- 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
- Lebanon doctors tell of horror after pager blasts
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Meta slump and interest rate fears drag stocks lower
Stock markets slid Thursday, dragged down by a massive plunge in the shares of Facebook parent company Meta following disappointing earnings, as well as indications central banks may move more aggressively to raise interest rates.
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 around 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.
Craig Erlam at trading platform OANDA said the disappointing earnings from Meta and music streaming service Spotify -- which reported a quarterly loss and projected lower profit margins in the coming earnings period -- "brought investors back down to earth with a bang".
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite index fell 2.6 percent at the start of trading, before clawing back a bit to stand down 2.2 percent in late morning trading.
Meanwhile, trading in Europe was animated by the Bank of England raising interest rates for the second time in a row while the European Central Bank kept its ultra-loose monetary policy intact.
While the BoE's quarter-point hike to 0.5 percent to tackle soaring inflation which it said would peak at 7.25 percent in April was expected, 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, is no longer doing so, which helped the euro move higher while stocks slumped in Frankfurt and Paris.
"Lagarde's responses in the press conference made clear that the central bank no longer thinks a rate hike is unlikely this year," said Erlam.
"It was always unlikely that we were going to see a dramatic shift in the absence of new economic projections but it's clear after today that we will see something along those lines next month," he added.
Investors are now looking ahead to US jobs figures to released
Meanwhile, oil prices turned higher after spending most of the day lower, one day after top producing countries led by Saudi Arabia and Russia announced another modest increase in output.
- Key figures around 1630 GMT -
New York - Dow: DOWN 0.4 percent at 35,387.99 points
EURO STOXX 50: DOWN 1.9 percent at 4,141.02
London - FTSE 100: DOWN 0.7 percent at 7,528.84 (close)
Frankfurt - DAX: DOWN 1.6 percent at 15,368.47 (close)
Paris - CAC 40: DOWN 1.5 percent at 7,005.63 (close)
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 $1.1442 from $1.1304 late Wednesday
Pound/dollar: UP at $1.3617 from $1.3573
Euro/pound: UP at 83.99 pence from 83.28 pence
Dollar/yen: UP at 114.83 yen from 114.42 yen
Brent North Sea crude: UP 0.3 percent at $89.72 per barrel
West Texas Intermediate: UP 0.3 percent at $88.53 per barrel
burs-rl/har
S.Keller--BTB