markets in asia tank — we'll find out why investors think the us is headed for recession. plus: it was a direct message on my personal instagram. but i of course knew straightaway this was some kind of scam, it had to be. but i wasn't sure which so i decided to play along. and the bbc gets a rare insight into what's being called �*pig butchering' scams. hello and welcome to business today. i'm arunoday mukharji. asian markets have been tanking this morning — with tokyo stocks falling more than 7% in early trade. a surging yen and poor data out of the us has fuelled fears of a recession there. investors are also concerned that interest rates will have to come down sharply, and much quicker to support growth. we've got a few interest rate decisions coming up in the region this week including australia where peter mcguire a financial

analystjoins me from. peter, thank you very much once again for peter, thank you very much once again for coming peter, thank you very much once againfor coming up peter, thank you very much once again for coming up on peter, thank you very much once again for coming up on business today. we saw the massive sell—off this week. what is driving today's market movements.— driving today's market movements. , , . , movements. firstly, heavily leveraged — movements. firstly, heavily leveraged positions - movements. firstly, heavily leveraged positions in - movements. firstly, heavily. leveraged positions in japanese leveraged positions injapanese stock markets and the nikkei and they are unwinding so those trades need to be unwound and you have seen a big sell—off since july 11 you have seen a big sell—off sincejuly 11 peak. you are down nearly 20% so it is entering very close to that bear market territory so there is a lot of fear into the market and lead to big sell—off in such a short window of time. the fed indicated it would cut interest rates in the month of december but that was before the disappointing jobs data come out of the us. what is your feeling on that now? it looks like everyone is saying the likes of big investment banks, 25 basis points is pretty much baked in but now they are saying 50 is going to be the target number and i feel as though with sentiment really, if you see a pullback

as far as equity markets and this starts to ratchet up over the month of august, i think the month of august, i think the fed will be left with no other decision other than 50 basis points so maybe the city banks, they are guessing in the right direction. find banks, they are guessing in the right direction.— right direction. and peter, we have been _ right direction. and peter, we have been talking _ right direction. and peter, we have been talking about - right direction. and peter, we have been talking about this i right direction. and peter, we| have been talking about this in our shows but can you break down for us why investors are so concerned that interest rates are not coming down as quickly as they would like and how it impacts this region? i think a couple of things, first off, unemployment numbers. weak numbers and weeks consumption, quite simply because of inflation, and you having heard on main having hurt on main street. all of these play into inflation, market sentiment and positive views as far as where you are in the economy. these are all, i suppose, little road bumps at the moment that could actually gain momentum and that is creating a sense of, i suppose, panic in the market from a retail derivative place. and before i let you go, the

surging yen is also squeezing exported profits injapan. how does that is you get addressed? you have had a 15 basis point hike, the bank ofjapan had their second rate rise this year, and that was the first in 17 years. the second part is you have a massive move to the upside as far as it yen versus us dollar and many other cross rates and the momentum at the moment, that may continue. it seems to be the trade at the moment has been very strong, currency and everyone has been short equities.— short equities. peter, we will leave it there. _ short equities. peter, we will leave it there. thank - short equities. peter, we will leave it there. thank you - short equities. peter, we will leave it there. thank you for| leave it there. thank you for being on the programme. china's government has issued guidelines to fuel household spending — something that is weighing on growth in the world's second largest economy. the plan targets sectors including child and elder care, as well as the food and beverage industry. last month, leaders including president xijinping promised to help boost domestic consumption and ease pressure on the country's ailing property sector.

asia's second richest man — gautam adani of india — has outlined his retirement and succession plans for the first time. in a rare and exclusive interview to bloomberg news, the leader said he would step down at 70, but did not address controversies around his conglomerate. archana shukla has more from mumbai. good to see one programme. no—one on the controversies but put it in context as to what he said that interview.— said that interview. yes, he refused to _ said that interview. yes, he refused to comment - said that interview. yes, he refused to comment much l said that interview. yes, he i refused to comment much on said that interview. yes, he - refused to comment much on the controversies which in the last year, if you remember, had almost half the company's, half the company's valuation on the stock market. but in this rare interview to bloomberg, he says he plans to retire when he turns 70 which —— and by then

he would seed control of the entire group to his two sons and two cousins. this is the first time gautam adani has been talking about succession. he is asia's —— is enterprises combined value starts at around $213 billion and they span across sectors from oil and gas, power, green energy to logistics, as well as holding and operating most of the ports and operating most of the ports and airports in the country so the transfer of wealth and management for a complex structured conglomerate like that of adani would be complex, take time but also would be important for india's economy considering the high stakes they hold but gautam adani did stop short of saying anything on the controversies surrounding his companies. mi surrounding his companies. all riaht, surrounding his companies. all right, archana, we will have to leave it there. thank you very much that update.

southeast asia could be poised to dethrone china when it comes to foreign direct investment. that's one of the key conclusions made by a report co—authored by bain and company which also pointed out that economic growth in the region is set to outpace china. charlie 0rmiston explains why southeast asia is so attractive. we're excited about southeast asia because they're emerging from 30 years of relative stability but slightly lower growth. the biggest catalyst is firms looking for alternatives to china. these are generally export—oriented firms that are starting to find constraints finding markets but they're also looking to diversify supply chains. that's the biggest source of optimism. we also see the different southeast asian countries competing with each other for those investments. and that's resulting in better outcomes for investments and for consumers. charlie, given the diversity of the countries in the region, which sectors do you see this fdi coming into? generally you're looking at the sectors where the supply chains are bifurcating more quickly. so this is things like semiconductors, data centres, some of the more sensitive

areas where tariffs have been applied like solar panels, electric vehicles, batteries. we're also seeing areas where you can couple the development of the raw material with the processing of raw material, as indonesia has done in nickel. charlie, is there a region still as attractive scams seem to be everywhere nowadays. a bbc reporter has been given an insight into one type of financial scam — �*pig butchering' where victims are romantically befriended on social media and then tricked into investing in fake crypto schemes. here's cyber correspondentjoe tidy. so that's how it all started. it was a direct message on my personal instagram,

but i of course knew straightaway this was some sort of scam. it had to be, but i wasn't sure which. so i decided to play along. i want to see if these pictures are of a real person. they're being used by lots of scammers on dating sites. and here is the real person — a german influencer. i'll warn her that her pictures are being used. this explains a lot. jessica hasjust sent me a screenshot of her cryptocurrency profits $47,000, and she's basically saying "you can be rich too". so, as suspected, and much to my wife's relief, this is indeed a pig butchering scam.

jessica has now asked me to spend some money. i said i've only got £200. and what's interesting isjessica has made me feel very poor. we've been doing this really complicated process of fake trading now well over an hour, and i can see my profits rising. but of course it's all fake. there's no way that people would go through this process if there wasn't that little hook of potential romance. this isn'tjust about the money. this is about something more romantic. in the flurry of instructions thatjessica sent me, she accidentally sent me one of her own instructions, which has chinese writing. also, if you look at one of her pictures from the very early days of her instagram account, that too has some items in a shopping trolley that are in chinese. i wonder where she is. what i do know is they're making a lot of money. sometimes these people involved in pig butchering, they are, in a sense, victims themselves. they're part of big call centres that are kind of lock you in and take

your passport. so i want to know who is behind the jessica account. we've had eight weeks of keeping up this pretence and now they've just dropped it. and now they're trying another way to get money. i don't really believe what they're saying is true. i think they're just trying to find a way to get me to pay them more money. and that's it for this edition of business today. a reminder once asian markets have been tanking with tokyo stocks falling more than 7%. we will keep a close watch across that and more on the bbc news website. thanks for watching.

hello and welcome to sportsday — i'm hugh ferris. our top stories: the world's fastest man, but onlyjust, noah lyles wins olympic gold in a very close 100 metres. 2a grand slam titles, but novak djokovic says winning olympic gold is his greatest achievement. and don't tell scottie scheffler golf shouldn't be in the games. he too sheds a tear as the gold medal is hung around his neck. hello again. welcome along to sportsday. noah lyles has won the 0lympic100 metres title and he didn't lead a race in paris until the very last frame of the final.