- Phillies win thriller to level Mets series
- Yu bags first PGA Tour win with playoff win
- PSG held by Nice to leave Monaco clear at top of Ligue 1
- Lewandowski treble for leaders Barca as Atletico held
- Fresh Israeli strikes hit south Beirut
- Sucic stunner earns Real Sociedad draw against Atletico
- PSG draw with Nice, fail to reclaim top spot in Ligue 1
- Gudmundsson downs AC Milan after De Gea's penalty heroics for Fiorentina
- 'Yes' vote prevails in Kazakhstan nuclear plant vote: TV
- 'Difficult day': Oct 7 commemorations begin with festival memorial
- Commemorations begin for anniversary of attack on Israel
- 'Nothing gets in way of team,' says Celtics' MVP hopeful Tatum
- 'We will win!': Mozambique's ruling party confident at final vote rally
- Tunisia voting ends as Saied eyes re-election with critics behind bars
- Florida braces for Milton, FEMA head slams 'dangerous' Helene misinformation
- Postecoglou slams 'unacceptable' Spurs after 'terrible' loss at Brighton
- Marmoush double denies Bayern outright Bundesliga top spot
- Rallies worldwide call for Gaza, Lebanon ceasefire
- New 'Joker' film, a dark musical, tops N.America box office
- Man Utd stalemate keeps Ten Hag in danger, Spurs rocked by Brighton
- Drowned by hurricane, remote N.Carolina towns now struggle for water
- Vikings hold off Jets in London to stay unbeaten
- Ahead of attack anniversary, Netanyahu says: 'We will win'
- West Indies cruise to T20 World Cup win over Scotland
- Man Utd fire another blank in Aston Villa stalemate
- Lewandowski treble powers Liga leaders Barca to Alaves victory
- Russian activist killed on front line in Ukraine
- Openda strike briefly sends Leipzig top of Bundesliga
- Goal-shy Man Utd have to 'step up', says Ten Hag
- India bowl out Bangladesh for 127 in T20 opener
- Madueke rescues Chelsea in draw with 10-man Forest
- Beckett's belief rewarded as Bluestocking storms to Arc glory
- Trump on the stump, Harris hits airwaves in razor-edge US election
- Flash flooding kills three in northern Thailand
- Kaur leads India to victory over Pakistan in Women's T20 World Cup
- Juventus held by Cagliari after late penalty drama
- In France's Marseille, teen 'stabbed 50 times' then burned alive
- Ruthless Gauff beats Muchova in straight sets to win China Open
- India restrict Pakistan to 105-8 in Women's T20 World Cup
- England target repeat of Pakistan Test whitewash
- Penrith Panthers win fourth straight NRL title after downing Storm
- Weary Sinner happy for day off after battling into Shanghai last 16
- Pakistan's Masood warns England still a force without Stokes
- Madrid's Carvajal to miss several months after serious knee injury
- Two elephants die in flash flooding in northern Thailand
- Sabalenka targets world number one and Wuhan hat-trick
- Tunisia votes with Saied set for re-election
- Bagnaia sets 'example' with Japan MotoGP win to cut gap on Martin
- Intense Israeli bombing rocks Beirut ahead of war anniversary
- Mozambique vote: no suspense but some disillusion
Markets extend global sell-off on inflation, rate fears
Markets extended a global sell-off Friday after the European Central Bank laid the groundwork to join others in a programme of interest rate hikes, while attention turns to the release of key US inflation data.
After a largely positive start to the week, Asian investors tracked their US and European colleagues in selling up as they contemplate higher borrowing costs and surging prices, which many fear could lead to a recession.
Adding to the unease was news that officials in China had once again locked down millions of people for Covid testing due to another flare-up in cases, dealing a blow to hopes for an economic reopening.
Still, the move helped push down oil prices -- a key driver of global inflation -- owing to concerns about the impact on demand.
With prices rising at a decades-high pace, central banks have been forced to withdraw the vast financial support measures put in place to combat the impact of the pandemic that helped fuel a rally across markets to record or multi-year highs.
The ECB became the latest to join the tightening campaign, announcing Thursday the end of its bond-buying programme and signalling it will hike rates several times this year.
It also sharply upgraded its inflation forecasts for this year and next while lowering the economic growth outlook.
Focus now turns to the release of US consumer price figures later Friday, with a strong reading likely to give the Federal Reserve more room to be aggressive.
"A robust May... print will probably prompt (policymakers) to hint at a 50 basis point hike for the September meeting," said SPI Asset Management's Stephen Innes.
"The tone will remain hawkish and the tough talk on inflation will continue."
However, he added that "the significant upward revisions to core inflation projections are close to ending. Risk markets could take solace if one or two participants shift to seeing the inflation outlook is more balanced".
Expectations are that the Fed will hike by half a point for at least three more meetings before January.
Other commentators also suggested that traders were looking for signs inflation may be close to its highs.
"The big question is whether inflation has peaked or not," said Matthew Simpson of StoneX Financial.
"Inflation may have softened to a degree in April, but traders really want to see further evidence that inflation is pointing lower to call 'peak inflation' with confidence.
"Besides, one single month of data doesn't define a trend."
And OANDA's Edward Moya said the darkening outlook could provide an argument for the Fed to apply the brakes to hiking later in the year.
"Warning signs about the economy are emerging as weekly jobless claims are starting to rise, China's Covid situation will prove troublesome for supply chains over the next couple of quarters, and as inflationary pressures broaden and show no sign of easing.
"It seems reductions in global growth forecasts will become a steady theme over the next few months and that should complicate how much more tightening we see from central banks."
Tokyo, Hong Kong, Sydney, Seoul, Singapore, Taipei, Mumbai, Bangkok, Wellington, Manila and Jakarta were all down.
London, Paris and Frankfurt opened down.
However, data showing Chinese producer price inflation eased last month to its lowest level in more than a year provided some cheer and gave officials a little room to unveil fresh stimulus measures for the beleaguered economy.
That helped Shanghai brush off the targeted lockdowns and buck the regional trend to rally more than one percent.
On currency markets the euro continued to struggle against the dollar after the ECB flagged a quarter-point hike, while the yen remained around two-decade lows to the greenback.
- Key figures at around 0720 GMT -
Tokyo - Nikkei 225: DOWN 1.5 percent at 27,824.29 (close)
Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: DOWN 0.1 percent at 21,855.18
Shanghai - Composite: UP 1.4 percent at 3,284.83 (close)
London - FTSE 100: DOWN 0.5 percent at 7,442.31
Euro/dollar: UP at $1.0633 from $1.0620 late Thursday
Euro/pound: UP at 85.13 pence from 84.98 pence
Dollar/yen: DOWN at 133.87 yen from 134.40 yen
Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.2490 from $1.2495
Brent North Sea crude: DOWN 0.3 percent at $122.72 per barrel
West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 0.3 percent at $121.21 per barrel
New York - Dow: DOWN 1.9 percent at 32,272.79 (close)
A.S.Diogo--PC