AFP

Most stock markets fell Friday as investors contemplated interest rates going higher than expected for an extended period after central banks reaffirmed their commitment to bringing down inflation.

After a healthy rally in recent weeks fuelled by signs that price rises were slowing, the US Federal Reserve and European Central Bank this week crushed any Christmas spirit by hiking borrowing costs again and warning of more pain to come.

While inflation in most countries has started coming down from the levels seen earlier this year — helped by a drop in energy costs — it remains at multi-decade highs.

And observers have warned that economies could be heading for a period of stagflation where prices keep rising but growth stalls.

After a rough week for markets, anxiety was enhanced on Wednesday after the Fed hiked rates as expected but indicated they would likely have to go higher than had been forecast, ramping up fears of a recession.

That was followed by similar moves by the ECB on Thursday, with its boss Christine Lagarde warning: “We have more ground to cover, we have longer to go and we are in for a long game.”

The Bank of England also lifted rates and said more hikes were on the cards.

The decisions came as data also showed that almost a year of monetary tightening was hitting the economy more and more, with US retail sales dropping in November as American consumers — the key driver of growth — began to feel the pinch.

– Recession on horizon? –

“With central banks on both sides of the pond suggesting they have more work to tame inflation, hiking interest rates into a dimming macro environment will undoubtedly trigger a recession,” said SPI Asset Management’s Stephen Innes.

“The question is just how profound. Forget inflation; Asia traders are now worried about a global recession.”

All three main indexes on Wall Street tumbled Thursday, with the Nasdaq losing more than three percent as tech firms took another blow.

And the losses carried through to Asia, where Tokyo gave up 1.9 percent while Sydney, Seoul, Singapore, Mumbai, Taipei, Bangkok and Manila were also in the red. Shanghai was barely moved.

However, the dollar eased back slightly after Thursday’s rally.

Hong Kong rose, supported by signs of progress in talks on allowing US officials to audit Chinese firms listed in New York, easing concerns about a possible delisting of some big names such as Alibaba and Tencent.

The news provided a little more help to Hong Kong traders, whose sentiment has been lifted by China’s shift away from the economically damaging zero-Covid policy as well as moves to open the city further to overseas visitors.

And a report in the city’s South China Morning Post said the border with mainland China would be fully reopened next month, providing another much-needed boost to the beleaguered economy.

However, the mood was soured a little by a US decision to put 36 Chinese companies including top producers of advanced computer chips on a trade blacklist, severely restricting their access to any US technology.

London, Paris and Frankfurt opened mixed a day after suffering hefty losses.

– Key figures around 0820 GMT –

Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 1.9 percent at 27,527.12 (close)

Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: UP 0.4 percent at 19,450.67 (close)

Shanghai – Composite: FLAT at 3,167.86 (close)

London – FTSE 100: DOWN 0.1 percent at 7,418.88

Euro/dollar: UP at $1.0640 from $1.0627 on Thursday

Dollar/yen: DOWN at 137.16 yen from 137.80 yen

Pound/dollar: UP at $1.2200 from $1.2175

Euro/pound: DOWN at 87.25 pence from 87.26 pence

West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 0.5 percent at $75.77 per barrel

Brent North Sea crude: DOWN 0.3 percent at $80.99 per barrel

New York – Dow: DOWN 2.3 percent at 33,202.22 (close)

Twitter suspended Thursday accounts of more than a half-dozen journalists who had been writing about the company and its new owner Elon Musk.

Silencing journalists at Twitter while claiming to be a free speech champion is the latest controversy provoked by Musk since he took over the company, which has seen staffing gutted and advertisers exit.

Some of the journalists had been tweeting about Twitter shutting down an @ElonJet account that tracked flights of billionaire Musk’s private jet and about versions of that account hosted at other social networks.

Twitter did not say why the reporters’ accounts were suspended.

“Nothing says free speech like suspending journalists who cover you,” Sarah Reese Jones of news commentary website PoliticusUSA said in a tweeted response to posts about the suspensions.

Checks at Twitter showed account suspensions included reporters from CNN, The New York Times, and The Washington Post as well as independent journalists.

“The impulsive and unjustified suspension of a number of reporters, including CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan, is concerning but not surprising,” the news organization said in a tweet.

“Twitter’s increasing instability and volatility should be of incredible concern for everyone who uses the platform.”

CNN said that it has asked Twitter for an explanation of the suspension.

In a statement, The New York Times said it also wanted answers from Twitter regarding the “questionable” suspension of journalists.

“I have no idea what rules I purportedly broke,” independent journalist Aaron Rupar, whose Twitter account was suspended, wrote in a Substack post.

“I haven’t heard anything from Twitter at all.”

In a tweet late Thursday, Musk appeared to allude to the suspension of the reporters’ accounts with this tweet: “If anyone posted real-time locations & addresses of NYT reporters, FBI would be investigating, there’d be hearings on Capitol Hill & Biden would give speeches about end of democracy!”

Musk on Wednesday tweeted that a car in Los Angeles carrying one of his children was followed by “a crazy stalker” and seemed to blame the tracking of his jet for this alleged incident. In the tweet, he said legal action is being taken against the person who ran ElonJet.

The Twitter account that tracked flights of Musk’s private jet was shut down Wednesday despite the billionaire’s statement that he is a free speech absolutist.

Twitter later sent out word that it updated its policy to prohibit tweets, in most cases, from giving away someone’s location in real time.

Musk had gone public saying he would not touch @ElonJet after buying Twitter in a $44 billion deal as part of his commitment to free speech at the platform.

– Exodus expected –

Twitter has lurched from one controversy to the next since Musk took control in late October.

The billionaire’s talk of unfettered speech scared off major advertisers and caught the attention of regulators.

Musk has reinstated the account of former US president Donald Trump and lashed out against the outgoing key advisor for the US response to the Covid-19 pandemic, Anthony Fauci, a frequent target of vitriol on right-wing media.

CNN has reported that Twitter’s former head of trust and safety fled his home after baseless attacks on Twitter content moderation, endorsed by Musk.

Meanwhile, a purge initiated by Musk at Twitter left more than half of its 7,500 employees on the sidelines and now many of them are taking the SpaceX and Tesla tycoon to court.

Musk at one point signaled he was going to war with Apple over the App Store, only to later tweet that it was a “misunderstanding.”

Market tracker Insider Intelligence forecast that Twitter will experience an exodus of users.

“There won’t be one catastrophic event that ends Twitter,” said Insider Intelligence analyst Jasmine Enberg.

“Instead, users will start to leave the platform next year as they grow frustrated with technical issues and the proliferation of hateful or other unsavory content.”

Asian stocks fell Friday as investors contemplated interest rates going higher than expected for an extended period after central banks reaffirmed their commitment to bringing down inflation.

After a healthy rally in recent weeks fuelled by signs that price rises were slowing, the US Federal Reserve and European Central Bank this week crushed any Christmas spirit by hiking borrowing costs again and warning of more pain to come.

While inflation in most countries has started coming down from the highs seen earlier this year — helped by a drop in energy costs — they remain at multi-decade highs.

And observers have warned that economies could be heading for a period of stagflation where prices keep rising but growth stalls.

After a rough week for markets, anxiety was enhanced on Wednesday after the Fed hiked rates as expected but indicated they would likely have to go higher than had been expected, ramping up fears of a recession.

That was followed by similar moves by the ECB on Thursday, with its boss Christine Lagarde warning: “We have more ground to cover, we have longer to go and we are in for a long game.”

The Bank of England also lifted rates and said more hikes were on the cards.

The decisions came as data also showed that almost a year of monetary tightening was hitting the economy more and more, with US retail sales dropping in November as American consumers — the key driver of growth — began to feel the pinch.

– Recession on horizon? –

“With central banks on both sides of the pond suggesting they have more work to tame inflation, hiking interest rates into a dimming macro environment will undoubtedly trigger a recession,” said SPI Asset Management’s Stephen Innes.

“The question is just how profound. Forget inflation; Asia traders are now worried about a global recession.”

All three main indexes on Wall Street tumbled Thursday, with the Nasdaq losing more than three percent as tech firms took another blow, while Paris and Frankfurt were also off more than three percent.

And the losses carried through to Asia, where Tokyo gave up more than one percent while Sydney, Seoul, Singapore, Wellington, Taipei, Jakarta and Manila were also in the red.

However, the dollar eased back slightly after Thursday’s rally.

Hong Kong and Shanghai also sagged, though the losses were less severe, with traders supported by signs of progress in talks on allowing US officials to audit Chinese firms listed in New York, easing concerns about a possible delisting of some big names such as Alibaba and Tencent.

The news provided a little more help to Hong Kong traders, whose sentiment has been lifted by China’s shift away from the economically damaging zero-Covid policy as well as moves to open the city further to overseas visitors.

And a report in the city’s South China Morning Post said the border with mainland China would be fully reopened next month, providing another much-needed boost to the beleaguered economy.

However, the mood was soured a little by a US decision to put 36 Chinese companies including top producers of advanced computer chips on a trade blacklist, severely restricting their access to any US technology.

– Key figures around 0230 GMT –

Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 1.5 percent at 27,620.66 (break)

Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 0.2 percent at 19,327.32

Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 0.1 percent at 3,164.07

Euro/dollar: UP at $1.0648 from $1.0627 on Thursday

Dollar/yen: DOWN at 137.28 yen from 137.80 yen

Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.2211 from $1.2175

Euro/pound: DOWN at 87.20 pence from 87.26 pence

West Texas Intermediate: UP 0.2 percent at $76.26 per barrel

Brent North Sea crude: UP 0.2 percent at $81.40 per barrel

New York – Dow: DOWN 2.3 percent at 33,202.22 (close)

London – FTSE 100: DOWN 0.9 percent at 7,426.17 (close)

Twitter suspended Thursday the accounts of more than a half-dozen journalists who had been writing about the company and its new owner Elon Musk.

Some of the journalists had been tweeting about Twitter shutting down an @ElonJet account that tracked flights of the billionaire’s private jet and about versions of that account hosted at other social networks.

Twitter did not say why the reporters’ accounts were suspended.

“Nothing says free speech like suspending journalists who cover you,” Sarah Reese Jones of news commentary website PoliticusUSA said in a tweeted response to posts about the suspensions.

Checks at Twitter showed account suspensions included reporters from CNN, The New York Times, and The Washington Post as well as independent journalists.

An account for Twitter rival Mastodon was also suspended, according to a report by NBCNews.

Musk on Wednesday tweeted that a car in Los Angeles carrying one of his children was followed by “a crazy stalker” and seemed to blame the tracking of his jet for this alleged incident. In the tweet, he said legal action is being taken against the person who ran ElonJet.

The Twitter account that tracked flights of Musk’s private jet was shut down Wednesday despite the billionaire’s statement that he is a free speech absolutist.

“Well it appears @ElonJet is suspended,” creator Jack Sweeney tweeted from his personal @JxckSweeney account, which was subsequently suspended as well.

Twitter later sent out word that it updated its policy to prohibit tweets, in most cases, from giving away someone’s location in real time.

“Any account doxxing real-time location info of anyone will be suspended, as it is a physical safety violation,” Musk said in a tweet.

“This includes posting links to sites with real-time location info.”

Doxxing refers to revealing identifying information such as home address or phone number online, typically to target someone for abuse.

Tweets sharing a person’s location that are “not same-day” are allowed under the tweaked policy, as are posts about being at a public event such as a concert, Twitter said.

Sweeney attracted attention with his Twitter account that tracks the movements of Musk’s plane and even rejected Musk’s offer of $5,000 to shut down @ElonJet, which had hundreds of thousands of followers.

Musk had gone public saying he would not touch the account after buying Twitter in a $44 billion deal as part of his commitment to free speech at the platform.

Flight-following websites and several Twitter accounts offer real-time views of air traffic, but that exposure draws pushback ranging from complaints to equipment seizures.

US rules require planes in designated areas be equipped with ADS-B technology that broadcasts aircraft positions using signals that relatively simple devices can pick up.

Google rivals on Thursday unveiled a project to make freely available data sets for map features to be built into online offerings.

Alphabet-owned Google dominates online mapping, selling its services to other companies or platforms and using location and navigation capabilities to enhance its other offerings, including online advertising.

Meta, Microsoft, TomTom and Amazon Web Services have now introduced what they call the Overture Maps Foundation, the goal of which is to make comprehensive mapping data openly available for use by whoever may need it, the nonprofit Linux Foundation said in a release.

“Mapping the physical environment and every community in the world, even as they grow and change, is a massively complex challenge that no one organization can manage,” said Linux Foundation executive director Jim Zemlin.

“Industry needs to come together to do this for the benefit of all.”

Google was notably absent from the list of companies teaming up in Overture, which said its goal is to expand membership to speed up progress.

The coalition expected to release its first mapping datasets by the middle of next year.

“Immersive experiences, which understand and blend into your physical environment, are critical to the embodied internet of the future,” Maps at Meta engineering director Jan Erik Solem said in the release.

“By delivering interoperable open map data, Overture provides the foundation for an open metaverse built by creators, developers, and businesses alike.”

Map data already underlies applications for search, navigation, logistics, games, autonomous driving and more, according to the Linux Foundation.

Overture map data will be open source, meaning developers are free to not only use it but to build on it, the Linux Foundation said.