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- Sabalenka targets world number one and Wuhan hat-trick
- Tunisia votes with Saied set for re-election
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- Intense Israeli bombing rocks Beirut ahead of war anniversary
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- Austrian rapper channels anti-racist rage in Romani hip-hop songs
- Ohtani magic powers Dodgers over Padres in MLB playoff thriller
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- Man sets arm on fire as marches across US mark Gaza war anniversary
- Vietnam's young coffee entrepreneurs brew up a revolution
- Trump rallies at site of failed assassination: 'Never quit'
- Too hot by day, Dubai's floodlit beaches are packed at night
- Is music finally reckoning with #MeToo?
- Fans hail Trump's 'guts' as he returns to site of rally shooting
- Lebanon state media says Israeli strikes hit south Beirut
- Miami on track for MLS record points after win in Toronto
- Monaco take top spot in Ligue 1 with win at Rennes
- Madrid beat Villarreal to level Liga leaders Barca
- Thuram treble fires Inter past Torino and up to second
- 'Fight': defiant Trump jets in to site of rally shooting
- Mexico City's new mayor sworn in with pledges on water, housing
- Israel on alert ahead of Hamas attack anniversary
- Guardians maul Tigers in MLB playoff series opener
- Macron criticises Israel on Gaza, Lebanon operations
- French rugby player whistled but 'serene' on return amid ongoing rape case
- Retegui hat-trick fires five-star Atalanta to hammering of Genoa
- Heavyweights Australia, England off to World Cup winning starts
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- Spinners come to party as England defeat Bangladesh at T20 World Cup
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- Man City sink Fulham to get title bid back on track
- France's Auradou whistled on Pau return in Perpignan loss amid ongoing rape case
- A 'forgotten' valley in storm-hit North Carolina, desperate for help
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- Careless Leverkusen held to Bundesliga draw
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- Djokovic 'shakes rust off' to make third round of Shanghai Masters
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
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A.Silveira--PC