potentially for Trump
00:10:41Trump to increase the government
00:10:43government spending somewhat. And
00:10:45And you know, positive support maybe maybe for the healthcare sector given
00:10:48given he has cut a lot of healthcare healthcare spending in the last 12,
00:10:5212, 12, 18 months. But aside from from that, there's really not that
00:10:55that much is going to be market moving. moving. June really appreciate getting
00:10:58getting your analysis there. Jim Jim Bailey, co-founder and lead portfolio
00:11:01portfolio manager at ten cap. That's That's it from us here in Singapore.
00:11:04Singapore. See you tomorrow. MUSIC
00:14:32The BBC was always on in the Moshiri house and my dream actually
00:14:36actually was to be a BBC News presenter.
00:14:39presenter. I want to be for others others what the BBC was for us a
00:14:42a trusted source of stability and
00:14:45and hope. For me, trust is about
00:14:48about presence, about fostering relationships relationships all around the world
00:14:51world over years. So when a story story breaks, we're not chasing a
00:14:55a lead. We're already there.
00:14:57I'm Maryam Moshiri on the World Today
00:15:02Today for BBC News. On BBC News.
00:15:04News. A round up of the day's sporting
00:15:07sporting action plus talking points
00:15:09points analysis and original journalism.
00:15:12journalism. BBC Sport. Hello there,
00:15:20there, I'm Olly Foster with the latest latest sports headlines here on BBC
00:15:23BBC News. The boy racer from Bologna
00:15:27Bologna Antonelli is Formula One's One's youngest world champion, a
00:15:30a rare win at Anfield lifts the champions
00:15:33champions Arsenal to the top of the the Premier League, and Hibs come
00:15:37come out on top in the Edinburgh Edinburgh derby to reach the Scottish
00:15:40Scottish League Cup final.
00:15:56Hello there Kimi Antonelli is Formula One's youngest world champion