the us economy is cooling. and the latest online romance con — we take a look inside a crypto scam that costs victims billions. welcome to business today. i'm mark lobel. it's proving to be a tumltous day on global stock markets, with new york picking up the baton with more sell—offs. there are two things that seem to be driving it — friday's disappointment about how fewjobs the us economy added injanuary, and japan's decision to increase interest rates last week. as you can see, it led to a big sell—off in tokyo and there were also losses across europe, and here's the latest we have from new york where the markets opened a couple of hours ago. they have just disappeared. we will have those in a moment.

we will have those in a moment. and as i was saying, a lot of this negative sentiment seems to be because only "4,000 jobs were added to the us economy injuly, that was much lower than expected raising fears the the world's biggest economy is slowing. and on wednesday, japan's central bank increased the cost of borrowing, with its main interest rate going to "around 0.25%", which is the highest in 15 years. as a result, september 18th is one day many people are looking to, that's when the us federal reserve will makes its latest interest rate decision, and investors are wondering if they will cut the cost of borrowing enough to stimulate the economy. michelle fleury is live for us on wall street. what is the latest on how the us markets are looking where you are, michelle? i suspect this is one of those days where many traders wish they might

have been on holiday, stayed at home, to avoid a pretty brutal start to the trading session. we saw the dowjones open about 1000 points down. it has recovered slightly. last time i looked it was about 900 points. the tech heavy index, nasdaq, which has been the focus of so much attention recently because of artificial intelligence and the expectations of what that will do the gross project that prospects in the gross project that prospects in the economy, when it opened it was down 6%. it is now down about 2.5%. the same with the snp 500. and this has been sparked by friday's disappointing jobs report. we also saw earlier last week a disappointing and weak report on manufacturing. that release or a re—emergence of concerns about how strong the us economy is and whether or not american central bank has been too slow to cut interest rates as other countries have done, like

the ecb. it as other countries have done, like the ecb. ., ., , , , as other countries have done, like theecb. ., ., ,, , the ecb. it follows big sell across euro -e the ecb. it follows big sell across eumpe and _ the ecb. it follows big sell across europe and asia. _ the ecb. it follows big sell across europe and asia. what _ the ecb. it follows big sell across europe and asia. what has - the ecb. it follows big sell across europe and asia. what has beenl europe and asia. what has been happening there?— happening there? what we saw overniaht happening there? what we saw overnight in — happening there? what we saw overnight in japan _ happening there? what we saw overnight in japan really - happening there? what we saw overnight in japan really hasn't| overnight injapan really hasn't been seen since 1987. it suffered its worst trading day in many years, in several decades. there are a couple of things in play. 0ne in several decades. there are a couple of things in play. one of the areas people are playing close attention to is the yen. we saw the japan central bank increase rates and we saw it strengthen against the dollar. that is another thing feeding into this global market sell—off. in europe there have been losses too, perhaps less pronounced, but following on from what has been happening injapan and also right here on wall street. just happening in japan and also right here on wall street.— here on wall street. just to stick with the states, _ here on wall street. just to stick with the states, as _ here on wall street. just to stick with the states, as you - here on wall street. just to stick with the states, as you are - here on wall street. just to stick| with the states, as you are there. the chicago federal reserve president, a mildly influential figure when it comes to rate setting, has been saying that the central bank would react to signs of

weakness in the economy, indicating himself interest rates could be too restrictive now. what is the fed likely to do next? i restrictive now. what is the fed likely to do next?— likely to do next? i think even before today's _ likely to do next? i think even before today's sell-off - likely to do next? i think even before today's sell-off people j likely to do next? i think even - before today's sell-off people were before today's sell—off people were anticipating that the federal reserve would cut interest rates in september. the question now i think is by how much. and between now and then we are going to hear a lot from various fed officials because you have essentially a tug of war going on at the moment between the market, who feel the federal reserve is behind the curve, and the federal reserve itself, and saying to know you can't base a decision today on one or two data points. they need to see more evidence before they act. they are reassuring the markets that yes, there is weakness, they are prepared to cut more aggressively. at the same time in a set essence it doesn't suggest fears are where we're at right now in the us

economy. if you listen to what us economists are they are split as well. citigroup is suggesting it will cut by 50 basis points in september. that is much more than others like goldman sachs are predicting. they are calling for a 25 point cut. expect a lot of volatility between now and the 18th. michelle fleury life is in wall street. joining us now is the head of foreign exchange strategy at the dutch bank rabobank, jane foley. jane, are we in freefall, or are there measures you're seeing emerge that could prevent further falls this week? if you look at the smp 500 which is the biggest stock industry in the us, we are off those lows. it is still down one point 26 on the day but it is often low. if we look at

us deals they have also moved away from their worst level. the reason they did that is because we have had some us data this afternoon. another forward—looking purchase managers' index,in forward—looking purchase managers' index, in contrast to the survey we had last thursday which did trigger a lot of this anxiety. this was on the services sector and the data has been better than expected. that has brought a touch of come here but everybody certainly in the markets is extremely anxious because, as we have been hearing, this is about the various different fears all coming together all around about the same time. at together all around about the same time. �* ., . ., together all around about the same time. ., . ., , together all around about the same time. ., , ., time. a touch of calm but some have been saying — time. a touch of calm but some have been saying that _ time. a touch of calm but some have been saying that this _ time. a touch of calm but some have been saying that this is _ time. a touch of calm but some have been saying that this is an _ time. a touch of calm but some have been saying that this is an awkward l been saying that this is an awkward time for the us fed and their behaviour leading up to this. is there a prospect of an emergency rate cut before september? i would doubt that very _ rate cut before september? i would doubt that very much _ rate cut before september? i would doubt that very much indeed. - rate cut before september? i would doubt that very much indeed. we i doubt that very much indeed. we occasionally do have that happening and for instance if you go back to

2020 we had a pandemic on our hands. that was a real emergency. what we have now is perhaps the market readjusting to a different point in the economic cycle. that is far more normal type of environment but clearly market reactions have been exaggerated today. the fed i think, if it were to do a normal cycle and do something that suggestive of panic may make the situation worse. it may make the market think, oh my goodness, what does the fed know that we don't? nothing is as bad as they are? and that could worsen sentiment. i think they will stick to their guns. when they made their decision last week to hold interest rates that was on the back of the data they had available to them then. i think they will hold on until september. the markets are already expecting them to cut rates then. we might get the 25. that will depend on the economic data, how big they go in september. but of course one of the reasons the market is

nervous is because there is no meeting in august. there is no meeting in august. there is no meeting in august. there is no meeting in october. there is a lot of pressure, a lot of focus, on that september policy meeting from the federal reserve. jane september policy meeting from the federal reserve.— federal reserve. jane foley, thank ou for federal reserve. jane foley, thank you forjoining _ federal reserve. jane foley, thank you forjoining us. _ federal reserve. jane foley, thank you forjoining us. there _ federal reserve. jane foley, thank you forjoining us. there will - federal reserve. jane foley, thank you forjoining us. there will be - you forjoining us. there will be plenty more on that story on the bbc website. now, in our increasingly cyber world, things aren't always what they seem. i want to tell you about something called �*pig butchering' online. it's a type of romance scam. it uses fake online personas to trick people into fraudulent investments. 0ur cyber correspondent joe tidy was targeted on instagram by fraudsters. they pretended to be a woman called jessica. he took the opportunity to find out more. have a watch.

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 has just 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 is, jessica 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 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. joe tidy reporting. germany's lufthansa has become the latest airline to extend its suspension of flights to the midddle east because of growing tensions in the region.

its planes won't fly to tel aviv and will now also avoid iraqi and iranian airspace until at least august 7th. meanwhile its subsidary austrian airlines has cancelled all its flights to tel aviv and tehran until at least 12th august. social media app tiktok has agreed to permanently withdraw its lite rewards programme from the european union to comply with the bloc�*s digital services act. the rewards programme allows users to earn points while performing certain tasks on the platform such as watching videos, liking content, following creators or inviting friends to join. that is business today. stay with us here on bbc news.

hello, i'm annita mcveigh. iran says it is does not want to escalate tensions in the middle east, but believes it needs to punish israel to prevent further

instability in the region. but there are fears that a major escalation is imminent. this follows last week's killings of the hamas political chief in tehran and a senior commander of the lebanese group hezbollah. there have been promises to avenge the killings. a growing list of countries, including the us and saudi arabia, is urging citizens to leave lebanon as soon as possible while in gaza the hamas—run health ministry says the death toll from the war has now reached 39,623 people. in one of the latest assaults, there was an israeli airstrike on two schools in gaza city, housing displaced people. the israeli military said it struck hamas in what they called "control rooms" in the school buildings. 0ur middle east correspondent yolande knell explained further. yeah, i mean, a lot is going on diplomatically with these different overtures towards iran, particularly through arab countries in the region, to try to urge restraint.

but as you say, it's really seen as such a humiliation,