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- French champagne makers bid to protect seasonal workers from abuse
- Atletico Madrid president splits time between football and film
- Japan ruling party to hold 'toss-up' vote for next PM
- Alcaraz says 'a lot of players' agree after schedule 'kill us' comments
- Outdated rules, limited metro collide for 'unbearable' Athens gridlock
- Ninth body recovered in flood-hit Japan region
- Sirens sound in Tel Aviv after fresh air strikes reported in Lebanon
- China launches intercontinental missile into Pacific in rare test
- The EU vs X: How big could the fines be for Musk?
- Hefty Australian penguin chick 'Pesto' becomes star
- Fashion's fun 'Frankenstein' flies after Olympic triumph
- Volkswagen crisis pits homegrown leaders against each other
- Princess Zelda takes the lead in 'Echoes of Wisdom'
- Astros clinch division title, Yankees kept waiting
- Asian markets boosted again after another Chinese rate cut
- The struggle to keep track of Gaza war deaths
- China cuts another key interest rate to boost economy
- Restarting nuclear power plants: the unprecedented gamble in the US
- US state executes man despite conviction doubts
- Asylum seeker lifts South Korea hopes at Homeless World Cup
- Hostages freed in Gaza truce pine for those left behind
- Pope offers refuge to Myanmar's jailed Suu Kyi: report
- Tragic tale of two West Bank teenagers freed in Gaza truce
- US intel warns of Iran threats to assassinate Trump: campaign
- In election, Hollywood is about cash not endorsements
- UK foreign minister Lammy seeks 'strongest position' for Ukraine
- Macron presses Iran president for Lebanon de-escalation
- UNRWA fears new 'tragedy' as Lebanon violence adds strain: chief to AFP
- Russia mulls ban on 'childless propaganda'
- Blackwater founder probed by Venezuela over anti-Maduro campaign
- Crypto CEO and Bankman-Fried ex Caroline Ellison gets two-year sentence
- Hezbollah announces death of commander after strike on south Beirut
- Tatum hungry for more after breakthrough Celtics success
- Sean 'Diddy' Combs sued for alleged 2001 rape
- Biden pleads for democracy in emotional UN farewell
- New York area port prepares for possible US strike disruption
- Rodri 'irreplaceable' but Guardiola confident Man City will still compete
- Brook 'relieved' as maiden ODI hundred sets up first win as England captain
- Dior's arrows and Amazons as Saint Laurent revives its master
- Mbappe strikes again as Madrid hold off Alaves
- Nkunku hits Chelsea hat-trick, Man City edge into League Cup last 16
- Amnesty calls for commission to probe Kenya protest deaths
- Bolivian government rejects Morales ultimatum for cabinet reshuffle
- US Congress calls on Novo Nordisk to lower drug prices
- Stock markets advance on China stimulus
- Russia 'can only be forced into peace," Zelensky tells UN
- Hundred hero Brook keeps England alive in Australia ODI series
- Biden pleads for democracy in final UN address
- Brook's hundred sees England beat Australia in 3rd ODI
Pound slumps, Wall Street tumbles
The pound slumped Thursday after the Bank of England flagged a possible recession and double-digit inflation, while Wall Street tumbled after having jumped the previous day on the Federal Reserve holding back on aggressively raising rates.
Meanwhile oil prices rose after OPEC+ only modestly hiked production targets.
The BoE's quarter-point hike was widely expected by the market, but the central's banks updated forecast for annual inflation to rise above 10 percent this year and the economy to contract later this year spooked investors.
The British pound plunged more than two percent after the BoE decision.
The drop in the pound was sparked by "the changes in the economic forecasts, which pointed to a potential recession by year end, and the warnings that rates may not rise as high as markets had been expecting in the months ahead," said market analyst Michael Hewson at CMC Markets UK.
The BoE said UK output was expected to contract in the final quarter of the year when inflation is set to enter double digits as household energy prices rise sharply, although the central bank doesn't forecast a full-blown recession for the moment.
"Uncertainty over inflation and growth puts rate setters in a tricky dilemma," said City Index analyst Fawad Razaqzada as it makes striking the right policy balance very difficult.
"So, the key risk facing the UK is not necessarily tighter policy, but uncertainty over monetary policy and, more to the point, stagflation," he added.
Central banks worldwide are raising interest rates, with inflation sitting at the highest levels in decades.
Prices are surging as economies reopen from pandemic lockdowns, and in the wake of the Ukraine war that is aggravating already high energy costs.
News that Turkish inflation soared to 70 percent in April highlighted the battle central bankers face in controlling prices.
The BoE's latest move follows a half percentage point hike Wednesday by the US Fed as inflation soars also in the world's biggest economy.
Wall Street's main indices had surged around three percent in response, relieved that the central bank wasn't moving more aggressively in steps that could cause the economy to slow.
But those gains were reversed on Thursday, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite falling 4.6 percent in late morning trading.
In Europe, London managed to hold onto a marginal gain but both Frankfurt and Paris fell.
- OPEC+ decision -
Inflation has been dragged higher globally in large part owing to surging energy prices.
As expected, Saudi Arabia, Russia and other key oil producers in the OPEC+ group agreed to another marginal increase in output as they weighed tight supply concerns due to the Ukraine war against risks to demand amid coronavirus restrictions in China.
That sent oil prices jumping by more than three percent to firmly above $110 per barrel, but they later gave up most of their gains.
Traders on Thursday digested also earnings updates from some of the world's biggest companies.
Shares in Airbus soared around percent in Paris after the European aircraft maker said late Wednesday that its net profit more than tripled in the first quarter to 1.2 billion euros ($1.3 billion), despite the impact of sanctions against Russia.
The results confirm the company's recovery after the Covid-19 pandemic slammed the air travel industry in 2020.
- Key figures at around 1530 GMT -
New York - Dow: DOWN 2.9 percent at 33,073.60 points
EURO STOXX 50: DOWN 0.8 percent at 3,696.63
London - FTSE 100: UP 0.1 percent at 7,503.27 (close)
Frankfurt - DAX: DOWN 0.5 percent at 13,902.52 (close)
Paris - CAC 40: DOWN 0.4 percent at 6,368.40 (close)
Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: DOWN 0.4 percent at 20,793.40 (close)
Shanghai - Composite: UP 0.7 percent at 3,067.76 (close)
Tokyo - Nikkei 225: Closed for a holiday
Brent North Sea crude: UP 0.7 percent at $110.87 per barrel
West Texas Intermediate: UP 0.3 percent at $108.12 per barrel
Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0506 from $1.0625 on Wednesday
Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.2337 from $1.2632
Euro/pound: UP at 85.12 pence from 84.06 pence
Dollar/yen: UP at 130.39 yen from 129.05 yen
burs-rl/lc
J.Fankhauser--BTB