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Apple breaks profit records

Apple breaks records with a profit of $34.6 billion on revenues of nearly $124 billion.

Firstly, we look at how Apple became the first company to hit a stock market valuation of $3tn in early January of this year as well as its latest earnings.
We also discuss how chip shortages and supply chain issues have hit production. Are consumers still snapping up iPhones? Daniel Ives is Managing Director of Equity Research for Wedbush Securities in New York weighs in on the topic.

Next, figures released on Thursday in the US showed that the American economy grew at its fastest pace since 1984 - expanding by 5.7 percent during 2021. It's a stronger bounce back than expected - and in fact the last quarter showed growth at an annualised rate of 6.9 percent - despite Omicron. Of all America's 50 states, the one enjoying the biggest growth over the last ten years has been Utah - and to hear why WBR reporter Sasha Twining spoke to Curtis Blair - President and CEO of the Utah Valley Chamber of Commerce.

We also look at how global food prices have risen sharply since the pandemic began - and according to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization they're now at their highest level in a decade. Across Asia - where price rises haven’t been as dramatic as elsewhere - the number of people seeking help has been growing - as Mariko Oi reports.

A series of slow-moving truck convoys are making their way towards the Canadian capital, Ottawa, as part of a protest against vaccine mandates. It all started with drivers hauling cargo across the border with the United States being compelled - both ways - to be vaccinated or denied permission to cross. In some provinces, the convoys have caused traffic congestion - so in terms of being an irritant the protest is certainly working. And on Thursday the Prime Minister himself, Justin Trudeau, was forced to address the issue. Nate Tabak is a reporter for the global transport and infrastructure website freightwaves.com - he spoke to us about what he made of the situation.

And lastly - it's one of those weeks where we're getting a lot of quarterly reporting - corporate as well as national. So having started the programme with Big Tech, let's end with Big Booze. Diageo is the world's biggest spirit maker - behind brands like Smirnoff, Gordon's, Johnnie Walker and Guinness. Their latest 6-month figures show a growth in sales of 16 percent. The Diageo CEO is Ivan Menezes and he spoke with us about this growth.

(Picture credit: Getty Images)

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27 minutes

Last on

Thu 27 Jan 2022 22:32GMT

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  • Thu 27 Jan 2022 22:32GMT