Relatively mixed. 0f they are treading water and relatively mixed. Of course, that first round in the election on france is on sunday. Traders are gearing up for that. We will take you through the markets a little bit later. Now, it might taste good, but could it also do good . We will meet the woman behind the Chocolate Brand which is co owner and by farmers in ghana. Also, as facebook begins work on mind control technology, we want to know, is mind control and social media a risky combination . Just think of the havoc it could cause. Let us know what you think. A very warm welcome to the programme. So, once again we start with our focus once again we start with our focus on whats going on in downing street. In less than an hour, the head of the European Parliament is due to meet with british Prime Minister theresa may. Thats Antonio Tajani, who is visiting as the uk prepares for an election which will be dominated by britains exit from the European Union. The European Parliament has a vote on the final brexit deal, but is not involved in the process. However it has set out a series of what it describes as red lines, that it will not compromise on, something Antonio Tajani will no doubt discuss with the reason may later. Lets tell you what we know about those. So, the European Parliament wants the final agreement to make sure the uk continues to comply with a range of eu policies on various issues, such as the environment, tax evasion and competition. It also stresses the United Kingdom must honour all its legal and financial obligations to the eu including its agreement to pay into the budget until at least 2020. That could mean a hefty exit bill a figure put by the European Commission at 60 billion euros. And one thats bitterly disputed by some in the uk. Notably by the so called Brexit Secretary david davis. And it insists two major eu regulators currently based in london the European Banking Authority and European Medicines Agency will also have to move to the continent. Some in Financial Markets are now betting that getting the election out of the way injune will allow the uk to be much more flexible in agreeing to these demands and avoid a so called hard brexit. We can now get the view of a political analyst from kings couege political analyst from Kings College london. In one sense it makes her life easier because she will have to pass a lot of legislation to make brexit happen. With a bigger majority, which pollsters expect, that will be easier. I dont think it will affect the European Union lose position, though. They will not care one way 01 though. They will not care one way or the other what size her majority is in parliament. I think they will put together what they think is a fair negotiating position, and that wont change. How important is todays meeting . The European Parliament is not involved in the negotiations, but it does have to sign it off at the end of the two yea rs . Sign it off at the end of the two years . Yes, it is curious, we are not negotiating with the European Parliament but we need to keep them on site. The worst of all worlds is that the European Parliament says, we dont like this, we going to vote it down, which they can do. So keeping them on side is important. They have described some of these things as red lines which cant be crossed. The divorce bill of 60 billion euros, already, david davis says it is nothing like that. Yeah, that figure has been bandied around by the European Commission as a possibility. I think the first stage of negotiations will be to figure out what we should be including in oui out what we should be including in our bill and what we shouldnt. I dont think that figure is set in stone, but i think the eu is making it clear that whatever figure they arrive at, we have to pay, we cannot get around it. In other news. Emirates will reduce flights to five us cities from next month, after new security rules targeted travellers from the middle east. According to the dubai based airline, recent actions taken by the Us Government relating to the issuance of entry visas, heightened Security Vetting and restrictions on Electronic Devices in Aircraft Cabins have had a direct impact on Consumer Interest and demand for air travel into the us. Consumer goods maker unilever reported better than expected First Quarter sales on thursday, helped by pricing growth. Underlying sales rose by 2. 9 , beating analysts estimates of 2 . The results could boost Investor Enthusiasm for unilever, whose shares have remained higher since february, when it received, and then quickly rejected, a 143 billion Takeover Offer from rival kraft heinz. Premier League Football clubs posted record revenues of £3. 6 billion in 2015 16 according to research by deloitte. Manchester united topped the earnings table for the First Time Since the 2003 11 season with revenue of £515 million. Still, the top 20 english clubs made an overall pre tax loss after two seasons of profit hit by higher player wages, Operating Costs and other one off charges. Japanese exports saw their biggest gain in more than two years in march a sign of optimism for the worlds Third Largest economy, which also boosted asian markets. Lets go to sharanjit leyl, whos in our Asia Business hub in singapore. A real boost for exports . Thats right. Exports in japan a real boost for exports . Thats right. Exports injapan growing 12 in march led essentially by a Strong Demand for auto parts, Optical Instruments such as mobile phone parts and tools to make semiconductors. While imports were also up nearly 16 , which is mainly to buy all the coal, oil and energy needs to fuel the economy. We also heard from the International Monetary front, they have just rooted japans economic forecast, projecting a 1. 2 annual expansion this year. And there was a key bank of Japan Business confidence survey, which pointed to rising optimism among big manufacturers. All in all, really good forjapan, although i should say, the newquay ended fairly flat, with worries about the french elections and north korea. We have also seen the japanese Prime Minister who has been trying to achieve this Economic Growth for yea rs achieve this Economic Growth for years and end what has been a long period of on and off deflation through a policy blitz of easy money stimulus as well as reform. So, despite that great news about exports, as we heard, the nikkei ended pretty flat. The dowjones was down. Quite a lot of Earnings Stories out of the us also which did not impress. Ibm and ebay among them. In europe, all eyes on france, as we head into the weekend, with voters deciding who they want to be the front runners in the president ial race in france. Thats how things are going in europe right now. Well talk some more about trade in a moment. But first, lets look ahead to the day in the United States. And Michelle Fleury has the details about whats ahead on wall street today. The snp 500s losing streak stretched into a fifth day. Doubts about Donald Trumps ability to fulfil his Progress Promises are behind that. Investors are hoping that First Quarter earnings will be Strong Enough to justify those lofty valuations. Of the more than 50 companies in the snp 500 that have turned in their report cards so far, 7596 turned in their report cards so far, 75 have done better than it did, according to data from thomson reuters. The question is, will that trend continue . Among those reporting quarterly profits come visa, cigarette maker Philip Morris and toymaker to picky. The number one us wireless carrier is expected to decline for a fourth straight quarter. Investors want to know how it will respond to rival at ts move into tv and content. Joining us is alix stewart, fixed income fund manager, schroders. Good morning. We have been talking all week, and tomorrow is a big one, with a lot of the Manufacturing News Come can you explain the significance of these Manufacturing Pmis . Well, obviously we have seen strong economic both through a lot of the world. And on the other side of the world. And on the other side of the world. And on the other side of the political stuff that has been dominating everything, we will be focusing back on what is actually happening in the economy is. We get that focus back, as you say, during the week, when the imf upped its Growth Forecast for the uk, for japan, for many economies, actually. And so it is quite interesting how the news coming through about various economies in the world seems to be getting better, even the Inflation Figures in the eurozone yesterday were not as robust as people had feared, with worries about petrol going up etc . Yeah, we seem to be in quite a nice phase at the moment many were getting a cyclical upswing globally perhaps for the First Time Since the financial crisis. And inflation is not a worry at the moment. Speaking of prices going up, lets talk retail sales. We will get the figures tomorrow. We have had results from debenhams this morning. That is a Big Department store chain here. But it is interesting because ten stores are up for closure, a big warehouse and Distribution Centre potentially at risk. This is being replicated around the world, these Big Department stores really struggling . Well, youve got three things going on. Youve got the fact that consumers are being squeezed as prices go up, if income is dont keep pace with that. We have seen here in the uk that people are dipping into savings to keep consumption going. So there are big question marks specific to the uk. But globally, we have got this issue with department stores, people are shopping in a different way now. We will talk more about debenhams a bit later. For now, thank you very much. Still to come. Can chocolate change lives . We meet the woman behind the Chocolate Brand that says it can make a difference for Cocoa Farmers in africa. Youre with Business Live from bbc news. Sky and hbo have announced a Co Production deal worth £195 million, and have also promised a Ground BreakingVirtual Reality experience in partnership with Sir David Attenborough and the Natural History museum. The announcement comes as Sky Reports Sales up 11 to £9. 6 billion for the nine months to march. It also comes a few weeks after the culture secretary, karen bradley, referred 21st century foxs bid for sky to competition regulators. Lets get more with Alex De Groote media analyst at cenkos. Nice to have you on the programme. Skype coming out with so many different bits of news, what is your ta ke different bits of news, what is your take on the hbo deal . They have a long standing arrangement with hbo whereby probably half of the output that you would see on sky at atla ntic that you would see on Sky At Atlantic already comes from hbo. In a way, this development cements that pre existing relationship. Sky in the uk for some time now has been going down the path of higher quality, more expensive drama. Primarily through Sky At Atlantic also through some of their other channels. So, this is more of the same but it is a big commitment and should be seen as a real positive for hbo as well. And also, it is what these companies have to do, they have to have that content that viewers want to tune in for, thats what its all about, isnt it . It is, this is the golden age of tv, maybe the second golden age of tv. 0ne maybe the second golden age of tv. One reason for that is the amount of money which is being put into this high end drama by the likes of sky. If you go back 10 15 years, a lot of skys Business Model in the uk was based around paying up for the footy and hoping to draw in subscribers on that basis. That has kind of come to the end of the road now, so this is about trying to get perhaps a slightly different democratic, with pretty high end drama, Starring Guys who previously would only have worked in film. Boyd thank you for your time. As promised, a reminder, much more on the debenhams story. It is part of a plan already being announced but clearly there are now implications for some stores. Ten hour before potential closure, one of those is loss making, the other given some sense to prove themselves. You are with Business Live, our top story today, we are focused on the head of the European Parliament. He is at downing street today meeting with the british Prime Minister to discuss of course the brexit negotiations. We will have more on that story in a moment. Quick look at the numbers for you. After a pretty volatile week, calling off the snap election, markets and occurrences not sure id one point what to make of it. You can see as the ftse 100 what to make of it. You can see as the ftse100 is finally back in positive territory after a week of losses so far, on the back of that. But the ftse100, because most many of you may have been indulging over the weekend regardless of where you live in the world on chocolate. Many of us enjoy a sweet treat but how do you combine that urge to indulge yourself with doing good . Well, our next guest believes you can do both. Shes the boss of the fair trade chocolate maker, divine. You may have seen it out there. Its co owned by a co operative of Cocoa Farmers in ghana and exports to more than ten countries. Last year, it had a turnover of around 15 million not bad, when you consider its a social enterprise. Sophi tranchell, is Group Chief Executive and md of divine chocolate. And she has brought lots of slabs of the staff as well, over the studio. We had the out of the hands of a Floor Manager and manager and directors and various others to give it in the studio. Nice to see you, welcome. Lets start with the product, because i think it is really interesting. Defoe got involved in this, you had no experience of retail, no experience of chocolate, and yet you are now running this global chocolate business. Tell us your story. Running this global chocolate business. Tell us your storylj running this global chocolate business. Tell us your story. I had a tin chocolate, so i did know what it was i was running a Film Distribution company and a cinema gioup Distribution Company and a cinema group in london, and we were distributing foreign films, so we brought in that in america films, and the early almodovar films. We we re and the early almodovar films. We were getting people to watch subtitled films and back in the 90s young people didnt do that so that was quite a challenge. I saw an advert in a newspaper, a very little advert, because they were recruiting advert, because they were recruiting a team to run divine chocolate, they already had the name, the recipe of the first buyer and the ownership structure, and i just the first buyer and the ownership structure, and ijust thought it was a great project. The idea that it was owned by a cooperative of Cocoa Farmers in ghana that would get the benefits from the money that Chocolate Lovers spend on the Chocolate Lovers spend on the chocolate was just an irresistible combination. My thought it was a great idea and inner way i had nothing to lose, because i had no experience in retail at know how difficult a task i was taking on. I hadnt really recognise that you are entering into a category dominated by enormous tom preece la global. It just seemed by enormous tom preece la