In europe, the markets look like this, the london market has failed to open due to technical difficulties. We will have the latest. And today a biz live favourite, Andrew Walker is here to talk through the big events of the week, including a horrible time for the argentinian markets and the impact of the hong kong protests on the financial hub. Also on the show one study says there arejust six major things that affect your ability to secure a pay rise. They include your age and your willingness to switch roles. Today we want to know, what are your top tips for getting a pay rise . Let us know just use the hashtag bbcbizlive. Hello and welcome to business live. In the last minute or so, the ftse 100 has started trading after some technical difficulties meant it did not open at 8am like the rest of the european markets. More on that in a moment. But we start the programme with this. Investors around the world are heading for safe haven assets amid worries about the global economy. The us china trade war and uncertainty over brexit are just some of the factors. And thats led to volatile trading in many markets around the world. Over the past nine months, the price of gold has shot up dramatically, rising to more than 300 per ounce. But its notjust gold. Over the same period, German Government debt from europes traditional powerhouse economy has been a magnet for investors pushing returns on the bonds to record lows. Concerns about Global Growth have really accelerated over the past 3 4 months. You can see this in demand for the japanese yen, also often seen as a safe haven in times of trouble. With us now is simon macadam, global economist, capital economics. Good morning. Looking for me being in the Financial Market is a bit like looking at ways in the ocean. Are looking for meaning. Theres a whole range and thousands of different actions and reactions which will affect any set pattern. But when you look at the bigger picture, and overall impression emerges. What picture does it say to you about the state of the minds of investors at the moment . Yes, in the minds of investors, you have had this sort of fear that has emerged, this sort of fear that has emerged, this anxiety, and it is worth stepping back for a moment and thinking how we got here in recent weeks. This has built up quite quickly. A couple of weeks ago, we had another escalation in the us china trade war. The us, went to four hours after supposedly productive negotiations, just 2a hours after supposedly productive negotiations, President Trump announced another batch of tariffs on goods imported from china which bonded retaliation prompted retaliation with these 7 threshold being broken. That has unnerved investors and that was followed by a raft of very weak industrial data, wea k raft of very weak industrial data, weak numbers from china and retail sales were also quite poor. Industrial Oil Production is going from bad to worse in the eurozone. German industry is still in the doldrums. To top all of that off, you have got a looming crisis and a sovereign default perhaps in argentina so all of that is building on the trade war fears and then just to top it off, we have had a yield curve inversion which is one of these Financial Market indicators that puts fear into the minds of investors because it is traditionally seen as a very good indicator of a recession. Yes, the inverted cherry on top. I want to pick up on germany because you mentioned it, the German Economy is shrinking, we know that. Yet investors now are willing to pay for the privilege to stash their money and german banks overnight or in German Government debt. The situation has got to be pretty dire for that to be the least bad place at the moment. Yes, well, i think the yields on Government Debt are negative across the whole yield curve, whether it is overnight, all the way out to 30 year bonds in german debt. Germany is a traditional safe haven so even if the German Economy is doing relatively badly, as you say, it contracted in 02 by 0. 1 , it is a place where investors expect safety, and it is a similar situation in japan, the economy is doing badly as pa rt japan, the economy is doing badly as part of the global phenomenon but people pile into the yen as a safe haven asset. Their ten year yields haven asset. Their ten year yields have touched 0. 7 . There are investor fears, there, and have touched 0. 7 . There are investorfears, there, and this is pa rt investorfears, there, and this is part of the global story to bonds. It is not just part of the global story to bonds. It is notjust in germany, yields have been falling everywhere, yield curves have inverted in the uk, along with the us, canada has been inverted for quite a while. This is pa rt inverted for quite a while. This is part of the global flight to safety. It certainly is. Thank you for joining us. And explaining all of that. Lets take a look at some of the other stories making the news. Thailand plans stimulus spending that the government hopes will give a 7. 3 billion boost to the economy. The measure is aimed at countering recent slowdown weve just been talking about. The package includes help for farmers and people on low incomes. Apple says it was either directly or indirectly responsible for 2. 4 million usjobs in 2018. Thats up by 20 from the 2 million the tech giant estimated back in 2017. It says most of the jobs came from companies which make parts in america for apple products. The World Trade Organisation has ruled against us duties imposed on a range of chinese imports, effectively giving beijing a green light to seek compensation. Washington imposed the duties after it accused beijing of paying illegal subsidies to chinese firms. The wto said the us was in the wrong but washington says it does not accept the decision. Hong kongs richest man, lee ka shing has broken his silence on protests that have disrupted the territory for over two months, over the controversial extradition bill. The billionaire has warned that the best cause can lead to the worst result. Sarah toms has the latest from singapore. What has he said . What advice has he been giving to people in hong kong . He is of course hong kongs most influential businessmen. He is the latest of many businessmen to weigh in on these pro democracy protests that have been rocking hong kong for the past ten weeks. He has called for a halt to the unrest in the name of love, love freedom, love tolerance, love, love freedom, love tolerance, love the rule of law, he has said in various advertisements. Love china, love hong kong and love yourself. He placed the advertisements on the front pages of several local hong kong newspapers on friday, signed them off as they hong kong citizen. The retired multi billionaire, you may remember, was the head of ck hutchinson, a conglomerate with ride ranging businesses from real estate are wide ranging businesses from real estate, technology and ports, but li ka shing has stopped short of voicing his support for the hong kong government. Hong kong is of course part of china, but it has a special status that gives people who live there more autonomy than they have on the mainland. In a separate statement, his spokesman said li ka shing believes hong kongs long term prosperity depends on that special status and that he wants residents to treasure that and stop the violence. Thank you forjoining us. Lets look at what has been going on in terms of asian shares, it has been pretty flat, they initially moved a little bit upwards but then a cayenne dead flat and the hang seng ended just about in positive territory. There is a stumps may go some stability in the markets today despite the ongoing unrest in hong kong but any bigger gains were held back. Why . Of course, investors are particularly worried right now about the potential for a are particularly worried right now about the potentialfor a Global Economic slowdown. If you look at the us, the dowjones up after losing 800 points a couple of days ago but then regaining what it lost the next day, not all of it, quite. The london market is shut. The last time we saw this happen was about 1k months ago in june, time we saw this happen was about 1k months ago injune, and that was the first time in seven years and that all ended up that the market was shut for about an hour due to technical problems. We are not sure what is happening today, the Stock Exchange has put out a statement saying there has been some technical difficulties which have meant a delay to the start of trading for the london market. We have because well bring you up to date on what is happening with that as soon as we get it. The rest of europe, as we can see, is looking like it has turned into positive territory. Turning to the us a private financial investigator who flagged warnings about Bernard Madoffs 65 billion ponzi scheme is now targeting one of americas blue chip companies. Harry markopolos has claimed that General Electric is hiding an accounting scandal, sending its shares tumbling. Ge strenuously denies the claims. Samira hussain has more from new york. Harry markopolos is a forensic accountant. He says that General Electric is hiding 40 billion of losses in its insurance business. General electric has countered those claims, calling them meritless, misguided and self serving speculation. Nevertheless, ge shares fell by 15 at one point on thursday and it is a clear sign that investors are worried. They are worried, quite possibly because of the source of the information. He has a track record of highlighting financial misdeeds, and most recently was the whistle blower who uncovered Bernie Madoffs 65 billion ponzi scheme, the largest case of financial fraud in american history. The report also comes at a time where ges profitability has taken a massive hit. Last year, it was dropped from the dow 100 and has had to lay off thousands of employees. Just to clarify, the london market is still shut. Technical difficulties, apparently, according to the lsa. Some slightly mixed m essa 9 es to the lsa. Some slightly mixed messages coming out over trading and what is going on. Joining us is mouhammed choukeir, chief Investment Officer at Kleinwort Hambrosa danish bank. We understand that the ftse100 has failed to open and we are what, a1, 42 minutes failed to open and we are what, a1, a2 minutes into the trading day in europe. Regardless of that and the technical difficulties there may be and what might be behind those, the index more generally is down almost 7 over the last 30 days, it has not been great for uk equities. Yes, its had a rough ride but it is consistent with what weve seen globally. We have seen the correction in Global Equity markets ta ke correction in Global Equity markets take place not just correction in Global Equity markets take place notjust in the developed world and the us and uk but also in the emerging world. To put it into context, the ftse is down 6 in the last couple of weeks but still up on the year to date about seven or 8 . Global equities, because of the us, are up about 1a . In the context of the full year, it is a small blip. It has been a turbulent week, particularly in terms of the bond markets, hasnt it . Yes, this is all about the fear of recession, we talked about this earlier in the programme, in terms of the inverted yield curve, this isjust a Market Indicator that could point to a recession but we have seen an economic slowdown in the last few months. This is not new. We have seen a months. This is not new. We have seen a lot of economic data, whether it is the Manufacturing Sector or the services sector, all showing signs of weakness. This is just a continuation of the theme. And continuing the theme, a danish bank has launched the worlds continuing the theme, a danish bank has launched the worlds that is negative Interest Rate mortgage, so you are handing out loans to homeowners where they charge zero 0. 5 , homeowners where they charge zero 0. 5 , so the bank pays the borrower to ta ke 0. 5 , so the bank pays the borrower to take the money of their hands, why is that an attractive Business Model . Actually, it isjust a function of what is happening in these tri state markets. That in the Interest Rate markets. In the global markets, there are 15 trillion which is negatively yielding, so you dont receive a return for lending money to the government. This is just a continuation of that. The first time we have seen a bank pass that threw onto the consumer. As you say, it is 0. 5 and you can borrow for 20 years and not pay any interest in denmark right now and we could see that knock on to other markets. Gosh, 0k. Come back in 80 minutes to talk through some paper stories. We will be looking at the week that was ina we will be looking at the week that was in a three minutes time including argentinas market collapse. In 80 minutes time. Andrew walker will be with us for that. Youre with business live from bbc news. If you are a regular rail commuter, how easy is it for you to get to and from work and home . Well, today, the independent newspaper has revealed the best and worst connected cities outside london. Birmingham came out as the best city for rail links. So we sent ben thompson to liverpool, which is towards the bottom of the list. Good morning and welcome to liverpool, one of the worst connected cities, as far as train travel is concerned, according to a new report. It has been looking at how different cities are connected to the rail network and there are some surprises in there. The ones that do well, edinburgh, manchester and birmingham top of the list but down the bottom, places like cardiff, leicester and here will stop the list was put together by a familiarface, simon stop the list was put together by a familiar face, simon calder, stop the list was put together by a familiarface, simon calder, the travel editor of the independent newspaper whojoins me travel editor of the independent newspaper who joins me now. Travel editor of the independent newspaper whojoins me now. How did you work this out, look at how cities rank . It was simply a matter of the 12 biggest cities in the uk outside london, how well are they connected to each other . Simply because as travellers, you want to get on a train, have a cup of tea, check your phone and get off at the other end. I was staggered with the way that some cities, as you say, birmingham and manchester, really well connected, but even a great city like liverpool, glasgow, cardiff and leicester, very poor connections in terms of direct trains, which of course, this waits people from travelling by train at a time when we are all supposed to be being more thoughtful about our travel. You might expect somewhere like birmingham to be very well connected, right in the centre of the country but why the difference between someone like glasgow and edinburgh that are not geographically very similar . Edinburgh has very good links in terms of its tram out to the airport. Glasgow has a subway but it does not really connect with the rail network. And poor old leicester is just there rail network. And poor old leicester isjust there on rail network. And poor old leicester is just there on the east midlands mainline. It used to have superb connections with places right across the country. Those have been scaled down and if you want to go from leicester to pretty much anywhere, you will probably have to change. And no one wants to do that. Thank you forjoining us. That was a bit sharp of us to remove ben from the programme. And simon calder, paul simon a quick update on what is going on, remember the National Grid power cut . The big report on that is being delivered to the Energy Regulator 0fgem today so we might van dyck find out some more. Regulator 0fgem today so we might van dyck find out some more. Your fault . Youre watching business live. Our top story. Investors around the world are heading for safe haven assets about concerns of the global economy. The us china trade war and brexit are some of the factors weighing in on the markets. A quick look at how the markets are doing at the moment. These are the european markets and the ftse100 is yet to open, and it is the same for the ftse 250, yet to due to some technical glitches due to the according to the london Stock Exchange, we are a7 and a half minutes into the trading session in europe and we are yet to find out what is going on all those smaller stocks are apparently trading. The last time this happened was due last year. That was the first time in seven years. I was injune first time in seven years. I was in june last year. But as far as the lse are concerned, it is a technical issue and they try never to deal with it. From one stock market to another. From a huge stock market crash in argentina to continued unrest in hong kong its been another busy week in Business News. 0ur economics correspondent Andrew Walker is with us now to look at some of big stories that have been causing waves. Lets talk about argentina first, we have been covering it quite a bit on bbc news. It is a huge story for the argentine economy. Actor lately, looking at what has happened in the markets, theres been a bit of a recovery towards the end of the week but it is really trite tiny compared to the falls we saw earlier. Compared with a month ago, both the stock market and the currency are down about 25 . If you imagine you are a foreign investor who has bought argentine shares, you have been hit in terms of the value of your investment and both those things, it is a terrible week. What is going on is there was this primary election in which the incumbent, the president basically lost, and the markets were assuming he was going to be re elected in an election later this year. But the signs of this primary election suggest that he wont be and he could well lose in the first round. The market and many investors fear a return to what they would regard as being the bad old days of poorly