- Saudi crown prince says no Israel ties without Palestinian state
- Canada to further cut international student, foreign worker permits
- YouTube launches new TV-focused tools for creators
- White Sox heading for worst season in MLB history
- China the top challenge in US history: senior diplomat
- Hong Kong democracy tycoon's son warns time running out
- New migraine drugs no better than cheap painkillers: big study
- Sean 'Diddy' Combs again denied bail in sex trafficking case
- Brewers clinch division title as MLB playoff race heats up
- Man City blunted by 'giant' Inter in Champions League stalemate
- US stocks dip despite larger Fed interest rate cut
- Man City held by Inter as PSG pinch win in Champions League
- All Blacks recall Beauden Barrett for Australia Test
- Fears of all-out war as new Lebanon device blasts kill 20, wound 450
- Spurs late show saves Postecoglou blushes at Coventry
- PSG snatch late goal to beat Champions League debutants Girona
- Gittens' late double gives Dortmund Champions League win at Brugge
- Man City blunted by Inter in Champions League stalemate
- Hidden talent: French Olympic star Marchand opts for disguise
- MrBeast named in California lawsuit over 'Beast Games' show
- Gauff splits with Gilbert as coach after 14-month run
- Hundreds of thousands at risk in Sudan's El-Fasher: UN
- Harvey Weinstein pleads not guilty to new sex crime charge
- Venezuelan opposition candidate says letter conceding election was coerced
- Ukraine official claims Russian advance in Kursk has been 'stopped'
- X update allows app to bypass Brazil ban: internet providers
- Fears of all-out war as new Lebanon device blasts kill 14, wound 450
- US Fed makes aggressive rate cut, weeks before election
- Arsenal's Odegaard faces lengthy injury absence
- India coal expansion risks massive methane growth: report
- China the top challenge in US history, top diplomat says
- US Fed makes larger half-point cut in first reduction since 2020
- Ronaldo's Al Nassr appoint former AC Milan boss Pioli
- Ainslie 'relieved' as British book place in Louis Vuitton Cup final
- Struggling Roma replace sacked icon De Rossi with Ivan Juric
- Women's NBA will add 15th team in Portland in 2026
- Brazil fires need harsher punishment: environmental police boss
- Boeing to start large temporary furloughs amid Seattle strike
- Fears of all-out war as new Lebanon device blasts kill nine, wound 300
- 'Emergency' declared over falling UK butterfly numbers
- McIlroy outlines threats to golf peace deal
- Stock markets, dollar slip before US rate decision
- Russian advance in Kursk 'stopped': Ukraine official to AFP
- UN members demand end to 'unlawful' Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories
- Snapchat pushes 'safer' platform image, but not everyone agrees
- Three dead, 100 wounded in new wave of Lebanon device explosions
- So where does the oceans' plastic waste come from?
- Allied war heroes buried in Netherlands... 80 years on
- Marsh coy over Australia's choice to open alongside Head
- New London sculpture pays tribute to trans community
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Meta slump drags stocks lower, oil falls
Stock markets fell Thursday, dragged down by a massive plunge in the shares of Facebook parent company Meta following disappointing earnings.
Shares in Europe were also lower in afternoon trading as the Bank of England raised interest rates for the second time in a row while the European Central Bank kept its ultra-loose monetary policy intact.
Meanwhile, oil prices fell a day after top producing countries led by Saudi Arabia and Russia announced another modest increase in output.
Attention on Wall Street was firmly focused on Meta, which after the close of the market on Wednesday delivered a gloomy mix of a sharper-than-expected drop in profit, a decrease in users and threats to its ad business.
Already jittery markets have punished pandemic-era darlings including Netflix for disappointing results, but many firms have seen their share prices bounce back as investors continue to push indices back up to record levels.
Meta shares fell by more than 25 percent, erasing $200 billion off its value.
The plunge "is raising doubts about the sustainability of the broader rebound effort seen in recent sessions," Briefing.com analyst Patrick O'Hare said in a note to investors.
"It is certainly feeding doubts about the sustainability of big percentage moves made by smaller stocks that were simply rebounding from oversold conditions on no news," he added.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite index fell 2.6 percent at the start of trading, while the broad S&P 500 gave up 1.5 percent.
The blue-chip Dow slid 0.4 percent.
In Europe, the BoE hiked its rate by a quarter-point to 0.5 percent to tackle soaring inflation which it said would peak at 7.25 percent in April.
The pound rose as the four of bank's nine members wanted a 0.5-point jump to 0.75 percent.
That helped push down London's FTSE 100, which has many multinational companies hurt by converting foreign sales into a strong pound.
The ECB, as expected, left its interest rates and stimulus exit plan unchanged, despite eurozone inflation unexpectedly rising to a record 5.1 percent in January.
Analysts viewed the figure as a potential headache for ECB President Christine Lagarde, who had previously ruled out a rate hike this year.
Lagarde admitted, however, that inflation would likely stay higher for longer than expected, though it was still set to come down later this year.
"More slowly than the US Fed and the Bank of England, the European Central Bank is also shifting its stance in response to the sustained inflation overshoot," said Berenberg Bank economist Holger Schmieding.
Traders in recent weeks have been heavily occupied by the Federal Reserve's timetable for hiking interest rates, with speculation rife over how much it will raise them in March and how many more times this year.
Several officials have come out in recent days to soothe concerns about a hard and fast approach, while US inflation data released next week will be closely watched for an idea about the central bank's plans.
US private companies shed jobs last month for the first time since December 2020 as the Omicron coronavirus variant complicated business -- a potential harbinger of bad news for the upcoming government employment report due Friday.
"Forecasts for Friday's payrolls are now all over the place with many calling for a negative print in January," said National Australia Bank's Rodrigo Catril.
"Depending on the magnitude of the disruption, this can potentially become a solid excuse for the Fed to wait on the sidelines after a first rate hike in March."
- Key figures around 1430 GMT -
London - FTSE 100: DOWN 0.4 percent at 7,555.61 points
Frankfurt - DAX: DOWN 1.1 percent at 15,437.77
Paris - CAC 40: DOWN 1.2 percent at 7,032.11
EURO STOXX 50: DOWN 1.5 percent at 4,159.32
New York - Dow: DOWN 0.4 percent at 35,504.39
Tokyo - Nikkei 225: DOWN 1.1 percent at 27,241.31 (close)
Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: Closed for a holiday
Shanghai - Composite: Closed for a holiday
Euro/dollar: UP at $1.1383 from $1.1304 late Wednesday
Pound/dollar: UP at $1.3595 from $1.3573
Euro/pound: UP at 83.74 pence from 83.28 pence
Dollar/yen: UP at 114.80 yen from 114.42 yen
Brent North Sea crude: DOWN 0.6 percent at $88.91 per barrel
West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 0.8 percent at $87.60 per barrel
burs-rl/lth
E.Schubert--BTB