Facebook shares in the red. Even though results did beat on the top and bottom line. Total revenue up 39 . Some of the decline possibly attributed to the surge in spending. With expenses up 82 . On the call, Mark Zuckerberg continued to tout progress with video. Take a listen. Video continueses to be some of the richest and most engaging content for people and publishers and since the start of the year, pages are also sharing 40 more video. We updated our news feed ranking to help people see more of the videos they care about and techting option force video monetization to help our partners build their businesses. Jon, 24 hours ago you said it would be the line item to much with and a its clearly the focus. Given the fact that facebook ran up so much over the past several weeks, this level is just about where it was trading two weeks ago. When you think about it in those terms, not necessarily that bad. But so much of what facebook had to say on the call was positive. Think about Faceb
Mark welcome to countdown, i am mark barton. Caroline Caroline Hyde. Mark the Worlds Largest luxury Goods Company lvmh has had a sales search. Sales surge. Manus equipment makers join the end and a m a action. Caroline it is a deal brewing and industry rife with dealmakaking. It is a deal that has been speculated about four years. Could be buying alcatel no kia could be buying alcatel. The deal could be announced as soon as this week. It would boost nokias presence in china and the United States. You have 1. 3 billion mobile subscribers. This is a real area of strength for alcatel. But their Wireless Network area would also bring to key players in the United States market Verizon Communications and at t. The contract that they have bring in 25 of their overall revenue. Key areas of growth. We could see them did not only for the wireless area of alcatel but also for alcatel as a whole making it the secondbiggest player. It would be the secondbiggest Network Equipment maker in the world
The index is expected to come in and 0. 0 . The director said he thinks i should give it a negative. But of course at a 0 or deflationary restoring in the United Kingdom would add credence to the bank of england leading rate unchanged well into next year. You are right, nokia have confirmed they are in talks with the whole of intel. That is what is going to really address here. We have an opening print on nokia. A little bit more talk. I will not go through it and much more detail. Nokia is down 3. 7 freedom without they might go up. Neither is a possibility and they will start negotiations. They are buying the business of what would you do when you get your hands on it . Lvmh is virtually flat. The equities market despite prices rising by 16 . You will spend a little time with andrew in paris. Bouldering watching bulgari, watching. Those are the three stocks to watch. On the currency front, one thing that caught my eye. A straight hits to the pause australia hit to the pause button in
Caroline we will be looking at the ecbs 1. 1 trillion euro bond buying plan. Mark stocks are headed for the biggest drop in weeks after gdp growth output investment, and retail data in china also load. All slowed. Yvonne man is in hong kong with the details. Where are we seeing weaknesses and strengths right now . Yvonne the weaknesses are definitely coming in line when we talk about retail sales and the factory sector. The Australian Dollar also slid in reaction to some of this data coming in from china. The First Quarter gdp was bang on target at 7 for the First Quarter. That is in line with economists and what the Chinese Government was hoping for. No newsflash there but that disappointing data you pointed out there are coming out below expectations. Factory output for march was at 5. 6 the lowest since november of 2008. Economists were estimating a 10 growth theyre previously. Urban investment also came in at 13. 5 . Retail sales were also a big mess, their slowest pace since 2006,
Question from the audience. If i can find in john was be in the audience wisby in the audience who should have a microphone. He will have a microphone so. People in this audience slightly more obsessed with tax. More on that subject. John a number of questions. Anna one on tax evasion versus tax avoidance. John i was always brought up to distinguish between tax evasion being something illegal and tax avoidance which is something you said we have the right to pay the least tax. And it does seem that if there is so much a blurring of the edges of the talk of politicians now between what is legal avoidance without trying to invest. And actually what is evasion. Could there be a little bit of clarity on that distinction . And why it is blurred so much in a lot of the rhetoric . Anna we will start with you. Talk about the scourge of tax avoidance. Chuka umunna i think everybody talks about it. There is a difference between evasion and avoidance. I do not think it is a difference between pla