Business Live: US share markets rise

AFPCopyright: AFP

The gold price jumped to its highest since November on Tuesday, extending the prior day's rally above $1,300 per ounce as investors bought bullion as insurance against falling prices of other assets after North Korea tested a ballistic missile over Japan.

US President Donald Trump warned that all options are on the table for the US to respond to North Korea's new show of force.

"Funds and traders are filling their boots with gold at the moment and so far that's justified," said Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank in Copenhagen.

Taylor SwiftCopyright: Taylor Swift

YouTube says Taylor Swift's new music video "Look What You Made Me Do" is smashing records on the site, getting more than 43 million views in its first 24 hours of release.

The Google-owned site said it was the biggest debut of any video in YouTube history, beating the 36 million set by South Korean singer Psy's "Gentleman" for a 24-hour period in 2013.

US stocks recovered at the close from steep early losses brought by fears of escalation of hostilities in the Korean Peninsula, with major indexes steadily climbing into positive territory.

The S&P 500 fell as much as 0.66% after U.S. President Donald Trump warned that all options are on the table for the United States to respond to North Korea's firing of a ballistic missile over a Japanese island into the sea in a new show of force.

"When the President says 'All options are on the table,' the best strategy for investors is sometimes to do nothing," said Brian Jacobsen, senior investment strategist at Wells Fargo Funds Management in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 57.83 points, or 0.27%, to 21,866.23, the S&P 500 gained 2.07 points, or 0.08%, to 2,446.30 and the Nasdaq Composite added 18.87 points, or 0.30%, to 6,301.89.

Expedia boss Dara Khos­row­shahi has confirmed that he will be taking on the chief executive job at Uber, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The contract still needs to be finalised, the WSJ added.

Wall Street markets are extending their gains, having shrugged off heavy falls at the start of trading. With about 30 minutes to go to the close, the Dow Jones is now 0.3% up at 21,872. The risers are led by a 2% gain for United Technologies, reported to be close to a $20bn-plus takeover of Rockwell Collins.

The Nasdaq is 0.4% ahead at 6,308 points, while the S&P 500 is up 0.2% at 2,448.7.

ReutersCopyright: Reuters

Russian gas giant Gazprom said on Tuesday that its second-quarter net income fell by more than 80% year-on-year to 48bn roubles (£632m). April-June sales rose to 1.39 trillion roubles, up from 1.33 trillion roubles a year ago, the company said.

The company blamed the fall on a foreign exchange hit due to a revaluation of its overseas debt. The rouble has strengthened in the past few months due to higher oil prices.

Mexico's foreign minister Luis Videgaray will travel to Washington on Tuesday after threats by US president Donald Trump to scrap the North American Free Trade Agreement, according to Reuters.

However, the news agency said a source in the foreign ministry briefed on the trip said it was organised before Trump's latest warnings that he would prefer to scrap NAFTA than negotiate.

A second round of talks to re-negotiate the 23-year-old agreement are due to start in Mexico on 1 September.

NintendoCopyright: Nintendo

Nintendo has announced that its Miiverse social network will be closed down on 8 November.

The platform lets players post messages and drawings on game-related message boards, and share tips and hints.

Miiverse posts also appear within some popular Wii U and 3DS games, but the posts will disappear in November.

Miiverse was launched in 2012 alongside the Wii U games console and could be accessed on the 3DS, but did not appear on the new Nintendo Switch.

The social network was notable for the detailed hand-drawn images that were shared by artistic gamers, which would appear within popular titles.

It also gained a reputation for irreverent and often inappropriate message board posts.

Shares of sportswear firm Under Armour fell more than 3% on Tuesday, a day after National Basketball Association star Kevin Durant said young players do not like the company's shoes.

"Nobody wants to play in Under Armours. I'm sorry. The top kids don't because they all play Nike," the All-Star forward of the 2017 champion Golden State Warriors said during an interview.

Durant is endorsed by Nike, but the partisan comments still unnerved investors. He signed a shoe deal with Nike in 2014, spurning a deal from Under Armour that reportedly was worth as much as $285m over 10 years.

BBCCopyright: BBC

More than 18% of oil production in the Gulf of Mexico was shut on Tuesday due to Harvey, the US Department of the Interior's Bureau of Safety Environmental Enforcement said.

That equates to some 319,523 barrels of oil per day, out of roughly 1.75 million barrels pumped daily from the Gulf.

The amount of production shut was down from Monday, when more than 331,000 barrels were closed. Meanwhile, 19.1% of natural gas production in the region, or 615.09 million cubic feet per day, has been shut, the BSEE said.

Russia's central bank has been giving more details of its rescue of Otkritie bank, one of the country's largest lenders.

The authorities say questions must be answered about the bank's rapid expansion.

Dmitry Tulin, the central bank's first deputy chairman, told a news briefing that its business practices had been questionable.

"This (expansion) was financed via borrowing and key risks were taken," he said. "The bank's operations are connected to high risks and need to be seriously changed."

Otkritie bank, part of the wider Otkritie group, grew rapidly in recent years, snapping up banks such as Nomos, non-pension funds and insurers, and even the diamond business of Russian oil producer Lukoil.

Tulin said he did not expect turmoil in the wider banking sector.

US stocks rebounded from steep losses to trade slightly higher as investors shrugged off concerns over North Korea's latest missile test.

The Dow Jones, 100 points down at the open, was up 17.27 points, or 0.08%, at 21,825.67. The Nasdaq was up 10.79 points, or 0.17%, at 6,293.8. The S&P 500 was down 1.24%, 0.05%, at 2,443.

Nike fell 2.5%, weighing the most on the Dow, after Morgan Stanley cut its price target. Best Buy tumbled 11%, posting the biggest percentage loss among S&P companies, after the retailer warned that its strong quarterly same-store sales performance should not be seen as a "new normal".

United Technologies rose 1.6% after reports that the company has made progress in its talks to acquire aircraft component manufacturer Rockwell Collins. Rockwell's shares rose 1.8%.

ReutersCopyright: Reuters

Copper rallied to its highest in three years as inventories in London and Shanghai fell and the dollar sank after North Korea raised geopolitical tensions by launching a missile that flew over northern Japan.

Benchmark copper jumped 1.9% to close at $6,791.50 tonne. It earlier touched $6,843.50, a level last seen in September 2014.

"The main input to copper is the continued weakness of the dollar which has been particularly aggressive today," said Ole Hansen, a commodities analyst at Saxo Bank.

A weaker greenback generally makes dollar-priced metals cheaper for non-US investors, boosting demand.

Sky is to stop broadcasting Fox News in the UK after low audience figures, the media firm has said.

21st Century Fox, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch, said the channel was being withdrawn as it was not commercially viable.

The decision is not to do with Fox's takeover bid for Sky, the BBC understands.

Culture secretary Karen Bradley has said she may refer the bid to competition regulators.

"[Fox] has decided to cease providing a feed of Fox News Channel in the UK," a spokeswoman said.

"Fox News is focused on the US market and designed for a US audience and, accordingly, it averages only a few thousand viewers across the day in the UK.

"We have concluded that it is not in our commercial interest to continue providing Fox News in the UK."

Russia's central bank has stepped in to save the country's eighth largest lender, Otkritie, amid fears over its stability following a sharp drop in customer deposits in recent months.

The central bank said in a statement that it planned to become the bank's main investor and was taking measures to increase Otkritie's "financial stability".

The Vedomosti business newspaper reported that this is the "biggest case of a bailout in the history of the Russian banking sector," as well as the first use of a new consolidation fund recently set up by the central bank and signed into force by President Vladimir Putin earlier this year.

Otkritie "will continue to work as usual," said the central bank, which added that it would "provide financial support to the bank, guaranteeing the continuation of its activities".

Otkritie says on its website that it is the largest private bank in Russia, with 412 branches and 3.6 million private clients.

FITBITCopyright: FITBIT

Fitbit has put on sale its first fully-featured smartwatch.

The Ionic differs from the firm's existing Blaze watch in that third-party developers will be able to release apps and watchface designs that can be installed on the device.

It also introduces a sensor that can detect blood oxygen levels.

Fitbit has also announced a forthcoming "special edition" in partnership with sportswear firm Adidas, mirroring the Apple Watch tie-up with Nike.

Until recently, Fitbit was ranked the world's bestselling wearable tech brand. However, market research firm IDC reported in June that it had been overtaken by both Xiaomi and Apple in terms of shipments over the first three months of the year.

Fitbit recently reported that its second quarter sales were 40% down on 2016's equivalent figure, leading to a $58.2m (£44.9m) net loss for the period.

European markets sunk into the red after North Korea ratcheted up tensions with the US by firing a ballistic missile over Japan.

The FTSE 100 closed down 64.03 points, or 0.87%, to 7,337.43, after the rocket plunged into waters off the northern Pacific Ocean in a sign of defiance from Pyongyang to the war games being conducted by Washington and South Korea.

Germany's Dax dropped 1.5% and the Cac 40 in France fell 1%, as analysts speculated whether North Korea was testing a new intermediate-range missile that it threatened to fire towards the US territory of Guam.

David Madden, analyst of CMC Markets, said: "Tensions have shifted up a gear, and dealers are dumping stocks as they don't want to remain long while the political situation plays out."

Gold miners, always an investors' favourite in times of trouble, were the FTSE 100's main gainers. Randgold rose 4.5% and Fresnillo finished 2.67% up.

ITV dropped 4.9%, tracking broader losses among European media stocks after German peer ProSiebenSat.1 slumped on the back of a weaker outlook for advertising in the third quarter.

On the currency markets, the pound was experiencing a mixed session, slipping 0.3% against the euro to 1.07, but rising 0.1% versus the US dollar to 1.29.

The takeover rumour mill has gone into overdrive over speculation that United Technologies (Pratt & Whitney aircraft engines, Otis lifts, and much more) is close to buying aerospace technology giant Rockwell Collins. The Wall Street Journal and CNBC are among news groups reporting the news.

The two companies were tipped to do a deal at the start of this month. Rockwell is worth $20bn-plus.

The BBC's fact checkers have run their sliderule over the pay gap. Just how big is the gap at the top and is it worse across different sectors? Read the Reality Check team's stab at sorting fact from fiction here.

BBCCopyright: BBC