Global stocks rebound on rate rise fears

The rebound on global stock markets was extended Friday on the back of fears of a rise in interest rate rises in the United States that are aimed at bringing down the country's highest inflation in decades.

Wall Street went up 0.8 percent, while the Dow was up 0.8 percent.

European equities were up more than one percent in afternoon trading after strong gains in Asia.

The stock market has suffered a lot this week, particularly on Wall Street, as investors sought safety amid the Ukraine war and China's Covid lockdowns.

Susannah Streeter, senior investment and markets analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said that investors are wrestling with worries over inflation as the oil price climbs back up again and supply concerns come to a resurgence due to ongoing geopolitical tensions.

Stocks fell for much of this week because of fears that the Federal ReserveFederal Reserve is planning to lift US interest rates by 75 basis points at a single meeting.

Jeffrey Halley, analyst at the OANDA trading group said equities on Friday staged a relief rally after Fed boss Jerome Powell calmed nerves over the potential hefty increase.

He added that the rally today appears more like a technical rebound after a rough week than a structural turn in sentiment.

The positive developments in China have been pointed out by analysts.

Global sentiment seems to be getting some relief as China officials suggested that Covid related lockdowns could be eased, analysts at Charles Schwab investment bank said.

Oil prices went up Friday after much volatility, while the euro hit a new five-year low against the dollar.

The price of the digital currency was above $30,000 a day after it fell below $27,000, its lowest level since late 2020.

The crash of two so-called stable coin cryptocurrencies - TerraUSD and Tether - proved to be anything but stable and left investors panicked, as it was fuelled by the collapse of two so-called stable coin cryptocurrencies.

After Elon Musk said he was putting a temporary stop on his much-anticipated deal to buy the social media giant, Twitter's share price plunged.

It was down 10.7 percent at $40.27 after about 10 minutes of trading.

He wrote on the platform that he was temporarily on hold pending details supporting the calculation that spam fake accounts don't represent more than 5% of users.

Musk, the world's richest man and founder of Tesla, has made the eradication of spam accounts and bots one of the central pieces of his proposed $44 billion takeover of Twitter.

Brent crude in the North Sea was up 2.7 percent at $110.31 per barrel.

West Texas Intermediate: UP 3.0 percent at $109.26 per barrel.

The euro dollar is DOWN at $1.0376 from $1.0382 at 2100 GMT Thursday.