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CFDs involve a high level of risk.
81.31% of retail investors lose money.
The US central bank gets a new chair.
So what does that mean for interest rates?
It's World Business Express from the BBC World Service.
I'm Leanna Byrne.
Amazon UK's big boss says its AI can buy products for you.
And why did Estee Lauder's tie up with Pooj fall flat?
So he's the man who's promised the biggest shakeup in decades at the U.S.
Central Bank.
And he's set to be sworn in today at the White House.
Kevin Warsh will be the 17th chair of the Federal Reserve.
And he's taking over at a very tense moment for the U.S.
So what does the chair of the Federal Reserve actually do?
Here's our reporter, Niamh McDermott.
The Federal Reserve, or the Fed, is America's central bank.
And for more than a century it's helped steer the US economy through recessions, financial crisis, pandemics and inflation.
The person in charge of the organisation is the Federal Chair.
They're nominated by the President.
It is my pleasure and my honour to announce my nomination of Jerome Powell.
Confirmed by the Senate and serve a four-year term.
And they actually often have more influence over Americans' everyday finances than the president.
How?
Well, they pull the financial levers to try to control the economy.
The main one of these is interest rates.
It's one of the Fed's biggest tools to try to keep inflation, meaning rising prices, under control.
The chair leads this committee, which meets at least eight times a year.
Now then, as we mentioned just before the break, there has been some breaking news in the past few minutes.
In a significant move for the US economy, the Federal Reserve has cut interest rates.
Remember, their decision affects a whole host of things, from the amount of interest paid on mortgages and credit cards to how much savings can earn and even the job market.
When inflation is too high, the Fed can raise interest rates.
That makes mortgages, credit cards and business loans more expensive.
So people spend less and the economy cools.
But raise rates too much and you risk hurting job and growth too.
To conclude, we understand that our actions affect communities, families and businesses across the country.
Everything we do is in service to our public mission.
Whilst the Fed chair has a huge team of economists and polymakers around them.
They have the biggest influence and what they say matters the most.
When they speak, but inflation is still too high, markets around the world listen.
So the Fed chair's job is basically this.
They are in charge of the committee that tries to keep inflation under control without crashing the economy.
Niamh McDermott with that nice explainer.
Now somebody who definitely knows who the chair of the Federal Reserve is Ramdeep Samal, fund manager at MG Investments.
Ramdeep, hello.
Hello, Leanna.
Now, when Warsh was nominated, it seemed like he was the guy who was going to bring down interest rates.
But the rhetoric has changed since then, hasn't it?
It has.
The inflation rate in the US and the rest of the world is aiming a lot higher than expectations.
So there is a chance that the next hike might be up.
Is there appetite amongst the rest of the Federal Reserve, the committee, to cut rates?
There were three dissenters at the last meeting, but Kevin Waller, who's another senior member of that committee, has openly said now that there is a likelihood that rates will need to rise in order to get inflation under control.
And that is their primary objective.
Now, elsewhere in global markets, you must be very excited for these listings.
We've got SpaceX, which has put its papers in, it's pretty much ready to go.
But then also Anthropic and OpenAI seem to be on the move to also list.
So what's that going to do to global markets, Ranjit?
Yeah, I mean, SpaceX is the biggest one at the moment.
It's looking to file its prospectus now with a potential 2 trillion valuation for its capital raise.
It is still making a loss.
But it's trying to get investors to look through that and see that this orbital infrastructure platform will grow in the next 20 to 50 years.
It is providing some excitement for markets.
The rest of tech seem to be doing quite strongly as well.
But it's a question of just how much appetite there's going to be as these things start being listed.
All right, Randy Psamo, Fund Manager at M&G Investments.
Always a pleasure.
Thanks for joining us.
Workers at the South Korean electronics giant Samsung are voting on whether to accept a provisional profit-sharing deal hammered out by the unions.
They've been threatening to hold an 18-day strike, keen to see a slice of the company's booming profits.
Now the head of Amazon for the UK and Ireland has told the BBC the company is piloting a service where an AI agent purchases products on a customer's behalf.
That means buying when items hit a price the customer sets without them needing to place the order.
John Bumfrey spoke to Sean Farrington on the Big Boss interview podcast.
There is a service we have in the US that we're piloting called Buy For Me.
But really importantly, the customer is in control every step of the way.
So as a business, we have a huge responsibility.
We have the customer's payment details.
We know what we think they want to buy.
And as I understand it, we will then go and buy that product.
But at any stage, if the customer wants to change or wants to do something else, they can control that.
It is a lot of responsibility, but it's one of the ways that retail is evolving.
I've been in retail for 20 years.
One of the reasons I got into it 20 years ago is because it was dynamic, exciting.
And it's still as dynamic as and exciting today as I think it's ever been.
So what kind of stuff is that?
Is it household goods?
It's buying you your washing powder and it just arrives at the door when you haven't even thought about it.
If you signed up to the bigger picture, is that what the future could well be?
It could be, yes.
You could say that there's a particular type of product that you'd like to buy when it hits this particular price.
And you can specify those as I understand it.
And we'll then go and do that over the course of time.
That was John von Free, head of Amazon for the UK and Ireland.
Meanwhile, shares of the beauty giants Estee Lauder and Pooj went opposite directions after a planned multi-billion dollar tie-up between the two of them collapsed.
Estee Lauder's shares were up while Puget's shares were down.
Bethann King is freelance beauty editor.
She says if the deal had gone through, it would have created one of the world's largest cosmetics companies.
You'd be kind of bringing together.
You know, Estee Lauder, who are the powerhouses of skincare brands and fragrance brands and cosmetics, along with Pooch, who are obviously a huge fashion house, but also they've got a big fragrance arm as well.
Obviously cosmetics when it comes to kind of Charlotte Tilbury too.
So it would have been an absolutely huge deal and bringing together almost kind of two rival companies really.
But of course, the deal did not go through.
Do we know why?
Well, I think it boiled down to a good old fashioned power struggle.
I think it fell apart over who was going to be in control ultimately and who was going to hold the balance of power.
Because you've got to remember, these are two family businesses at the end of the day.
And so how the board seats would be structured was going to be really key to making this work.
And I think they couldn't agree on how that was going to happen.
Nobody wanted to relinquish control or have less control.
Less of a say in things.
So I think that's where it all went horribly wrong.
And what do you think this means for Pooj as well?
Is this is this a big loss or I mean, in its own right, it's a big company.
It is.
And I think behind the scenes.
I think part of what might have gone wrong as well is Charlotte Tilbury is currently renegotiating her own deal with Pooj, because they obviously own her.
And I think that's happening at the moment, too.
And so I do think that that has probably fed into this kind of collapse of it potentially, in that no one's quite sure what's going to happen there.
Yeah, you've got to remember, they are a massive company.
And I think, although their share price did go up a bit when the merger talks were first announced, kind of back in March, as you said, SA Lord went the other way.
You know, I think Pooj are going to be fine.
They are still a huge business.
So I don't think, you know, without sort of sounding like a plot from Succession, I think these are two family businesses that are rivals and neither one are going to relinquish control to the other.
So I think that's kind of why this has happened.
That was freelance beauty editor Bethann King.
And finally, a box of two premium melons has reached a record $36,500 at an auction in Japan.
The successful bidder was a fruit wholesaler, and the pricey cantaloupes will go on display at a supermarket in Tokyo before tasting events begin next week.
And that is it from World Business Express from the BBC World Service.
I'm Leanna Byrne.
Thanks for listening.
This weekend, elite athletes from around the world are descending on Las Vegas, where they'll compete with the aid of performance enhancing drugs.
That's right, steroids and growth hormones, drugs that are normally barred in professional sports.
I'm Asma Khalid, and I host the Global Story podcast from the BBC.
On our show, we'll dive into the world of the first ever enhanced games, also nicknamed the Doping Olympics.
For more, listen to the Global Story on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts.
