China's stock markets have closed at their lowest for nearly two weeks. Banks and property companies fell after the government imposed stricter rules on lending to head off growing risks in the financial system. 

The CSI300 index, which tracks the largest listed companies trading in Shanghai and Shenzhen, fell 0.6% to 3,308.9 points, while the Shanghai Composite lost 0.6% to 3,068.33. 

Both indexes hit their lowest since 12 August. 

Market speculation that more local governments may impose measures to cool rising home prices weighed on developers' shares.     

BBC Breakfast

Business presenter Ben Thompson had a front-row seat for Olympic champion gymnast Max Whitlock's appearance on Breakfast this morning.

The FTSE 100 is struggling to remain over 6,800 points this morning following a 0.5% fall in early trading.

Shire is the biggest faller, down 2.8%, while CRH is at the top of the risers' board, with a 0.9% rise.

Infrastructure company John Laing's half-year profits have more than tripled to £108.3m after favourable foreign exchange movements.

"We made good progress in the first half and are maintaining our full year guidance for investment commitments and realisations," said chief executive Olivier Brousse.

Shares are up 1.8%, and have gained 15% this year, making the company worth about £880m.

Image source, PA

Exciting stuff from the National Association of Estate Agents today, which has issued a report about bricks, external.

The report, compiled by the Centre for Economics and Business Research, claims a chronic brick shortage is ramping up house prices.

However, our colleague Katie Prescott has done some digging and found out that there is no current shortage of bricks. In fact, brick production is now meeting current demand, as figures from the Office for National Statistics have shown.

It seems the report is saying that if Britian was to build enough houses to bring house prices down, there would not be enough bricks available to do so. So there you have it.

Image source, Getty Images

Pre-tax profits for luxury shoe brand Jimmy Choo have plunged to £6.6m for the six months year to 30 June, down from £20m last year.

Borrowing costs and writedowns increased in the half year, hitting the bottom line.

The company said there was "significant scope for long-term growth for the business" and reported revenue growth of 3.8%.

Shares have fallen 17% this year, leaving Jimmy Choo worth about £460m.

Leisha Chi
Business reporter in Singapore

Image source, Getty Images

Macau's biggest casino operator is betting more on mass market gamblers and it looks like that strategy is paying off.

Galaxy Entertainment Group's second-quarter profit rose 22% to HK$2.3bn ($297m, £225m) after it opened new family-friendly resorts.

The results are a bright spot for Macau, the world's biggest gambling hub and the only place in China where gambling is legal.

Revenues in the former Portuguese colony have fallen for 26 consecutive months as wealthy high-rollers stay away due to China's economic slowdown and crackdown on corruption.

Times retail correspondent Deirdre Hipwell tweets:

Image source, Getty Images

As there really isn't very much happening in the UK business world today, we're going to take a bit more of a look across the the Channel. 

Kinepolis, external may not be a household name in the UK but it's one of Europe's biggest cinema operators.

The Luxembourg-based group says new cinemas in the Netherlands, France and Luxembourg and acquisitions helped visitor numbers rise 14.6% in the six months to 30 June, while turnover was up 10.9%. The recovering Spanish economy also helped, Kinepolis said.

However, net profit fell 7.3% to €14m due to higher depreciation and tax costs.

A strong first quarter, which included Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens, Deadpool and The Revenant, was followed by a "rather weak" second quarter, which was also affected by the European football championships.  

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

The US Treasury Department has warned the European Commission about taking action against US companies over tax avoidance allegations.

The commission is investigating tax deals granted to US companies for setting up headquarters in Europe.

Next month the EU is expected to deliver its decision on Apple.

The company could be hit with a multi-billion pound bill for unpaid taxes.

BBC North America technology reporter Dave Lee says: "Brussels is worried that companies like Apple were tempted, in their case to Ireland, with deals that weren't offered to other companies, and that goes against EU rules on taxation.

"This is worrying for the US because potentially the European Commission could now come along and issue a big tax bill to some of the biggest companies in the US ... there is the potential for those US companies to essentially offset any money they have to pay in unpaid EU taxes, they could actually take that away from their US tax bill, and so the US Treasury is seeing this as a risk, because it could essentially mean money is taken out of the US economy and put straight into Europe."

Leisha Chi
Business reporter in Singapore

Image source, Getty Images

Quite a lot of bad stuff it seems - and Asia is slowly waking up to that reality.

A year-long investigation by US security company Mandiant found that Asian companies have the world's worst cybersecurity.

Last year, the region's median time between a breach and its discovery was 520 days, Mandiant said. That is three times the global average of 146 days.

As part of the study, Mandiant hacked into an organisation's network to see how vulnerable it was.

"Within three days we had the keys to the kingdom," Mr Summers said. "If an expert group of hackers can do the same in three days, imagine what can they do in 520 days."

Read more here.

Andreas Illmer
Business reporter in Singapore

Image source, nuTonomy

Speaking of cars, self-driving vehicles are the buzz of the industry, but the real deal always seemed to be years away. But here in Singapore, you can now hop into a driverless taxi and go for a ride - and it's even free.

Don't get too excited, however. It's only a trial and there is still a driver up front- just in case. US start-up nuTonomy is testing the service in a limited 2.5 sq mile (4 sq km) part of the city. 

While still only a trial, the company hopes to expand the service by 2018. 

It is not the only one, of course. Uber is planning a very similar project to be launched in Pittsburgh in the US in just a few weeks time.

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

The Home Affairs Committee has said that social media giants like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are "consciously failing" to prevent their services being used to promote terrorism and online extremism.

BBC home affairs correspondent Dominic Casciani says MPs "put an enormous boot into the social media giants".

"In essence, what they [MPs] are saying is they (tech firms) are generating vast amounts of revenue from their online activities, and all the advertising that they're able to sell around our data, and ... in some cases making great profits, but very little of that money and their resources, according to the MPs, are actually going into the fight against terrorism and extremism online."

However, Dominic adds that behind the scenes companies are furious with this report. They feel they have been misrepresented and have taken steps to address the problem in recent years.

Image source, Getty Images

The UK car industry is "booming" in 2016, with production, demand and exports all up, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).

UK car production had its 12th consecutive month of growth in July, up 7.6% to 126,566 vehicles from the same period a year ago, SMMT said.

Year-to-date production grew 12.3% to 1,023,723 units, which the trade body says is "the best performance since 2000, and the first time in 12 years volumes have been greater than one million in the first seven months".

Mike Hawes, SMMT chief executive, said: “Future success will depend on continued new car demand and attracting the next wave of investment so Britain must demonstrate it remains competitive and open for business.”

Image source, Getty Images

Share markets across Asia have followed the weak lead from the US and Europe, heading south in early trade. 

Japan's Nikkei 225 is 0.1% lower, the Shanghai Composite is down 1.1% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng is flat. 

Elsewhere, Australia's ASX 200 is down 0.4%, while South Korea's Kospi index was flat in morning trading. 

Image source, Getty Images

Some sad news from Japan this morning - a truck driver playing Pokemon Go while driving has struck two women, killing one and injuring the other, in the country's first death related to the craze. 

The driver said he had been distracted by the game after his arrest for negligent driving following the accident on Wednesday night, a spokesman for the Tokushima prefectural police said. 

"The driver is still in custody. No decision has been made yet on whether to proceed with a prosecution," he added.

A spokesman for Niantic, which developed Pokemon GO jointly with Nintendo affiliate Pokemon Company, said the company had added a pop-up to the Pokemon Go screen when it detected an increase in speed asking for confirmation the user was not driving. 

He did not say whether the developer would take further steps to guard against accidents.

Chris Johnston
Business reporter

Welcome to another day of Business Live with myself and Tom Espiner - thanks for joining us.

In the run-up to the August bank holiday it's looking a bit thin in terms of corporate results, but we'll do our best to keep you both informed and entertained. 

Give us your thoughts on bizlivepage@bbc.co.uk and follow me on Twitter at @cajuk, external