apple and amazon report a mixed bag of results, not helping boost wall street, as the dowjones index sees its worst day of the year. the bank of england pulls the trigger on its first interest rate cut in four years. hello and welcome to business today. i'm arunoday mukharji. it was an ugly day on wall street, with the dow sliding nearly nearly 500 points, as recession fears re—emerged. both the s&p 500 and the tech—heavy nasdaq also closed in the red.

the report cards of tech giants amazon and apple didn't do much to lift the mood, either. our north america business correspondent michelle fleury has more on what sparked that sell—off. yes, not even amazon could left wall street out of its funk. shares in the e—commerce giant fell more than 4%, after it reported sales grew 10% to $148 billion. now that marked a slowdown from the prior quarter, and it has forecast further weakening in the months ahead. it wasn't the only tech firm, either, whose left investors with a sour taste. intel punched after the chip maker said it plans to cut 15,000 jobs and announced disappointing results, and sales sagged at social media company, chris nat. the only bright spot, apple, despite a drop in iphone sales. wall street started even before big tech earnings came out. the dow jones fell nearly 500 points after weak economic data sparked fears that the fed won't act fast enough to avoid a recession. a key gauge of us manufacturing fell to its

lowest level since november. with markets reassessing the health of the us economy, the government's monthlyjobs report, due out a few hours from now, could bring even more fireworks. as michelle mentioned, it was a mixed bag of news out of the tech giants on thursday. tech strategist sundeep gantori from ubs explained what the latest report cards have been telling us about the tech sector and ai momentum. it has been a mixed quarterly season, so we had two great quarters injanuary season, so we had two great quarters in january and season, so we had two great quarters injanuary and april, so expectations have gone up, so expectations have gone up, so clearly companies have issued mixed guidance or in some cases companies have some issues in terms of this debate. so overall i think it has to do with where expectations were. i don't think it is a bad quarter. but i think it is more to do with valuations. in quarter. but i think it is more to do with valuations.- to do with valuations. in the first half _ to do with valuations. in the first half of _ to do with valuations. in the first half of the _ to do with valuations. in the first half of the year, - to do with valuations. in the first half of the year, we - to do with valuations. in the | first half of the year, we saw tech stocks going up on the

back of expectations from al on the boot we were anticipating but in the second quarter earnings do you think there is a worry ai is not getting the kind of return of investment? to be fair, i don't think we're at that stage where investments and ai are actually generating and ai are actually generating a lot of money today. think we need to take a medium to longer term approach. having said that, we had some anecdotal evidence during the results where companies are either seeing a increase in cloud revenues growth. in fact we see the big tech cloud growth accelerating, but investments would continue and we would rather see this as a long—term opportunity and not something that would make you money in the next six months. i that would make you money in the next six months.— the next six months. i want to talk about _ the next six months. i want to talk about apple _ the next six months. i want to talk about apple as _ the next six months. i want to talk about apple as well - talk about apple as well because that stood out, it bucked the trend. do you feel that has something to do with that has something to do with that new ai initiative announcement as well? without auoin into announcement as well? without going into companies _ going into companies specifically, it all comes down to expectations, broadly we see in this reporting season companies that haven't built, i

think investor reaction was a bit mixed, more positive rather, so i think it is more with expectations but broadly speaking we think ai is a key trend we would like to watch the next six months. is trend we would like to watch the next six months. is there a timeframe. — the next six months. is there a timeframe, in _ the next six months. is there a timeframe, in terms _ the next six months. is there a timeframe, in terms of - the next six months. is there a timeframe, in terms of the - timeframe, in terms of the adaptation we are looking at when it comes to ai and monetisation? monetisation lon . er monetisation? monetisation longer term. _ monetisation? monetisation longer term, maybe - monetisation? monetisation longer term, maybe three i monetisation? monetisation| longer term, maybe three to four years as they will see the captain expanding bed consumer will accelerate in the next three to six months. according to ceo of intel, the cuts will affect roughly 15,000 employees and take place this year. the steps were necessary he said given costs intel reported weaker revenue and profit dampers.

two weeks after crowdstrike sparked what's been described as the largest ever global it outage. most affected computers are now back to normal, but the disruption ran up costs into billions of dollars. speaking to the bbc�*s ben thompson the head of global cyber—security firm the ncc group called the incident a "wake—up call" for businesses. i think from this incident one of the things we have learned is just how complex our supply chains are, and i think many businesses don't really understand that. so crowdstrike, as i say, fantastic product, but it is probably not a strategic solution within an organisation, it is not a core finance system, not a core hr system, so for that to be able to cause the sorts of implications is quite serious, so i think what the lessons are for businesses, for supply chains is actually you have to understand how technology fits within your operations. i think

you have to be prepared, think through the scenario so that you have plans in place, and we have to test. and i think it really does talk to a whole objective, which is about digital resilience in an interconnected world. that is fairly early days, we are starting to see regulation come through but it is fairly early days for a lot of organisations say there is a lot to do around this. ~ ., ., this. we hear the word resilience _ this. we hear the word resilience a _ this. we hear the word resilience a lot, - this. we hear the word resilience a lot, what l this. we hear the word | resilience a lot, what is this. we hear the word i resilience a lot, what is it really mean, because these weren't small companies on small budgets that might be forgiven for sort of overlooking some of these plan bs these four huge organisations you would expect would have a better plan in place, and they didn't. what does resilience look like? again, this is a wake—up call. i don't think we have as organisations looked at some of these things systemically, so resilience i think is having an end—to—end conversation about testing, both in terms of testing, both in terms of testing the deployments of

software, the receipt of that software, the receipt of that software but also testing your plans to respond. a lot of organisations are running hot and fast. testing resilience plans is sometimes a second thought. we need to get a serious conversation at board level about the extent to which organisations are thinking about it, testing it, have the plans in place for it and actually understand where key elements of this, their software, can off —— can impact business operations. the software, can off -- can impact business operations.— business operations. the bank of england. — business operations. the bank of england, which _ business operations. the bank of england, which cut - business operations. the bank of england, which cut interest| of england, which cut interest rates for the first time in four years on thursday. the cost of borrowing was lowered from a 16 year high of 5.2% to 5%. naeem aslam, chief investment officer, zaye capital markets explained what precipitated the boe�*s decision to cut rates now. i think the signs were already there, in terms of the bank of england because my own mandate and the most important one was inflation meeting its target. if you look at how the overall

situation in the uk's market, especially with respect to real estate, the borrowers, they are under massive pressure, in terms of the repayment, because if you have a mortgage of 300,000, and your payments were around £750 a month, but with a new interest rates, you are looking to pay something around £1100 or £1200, depending on the value you have in your product. so from a consumer's perspective and from the economy's perspective, this was coming, and then this was a right move that the bank of england had to make. but i think there is another major and another important question for investors and traders, is this enough of the uk's economy, and how much the bank of england can do more in the

remaining part of this particular year in order to ease the pressure on consumers. talking about the overall economy, it is a new government in place in the uk, chancellor rachel reeves say they have inherited fiscal burdens from the previous regime. does that complicate matters? i the previous regime. does that complicate matters?— complicate matters? i think it is a net zero _ complicate matters? i think it is a net zero again, _ complicate matters? i think it is a net zero again, because l is a net zero again, because now, if you didn't have the product in place in terms of your mortgage, oryou product in place in terms of your mortgage, or you have a tracker mortgage, your mortgage would come down from today, come from tomorrow. so yes, you will see some relief, but then again, a new government in place, a previous government, which had many self—inflicted injuries, such as brexit, and i canjust go on injuries, such as brexit, and i can just go on about them all day long, they left the government in a very big and dark hole, so we know that the chancellor has already talked about increasing taxes, so yes, you are saving some money, in terms of interest rates are going down, by the way are

still 16 years high and people are struggling with respect to that. but then at the same time, the chancellor is going to come out and increase more taxes on businesses and consumers, so i think we are still going to be back to square one, and the impact of a lower interest rate from a consumer's perspective and the economy's perspective, i'm not too optimistic about that. the royal mail's takeover by czech billionaire daniel kretinsky will face a government probe into potential links with russia, the bbc understands. officials have "called in" the purchase of the postal service's parent company for an investigation under the national security and investment act. the bid will be suspended for now, but it does not mean that mr kretinsky has withdrawn from the deal. the government could block the deal, though a similar review when mr kretinsky increased his stake in royal mailfound nothing. that's all we have. and that's it for this

edition of business today. thanks for watching. stay with bbc news.

hey, i'm lola with the catch up. first, a suspect at the southport stabbing attack has been named for the first time. 17—year—old axel rudakubana 17—year—old axel rudaku ba na appeared 17—year—old axel rudakubana appeared in court, charged with three counts of murder, and ten counts of attempted murder. the judge decided to lift the ban on naming him as it was in the public interest. three girls, aged six, seven and nine were killed during the attack at a taylor swift themed dance class on monday. a university, where a student took her own life, has been recognised for its effort to tackle gender—based violence. 18—year—old emily

duet died in 2016, after a campaign ofabuse duet died in 2016, after a campaign of abuse by another student while she was studying at aberdeen university. it has now adopted a charter called the emily test, which aims to create safe environments for students, with hopes it can be rolled out to other unis. some other stories now. jamaican dance hall artist vibes cartel has been freed from prison. he was convicted of murder back in 2014, but was overturned by a court in the uk this year. the artist who has collaborated with the likes of ray —— jay—z and rihanna. mr beast has acknowledged using inappropriate language early on inappropriate language early on in his career. he has been accused of making racist comments in the past. his team—mate said he made some bad jokes and other mistakes and learned increasing influence comes with increased responsibility. time now for ten seconds of the olympic marathon man. d0 ten seconds of the olympic marathon man.— ten seconds of the olympic marathon man. , ., ~ ., marathon man. do you know the muffin man? _ marathon man. do you know the muffin man? henry—

marathon man. do you know the| muffin man? henry christiansen, a norwegian _ muffin man? henry christiansen, a norwegian swimmer, _ muffin man? henry christiansen, a norwegian swimmer, has- muffin man? henry christiansen, a norwegian swimmer, has gone| a norwegian swimmer, has gone viral with his tick—tocks about the chocolate muffins. tbh, they look so good. you are all caught up now, have a great night. hello and welcome to sportsday from the bbc sport centre — coming up on the programme — two giants of american sport shine at the olympics — simone biles and katie ledecky make it a day to remember for team usa. boxing controversy — a previously—banned female fighter is allowed to compete and the international olympic committee defend its eligibility rules. and the end of an era, as the curtain comes down in paris on andy murray's playing career.