Kamal Ahmed
Economics editor

To the great synchronisation - stronger global growth returning to all the major economic engines of the world - add the great normalisation.

The softness of markets over the last few days is down to one thing.

As monetary policy begins its long journey away from the trillions of pounds of stimulus pumped into the system to keep the economic ship from the rocks, shareholders are beginning to wonder how much of their investments are in companies with strong fundamentals.

And how much is simply holding up an asset bubble - frothy prices led ever higher in an era of ultra low interest rates and cheap money.

Fingers are hovering over the “sell” button.

And once investors start looking at their portfolio and selling out of the froth, automatic algorithmic trading tends to “chase the dip”.

Read Kamal's blog in full here

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You'll have to search pretty hard to find shares that have actually risen on the London stock market today - the only riser in the FTSE 100 at the moment is Randgold Resources.

Hargreaves Lansdown is one of the biggest fallers in the FTSE 100, down 4%, despite it reporting a 12% rise in half-year profits earlier this morning.

In the FTSE 250, shares in Stagecoach have sunk 14% after the government announced on Monday that the company's contract to run the East Coast Mainline rail franchise would end earlier than expected. The government said the company had "got its numbers wrong" and it might step in to run the service.

Ocado shares are down 7% after it reported a full-year loss of £500,000 and sad earnings could be affected this year by planned investment in new warehouses and IT systems.

Richard Hunter, Head of Markets at interactive investor, is pleased with BP's results (BP profits double)

Image source, Reuters

Markets across Europe are heading for a second day of falls as the global share sell-off continues.

London's FTSE 100 has recovered slightly from its 3.5% initial drop, and is now down 187.30 points at 7,147.68, a fall of 2.6%.

In Germany, the Dax index is down 3.4%, while in France the Cac 40 index has fallen 3.2%.

Fund supermarket Hargreaves Lansdown has reported a 12% rise in half-year profits, as it saw an increase in customers.

For the last six months of 2017, the company reported pre-tax profits of £146.9m, up from £131m a year earlier.

Chief executive Chris Hill said the company had enjoyed a "strong period of growth", adding 61,000 new customers over the six-month period.

The amount of assets under administration rose 9% to £86.1bn.

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Trading's under way on the London stock market and the benchmark FTSE 100 index has opened down 253.95 points, or 3.5%, at 7,081.03.

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

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Did Donald Trump's tweets about the rising stock market over the past year contribute to the feeling that things had gone too far?

"Well his silence certainly is deafening at the moment," Maike Currie from Fidelity International tells the Today programme.

"What President Trump needs to realise is that when you buy the good news, you inevitably own the bad news."

The tax cuts planned in the US may be adding to the nervousness among investors, Ms Currie adds.

The cuts are coming in as US unemployment is at an historic low, and the government is paying for the tax cuts by issuing more bonds at a time when the US Federal Reserve is stopping buying bonds. "The worry is that will add further fuel to an already smouldering fire," she says.

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Online supermarket Ocado slumped to a pre-tax loss of £500,000 for the comparable 52 weeks to 3 December from profits of £12m the previous year.

On a 53-week basis, Ocado made a £1m profit. It said underlying earnings remained flat at £84.3m on a comparable 52-week basis and lifted to £86m over the 53 weeks.

The figures reflect the cost of developing its UK logistics hubs, which include a large facility in Andover, Hampshire, that uses hundreds of battery-powered robots to shift boxes of groceries stored in a giant grid.

Tim Steiner, chief executive of Ocado, said: "The last twelve months have been transformational."

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

The market crash underpins the fact that the stock market and the economy "are two very different things and do not always move in lock-step", Maike Currie, investment director at Fidelity International, tells the Today programme.

She says that last year was "eerily calm" on the markets as they continued to set record highs, and there was always the expectation that volatility would return.

But she says the economic fundamentals are good. Economic growth is returning, and the UK economy is in a strong position.

Will the sell-off continue? Ms Currie says this really depends on investor behaviour. Sometimes corrections such as this start to feed on themselves - as investors get nervous they start selling more and this compounds the downward spiral.

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Oil giant BP said underlying profits in 2017 climbed 139% to $6.2bn (£4.4bn).

That compares with $2.6bn (£1.9bn) for 2016. Fourth quarter underlying profits climbed to $2.1bn (£1.5bn) compared to $400m (£286m) in the same period the previous year.

The company had to to take a US$1.7bn (£1.2bn) charge in relation to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster in the last quarter of the year. There was also a $0.9bn (£0.6bn) deferred tax charge following the change in the US tax rate.

Bob Dudley, group chief executive, said: "2017 was one of the strongest years in BP's recent history. We are embracing the energy transition, seeking new opportunities in a changing, lower-carbon world."

The dividend remained unchanged at 10 cents a share.

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

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One hundred years ago today the Representation of the People Act was passed, giving women over 30 and "of property" the vote.

Women have made much progress in the workplace over the past 100 years, although a lot still remains to be done.

The Today programme spoke to Joeli Brearley who was fired by her employer by voicemail the day after she told them she was four-months pregnant.

And she's not alone. An estimated 54,000 women lost their jobs in 2015 when they announced they were pregnant.

In response, Ms Brearley set up "Pregnant then Screwed" which aims to support women facing a similar situation.

The group is calling for companies to offer more flexible working, the government to subsidise childcare from six months old, and firms to encourage fathers to take time out to look after their children.

"Research shows that if you really look after women when they are pregnant, they will come back and be a really dedicated member of staff," she says.

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Tony Miles of Modern Railways spoke to Radio Five Live's Wake Up To Money about the news that Stagecoach's contract to run the East Coast Mainline rail franchise will end earlier than expected after the government said the operator had "got its numbers wrong".

Mr Miles said: "Everyone's surprised at how quickly things have changed from a year ago when Stagecoach and Virgin said the numbers weren't quite stacking up. It felt at that point that it could continue for quite a while by injecting money that it agreed to put in to support the business."

But he added that the rail franchise bids were evaluated by a team from the Department of Transport who say whether they are "deliverable" or not. As a consequence "The Secretary of State needs to look at the ability of his own team to actually evaluate bids as well. Both sides have got it wrong."

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Trading on the American financial markets yesterday was - according to Bloomberg - "a white-knuckle ride."

Huffpost UK calls it "a roller-coaster day" - but thinks that, for months, many investors had been bracing themselves for "a backdraft."

The FT says the "sudden turn" in the markets has led the experts to ask why, and why now? Meanwhile The Times thinks the immediate cause was "mounting concern over the impact of rising inflation."

The FT seeks to reassure its readers that "the movements in financial markets so far are nothing particularly dramatic" - and it adds that, "at this stage, there is no need for anyone, and certainly not policymakers, to panic at events."

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Bitcoin has hit its lowest point since November last year, falling as low as $6,027.94 (£4,316.07) in Tuesday trade, according to Coindesk.

Some six weeks ago the cryptocurrency hit a record high of $19,000.

Tuesday's fall follows a spate of incidents and official warnings that have worried investors.

In Japan, the country's financial regulator carried out a surprise check on a major Japanese exchange, Coincheck, which last week was subject to a security hack.

And in South Korea, the use of anonymous bank accounts to make cryptocurrency exchanges has been banned.

South Korea is believed to be the world's third-biggest market for trades in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, behind Japan and the US.

And this week, Virgin Money joined Lloyds Banking Group in banning customers from buying Bitcoin and other digital currencies with their credit cards.

Image source, Gett

The sharp falls seen on the markets "have been a long time coming and in a sense have already started to become self-accelerating", according to Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK.

"The weakness has continued in Asia... and is set to spill over once again today into European trading with another sharply lower open for European stocks, as nervous investors continue to bail out," he says.

"It may seem counter-intuitive but further improvement in yesterday’s US economic data only served to amplify concerns amongst investors that an improving economy will hasten the pace of further interest rate rises in the coming months, from the US Federal Reserve.

"There is a caveat in that if we get any more days like the last couple of days that calculus might well change if central bankers fear that a too aggressive tightening policy might cause more problems than it would solve."

What will happen to UK stock markets now?

Jane Sydenham, investment director at Rathbone Investments told Radio Five Live's Wake Up To Money: "We may have further weakness but I think we have to remember that to some extent we are adjusting to the fact that rates are rising.

"The economic background is still reasonably good," she continued. "What's happening is that years after the financial crisis, we're finally coming out the other side and as that growth picks up and rates pick up, we're adjusting to all of that.

We have to bear in mind that rates are only rising because economies are strong enough to withstand that."

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Laurent Potdevin, chief executive of athletic wear firm Lululemon, has quit unexpectedly, effective immediately.

The Vancouver-based company offered no other details about the resignation other than to say Mr Potdevin had fallen short of internal standards of conduct, external.

"Lululemon expects all employees to exemplify the highest levels of integrity and respect for one another, and Mr Potdevin fell short of these standards of conduct," the firm said.

"Protecting the organisation's culture is one of the board's most important duties," executive chairman Glenn Murphy said.

Mr Potdevin joined Lululemon, which is best known for its yoga-wear, in 2014.

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Markets in Asia were sharply down on Tuesday after the Dow Jones Industrial Average saw its biggest drop in more than six years on Monday.

Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 was down 6.5% in afternoon trade, leading the regional retreat.

In China, Hong Kong's benchmark Hang Seng was down close to 5%, while the Shanghai Composite was down 2.15%

South Korea's Kospi was down 2.4% in afternoon trade, while in Australia, the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 closed down 3.2%, to finish the day at 5833 points.

"Perversely, the market correction has been caused by positive economic news," the Motley Fool's David Kuo told the BBC.

"With US interest rates expected to rise this year, investors don’t have to invest [their money] in shares to get a return," he said.

"They now have a choice about where to put their money."

Welcome to BBC Business Live. After yesterday's record one-day points fall in Wall Street, we'll be watching market reaction closely.

There are final results coming today from BP, Ocado and St Modwen Properties. Hargreaves Lansdown will be publishing its interim results while Babcock International will present a trading update.

We'll also be bringing you reports of what Carillion executives say from 9.15am when they're hauled in front of MPs to explain the collapse of the company.