nvidia shares ended the trading day up more than 5%. alphabet, amazon, apple, meta, and microsoft all ended the day up as well. the major indexes have been hitting high water marks over and over in 202a. this marks the nasdaq's 13th record close this year and the 25th for the s&p. another brand on the up — lululemon. the activewear brand beat wall street expectations on revenue in the first three months of the year. strong sales in china helped buffer a slowdown in spending in the us. shares rose around 12 percent on the results. us commerce secretary gina raimondo is in singapore this week for a meeting of the indo—pacific economic framework, an initiative to improve economic ties between america and asia. along with executives from major us companies, she also attended a forum to promote investments in green energy. for more on this, we're joined by deborah elms, the head of trade policy at the hinrich foundation. it's a complicated frayed work. it's a complicated frayed work. it's not a trade agreement. trade officials have been struggling to figure out what is it. and that took a long time to work on. what are we actually talking about for that in the end they created this sort of platform, if you will i think it's easy to think of it that way in which a number of important issues could be discussed in the future. that's complicated, what we can to discuss, what's the right platform trademark to make that happen? and because of the novelty it took a while. what is she hoping to get out of these meetings? from her perspective she runs three of the four pillars. they want signatures on two of them but they also want the beginnings of the framework to be filled out, if you will by getting a bunch of investments so they have a number of countries that came in with projects that they are looking for funding. they had a number of investors that have the ability to fund projects that are ready to go. the idea is to do a bit of matchmaking and tried to get more clean energy but also more sustainable supply chain projects up and running. tell us about green energy and the initiatives for the pesek at anything to do with the cherries overcapacity? chinese overcapacity? i don't think at the moment it does. most of the projects being discussed were projects that have been under way for some period of time or been lined out. they need to be investor ready. that takes longer typically for the recipient countries to plan and execute than the relatively recent spike in concern over overcapacity. i think it's much more about how do you transition to a green economy in the future, what other projects that you need, where is a shortfall in funding and how can a private partnership model benefit you as the host country and benefit you as an investor? china bear so much economic influence in this region. tell us your thoughts on how ipef can succeed without beijing involved for that the big issue is a dollar value in these projects. if the number is small or modest it's always helpful in an investment in clean and green is better than none. i think it will be difficult to compete with fairly substantial deep—pocketed investors for that many of them coming out of china, some chinese government itself that interested in supporting this kind of investment across the region. that's always been a bit of a tension and hopefully the numbers coming out of this ipef, the first launch in future initiatives will actually add up to enough investment to start to spend the dial on ourfuture. start to spin the dial on ourfuture. us elections are taking place in this year for that will not have any bearing on what members will be thinking about how ipef may work on forward? most members will feel like no matter who wins in november in the us investment in infrastructure will continue. i think they feel like of all the things you could discuss this is one initiatives that is likely to be sustained regardless of who wins in november. pakistan's prime minister shehbaz sharif is in china to try and secure investment for his cash—strapped country. he is expected to meet president xijinping over the course of five days, as well as chinese business leaders. speaking in shenzhen on wednesday, mr sharif said he aims to strengthen ties between islamabad and beijing. a date has been set for the swearing in of narendra modi as the head of the new coalition government in india. his bjp party lost its majority in parliament in recent elections and will have to govern with other partners. that will have an impact on the shape of economic policies he is able to implement, as archana shukla in mumbai explains. the shock element from the election results is slowly subsiding in india's financial markets, but it is expected to remain volatile in the short term. on wednesday, both the key benchmark indices, the sensex and nifty, recovered some bit, but investors are watching the changed political landscape and the health of the coalition government that comes to power. so while mr modi, under whose tenure the benchmark indices have almost tripled in value, is on course to get the historic third term as prime minister, this one will be much different without a clear majority. mr modi, as prime minister, will need consensus from the coalition partners to pass legislation and that could delay some of the tougher ones, like the long pending agricultural reforms or the land and labour reforms needed to spur manufacturing and jobs. infrastructure that has been the core selling point of modi, government experts say, will continue to be key. india does need to ramp up electrification, railways, industrial corridors. butjust government spending won't help. private investments in infrastructure needs to come in. needs to come in for india to sustain its fast paced economic growth in the long run. at the same time, in his third term, mr modi will need to actively tackle price rise and unemployment. two of the top concerns on voters minds, this time raised actively by the opposition parties but was seen missing from bjp's campaigns. economists maintain india's inherent growth potential is intact, irrespective of the government that comes to power. but a rejig in priorities would mean india's economic boom trickles down to the masses. in 2023, japan's fertility rate dropped for the eighth year in a row, hitting the lowest level since records began in 1947. japan's shrinking young population means brands have to rethink how they target customers. the bbc�*s mariko oi caught up with the boss of the country's biggest brewer, asahi to find out more. translation: alcoholic beverages sales injapan will continue to decline because we cannot go against the shrinking population, which means we cannot expect the japanese market to grow massively. so our growth opportunities are overseas. the simplest market to tackle is europe and not a market which many have called are missing piece is the us so we are keen to increase our presence. i want to ask you about the weakness of the japanese yen, which has pros and cons, i guess, for your company. has the weak yen forced you to change your strategy already, or are you concerned that if this persists, it would force you to change your strategy? translation: overseas sales account _ for 51% of our overall sales. our overseas profits account for 65% of our total profits. so the weak yen is welcoming news, but it means the strong dollar. and that's the fact that the cost of raw materials. i also don't think the current situation of extremely weak yen is good for the japanese economy, so i hope it will settle at an appropriate level soon. generation z, they all sit to drink much less alcohol than previous generations. so what are your strategies as consumers are increasingly choosing to stay sober? translation: we have realised that younger people are increasingly choosing not to drink as much alcohol. we see this as a risk, but also as an opportunity. ourfirm is quite unique because about the majority of our sales comes from beer and alcoholic beverages, we also have the capability to produce nonalcoholic beverages or soft drinks. injapan and australia 30% of our sales comes from soft drinks. our ability to produce both gives us a competitive advantage. head over to our website for more on that story, and how asahi plans to adapt to japan's shrinking population. flight attendants — a pay rise proposal from american airlines without the union which represents 23,000 air student said workers have not had wage increases for more than five years for the end of ask immediate raise of 33%. the caria ceo says he's committed to reaching an agreement. boeing has successfully launched a new spacecraft on its first crewed flight to the international space station. two nasa astronauts boarded the �*starliner�* capsule before it blasted off from cape canaveral in florida. it's a milestone in the aerospace giant's ambitions to step up competition with elon musk�*s spacex. and that's it for this edition of business today. thanks for watching. hello and welcome to sports day. i'm jane dougall. a day of upsets and the women's quarter finals at the french open as two big names crash out. india ruthlessly dispatched ireland in new york as they begin their t20 world cup with a convincing victory. and delight for the dunlop�*s, as michael surpasses the record shared with his unclejoey to become the most successful rider in the history of the isle of man. hello and welcome to the programme. well, there were a few shocks at roland garros with two top seeds going out in the women's singles. the 2022 wimbledon champion elena rybakina lost her quarterfinal against italy's jasmine paolini. it means that 28—year—old paolini makes it through to a grand slam semifinal for the first time in her career. rybakina, who is the fourth seed and who was yet to drop a set in the tournament, had recovered from a set in a break down to take this to a decider. however, i2th seed paolini took the match.