Thanks for joining me. We begin the day waiting to see what the damage will be for European shares after a sharp sell-off on Wall Street and in Asia overnight.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei dropped 5.1pc amid fears that the Federal Reserve has left it too late to begin cutting interest rates and will damage the US economy, 

It comes after a measure of US manufacturing activity dropped to an eight-month low in July amid a slump in new orders.

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1) Cut workers’ hours and make strikes easier, unions urge Starmer | Pressure on PM grows as report reveals UK labour laws ‘significantly’ weaker than other major economies

2) British billionaire charged with corruption over role in bribery scandal | Alex Beard accused of making corrupt payments ‘to benefit Glencore’s West Africa oil operations’

3) British Airways owner abandons takeover of Spanish airline for second time | IAG to pay €50m break fee after European regulators threaten to block deal

4) Social media boss used millions in investor funds to pay for wedding and luxury holidays | US regulator sues IRL app founder Abraham Shafi who raised $170m from investors

5) Ambrose Evans-Pritchard: Carbon capture could yet be the unsung hero of a green economy | It’s the easiest, cheapest and quickest way to back up renewable power – and Britain is perfectly positioned to capitalise on it

What happened overnight 

Asian shares plunged after weaker-than-expected US factory data sparked fears of a worsening economic outlook.

Tokyo’s Nikkei was headed for its worst day in over four years, tracking a slide on Wall Street and weighed down by a surging yen, as well as uncertainty over how high the Bank of Japan could raise interest rates.

Shares in other Asian markets also sank after the weak data on the US economy, which was exacerbated by a Big Tech sell-off on Wall Street as results from Apple, Intel and Amazon failed to impress.

The Shanghai Composite index saw a more modest loss, of 0.5pc to 2,919.32.

The Kospi in Seoul dropped 3.3pc to 2,687.31 and Taiwan’s Taiex sank 3.8pc. Both markets tend to be hit hard due to huge companies in the technology sector.

South Korea’s Samsung Electronics dropped 3.6pc while another maker of computer chips and other components, SK Hynix, dropped 8.6pc. 

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the world’s largest chip maker, lost 5.1pc.

Elsewhere in Asia, Australia’s S&P/ASX gave up 2.1pc to 7,940.70 and the Sensex in India was down 1pc. Bangkok’s SET fell 0.4pc.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.2pc, closing at 40,347.97, the S&P 500 lost 1.4pc, ending at 5,446.68, and the Nasdaq Composite lost 2.3pc amid a sell-off of most of the “Magnificent Seven” tech stocks, closing at 17,194.15.

The yield on benchmark 10-year US Treasury bonds slumped to 3.97pc from 4.04pc late on Wednesday and from 4.70pc in April.