Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

Image source, PA

The decision to delay a decision on proceeding with Hinkley Point came from the top of government, industry correspondent John Moylan tells Today.

The new prime minister, chancellor and business secretary are all well aware of the importance of the project to the UK's future energy supplies. However, the contracts run to thousands of pages - "it's complex stuff" - and they clearly do not want to be rushed into making a decision. 

Yet the delay all looks very awkward for a government trying to attract inward investment in a post-Brexit world.

"Like it or not, this is going to send mixed signals about Britain being open for business," John says.

BBC Radio 5 Live

Tom Greatrex, chief executive of the Nuclear Industry Association, has been talking about the Hinkley Point decision on Wake Up to Money.

“The final investment decision was the thing that people were waiting for," he said.

"We have a new prime minister, a new chancellor, a new business secretary. It is a big decision, it is a big contract and if it takes them to September to get to the next stage then, September was the time frame we were originally expecting in regard to EDF's investment decision.”

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

Image source, Getty Images

Amazon reported a much better than expected second quarter profit of $857m last night - much better than the $92m for the same period in 2015. 

Michelle McGrade of TD Direct Investing tells Today that Amazon is a "phenomenal company that is going great guns". We all know about the retail side, but she points out that the less prominent cloud computing business - Amazon Web Services - is growing fast. 

Revenue for AWS jumped 58% to $2.89bn, beating analysts' exceptions, with sales growth in North America of 10% and 8% for the rest of the world.  

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

Today business presenter Dominic O'Connell reminds listeners that business secretary Greg Clark has just returned from Japan, where he reassured companies that are thinking of investing in nuclear in the UK.

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

Image source, PA

Claire Jakobsson, head of energy and environment policy at EEF, the manufacturer’s organisation, tells Dominic O'Connell on Today that the Hinkley decision is "not the most reassuring" for EEF members.

It's "another blow" to a decision that has already been hindered by many delays, and members now face "further uncertainty about the future energy security of the UK".

Business presenter Victoria Fritz tweets:

Image source, Getty Images

Some corporate news from the continent: Switzerland's biggest bank, UBS,  posted a 14.5% slide in second-quarter net profit following a poor performance at its wealth management and investment banking businesses. 

The world's largest wealth manager said net profit for the three months to 30 June was just over 1bn billion Swiss francs (£834m, $1.1bn), down from 1.2bn francs a year ago but better than expected by analysts. 

"Sustained market volatility, underlying macroeconomic uncertainty and heightened geopolitical tensions, exacerbated by the impact of the UK referendum vote to end EU membership, continued to contribute to client risk aversion and generally low transaction volumes," UBS said. "These conditions are unlikely to change in the foreseeable future." 

Our roving business presenter tweets:

Image source, AFP

The Daily Mail accuses Lloyds Banking Group of , external for linking staff layoffs and branch closures to Brexit. The paper says that within hours of making the statement, the bank was forced to admit that the cuts had nothing to do with the referendum, and had been decided upon months ago. The Mirror is equally unimpressed by what it calls "Lloyds' Brexcuses". In a pithy letter in the Daily Telegraph, one reader suggests it's part of a pattern; we are being "inundated with business leaders hiding behind the Brexit vote to divest themselves of bad news," he says.

"Chaos over £18bn nuclear plant," is the main headline in today's Times. 

Ministers stunned the energy industry, it says, by announcing a review of Hinkley Point, only hours after EDF approved the funding for the project. The Sun says the "eleventh hour" intervention is no bad thing. Britain faces a struggle to keep the lights on, but Hinkley looks like "the most crazily expensive and least efficient solution". The FT points out that although successive governments have supported the scheme, Theresa May has never given it her personal backing.

Joe Miller
Business reporter

Good morning. Later today we should get the long-awaited results of the latest so-called stress tests, looking at the health of the EU's banks. Among those which are giving greatest cause for concern are Italy's financial institutions - and in particular Monte dei Paschi de Siena. But before that, we have results from Barclays, and the owner of British Airways to bring you. So stay tuned...