stock market

Asian shares inched higher on Monday following a much-needed bounce on Wall Street, but nerves are stretched ahead of a near-certain rate hike in Europe and another round of corporate earnings reports.

European shares dropped on Thursday after a survey showed euro zone business activity slowed significantly in June, adding to fears of a sharp economic downturn, while sliding oil and metal prices hit commodity-linked stocks.

With mounting uncertainty around the U.S. economic outlook and the resulting slump in financial markets, Wall Street is easing up on hiring after a recruiting frenzy last year.

When the stock market gets volatile, retirement investors are naturally inclined to want to do something about it.

Markets were rocked last week by a fierce selloff after the US Federal Reserve's sharp interest rate hike -- the biggest in nearly 30 years -- and a warning of more to come as inflation soars.

World stocks plummeted again on Thursday and government bonds hovered near multi-year highs after a series of rate rises from global central banks rekindled fears that aggressive policy tightening could drag economies into recession.

European shares rose on Monday, helped by banks and commodity-linked stocks, as investors kept an eye out for U.S.

Hedge fund investors are bracing for a river of red ink as firms begin reporting returns for May when the stock market hovered near bear territory on disappointing earnings and worries about aggressive rate hikes, investors and fund managers said on Thursday.

Wall Street's three major indexes closed lower on Wednesday as investors bet that the latest economic data would do nothing to push the Federal Reserve off track from its aggressive interest rate hiking cycle aimed at taming run-away inflation.

Stocks steadied in Asia on Wednesday as Shanghai emerged blinking from two months of lockdown and a dip in oil prices dangled the prospect of a respite from rising energy prices, but nerves about inflation kept investors and bond markets on edge.

The euro gave back some of its recent gains on Tuesday, but was still set for its best month in a year as markets reposition in anticipation of interest rate increases in Europe and the possibility of a slower pace of U.S.

Wall Street closed sharply higher on Friday as signs of peaking inflation and consumer resiliency sent investors into the long holiday weekend with growing optimism that the Federal Reserve will be able to tighten monetary policy without tipping the economy into recession.

The steadier market mood has seen the safe-haven dollar and yen decline, while the euro was boosted by hawkish comments from European Central Bank (ECB) officials who have been flagging a rate hike as early as July.

Markets have sold off sharply this year on growing worries about an economic slowdown due to aggressive Fed policy moves aimed at reining in surging prices.

Early surveys of European and U.S. manufacturing purchasing managers for May are due out later on Tuesday and could show some slowing in what has been a resilient sector of the global economy.

Crude gains have been limited this week, with the Brent and U.S. benchmarks mostly trading in a range due to the uncertain path of demand.

The bulk of the selling in both stocks and bonds has been coming from wealthier and older investors, who are reducing their overall risk exposure, mainly through the selling of mutual funds

British inflation surged to its highest annual rate since 1982 as energy bills soared, while Canadian inflation rose to 6.8% last month, largely driven by rising food and shelter prices.

A positive first-quarter earnings season has been overshadowed by worries about the Ukraine war, soaring inflation, COVID-19 lockdown in China and aggressive policy tightening by central banks.

In cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin was last up 5.1% at $31,277, having touched its lowest since December 2020 last week

Crypto markets were steadier on Friday after a week of turmoil, as the risk-off mood combined with the spectacular collapse of stable coin TerraUSD.

The benchmark S&P 500 is down approximately 16% for the year to date, near the 20% decline that typically signifies a bear market.

Across Asia, share indexes were a sea of red. The Nikkei lost 0.9%, Australian shares shed 2.5% and Korean stocks lost 2%.

Core inflation is actually seen rising by 0.4% in April, up from 0.3% the previous month, even as the annual pace dips a bit due to base effects.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq has declined 17.1% year-to-date, compared with a 9.8% drop in the S&P 500 and a 6.3% fall in the blue-chip Dow.

The Menlo Park, Calif.-based company earned $137.2 million from margin securities lending in 2021.

The richest man in the world is already in open conflict with the SEC because of a 2018 tweet

Investors were sent running after Putin recognised the independence of two rebel-held areas of Donetsk and Lugansk.

Facebook's parent firm Meta suffered on Thursday a plunge in stock value that was comparable to the size of New Zealand's economy.

The firm predicts that its growth will continue in 2022