AFP

European stock markets climbed Friday but the pound and euro fell as traders assessed mixed growth and inflation data.

The pound jumped on revised figures showing the UK economy had avoided recession — but it swiftly fell back on expectations of an eventual downturn owing to sky-high inflation.

In the eurozone, consumer prices rocketed a record 10 percent in September on soaring energy prices caused by Russia’s war on Ukraine, separate official data showed.

“Stock markets are bouncing back… although I don’t think anyone is getting excited by the moves which pale in comparison to the losses that preceded them,” noted OANDA senior market analyst Craig Erlam.

“This looks like nothing more than a dead cat bounce after a steep decline over the last couple of weeks as investors have been forced to once again accept that interest rates are going to rise further and faster than hoped.”

In the United States, Federal Reserve officials have again reiterated their intention to ramp up rates until they have tamed inflation, even if that means plunging the world’s top economy into recession.

The case for a fourth successive 0.75-percentage point lift was strengthened by news Thursday that first-time unemployment benefit claims fell below 200,000 for the first time since May.

All three main indices on Wall Street finished deep in the red Thursday, with the S&P 500 ending at its lowest level since November 2020.

In Asia on Friday, Shanghai dropped as data showed China’s manufacturing and services sectors struggled again in September from Covid lockdowns in parts of the country that have battered the world’s number-two economy.

There was also little reaction to news that Beijing would allow some cities to reduce mortgage rates for first-home purchases as it tries to support the property market.

Market sentiment was being eroded also by rising fears about developments in the Ukraine war, as Russia prepares to annex four occupied regions of its neighbour Friday, with President Vladimir Putin threatening to use nuclear weapons to defend the territories.

– Key figures around 1100 GMT –

London – FTSE 100: UP 0.4 percent at 6,909.18 points 

Frankfurt – DAX: UP 0.4 percent at 12,017.95

Paris – CAC 40: UP 0.8 percent at 5,723.46

EURO STOXX 50: UP 0.6 percent at 3,297.15

Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 1.8 percent at 25,937.21 (close)

Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: UP 0.3 percent at 17,222.83 (close)

Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 0.6 percent at 3,024.39 (close)

New York – Dow: DOWN 1.5 percent at 29,225.61 (close)

Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.1067 from $1.1116 on Thursday

Euro/dollar: DOWN at $0.9764 from $0.9818

Euro/pound: DOWN at 88.20 pence from 88.28 pence

Dollar/yen: UP at 144.47 yen from 144.42 yen

Brent North Sea crude: UP 0.7 percent at $89.12 per barrel

West Texas Intermediate: UP 0.3 percent at $81.41 per barrel

Climate change increased the rainfall from Hurricane Ian by more than 10 percent, according to a new quick-fire analysis, as one of the most powerful storms ever to hit the United States devastated parts of Florida. 

Ian “could be the deadliest hurricane in Florida history”, President Joe Biden said after the storm brought ferocious winds, turned streets into churning rivers that swept away homes and left an unknown number of casualties. 

According to a rapid and preliminary analysis, human-caused climate change increased the extreme rain that Ian unleashed by over 10 percent, US scientists said.

“Climate change didn’t cause the storm but it did cause it to be wetter,” said Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s Michael Wehner, one of the scientists behind the new finding. 

The researchers compared simulations of today’s world — which has warmed nearly 1.2 degrees Celsius since pre-industrial times — with counterfactual simulations of a world without human-induced climate change. 

Wehner said these were “conservative estimates”, adding that while they are not peer reviewed, they are based on methods used in a study on the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season, which was published in April in the journal Nature Communication.

Climate change from emissions of planet-heating greenhouse gases is warming the ocean’s surface and increasing moisture in the atmosphere that fuels hurricanes. 

Although the total number of tropical storms, or cyclones, may not increase, scientists say warming is whipping up more powerful cyclones with stronger winds and more precipitation.

“Human-caused climate change is affecting hurricanes in many ways including causing them to intensify faster, be stronger overall, and dump a lot more rain,” tweeted climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe, who was not involved in the research. 

For each degree Celsius of warming, scientists expect the water in the atmosphere to increase by around seven percent.  

But Wehner said that his research found that storms are “more efficient” at turning the available moisture into rainfall.

Ian swept across Cuba on Tuesday, downing the country’s power network, before slamming into the Florida coast on Wednesday as a strong Category 4 hurricane.

The National Hurricane Center said Thursday the now Category 1 storm is expected to bring “life-threatening flooding, storm surge and strong winds” to the Carolinas.

Forecasters expect Hurricane Ian to cause life-threatening storm surges in the Carolinas on Friday after unleashing devastation in Florida, where it left a yet unknown number of dead in its wake.

After weakening across Florida, Ian regained its Category 1 status in the Atlantic Ocean and was headed toward the Carolinas, the US National Hurricane Center said Friday.

“Flooding rains (are) likely across the Carolinas and southwestern Virginia,” the NHC added.

The storm, one of the most powerful ever to hit the United States, left hundreds of people in need of rescue in Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis said, warning it was too early to get a clear picture of the death toll.

“We absolutely expect to have mortality from this hurricane,” he said Thursday.

DeSantis said concrete information about casualty numbers could be expected “in the coming days.” 

President Joe Biden, after a briefing at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) headquarters, said “this could be the deadliest hurricane in Florida history.”

The numbers “are still unclear, but we’re hearing reports of what may be substantial loss of life,” he said Thursday.

Biden later declared an emergency in South Carolina, ordering federal assistance in response efforts, according to a White House statement.

The NHC has issued a hurricane warning for the entire coast of South Carolina as well as portions of Georgia and North Carolina.

Ian would likely make landfall on Friday, the NHC said, and then “rapidly weaken over the southeastern United States late Friday into Saturday.”

– ‘Horrifying’ –

Fort Myers, where Ian came ashore as a powerful Category 4 hurricane on Wednesday, took much of the brunt, as streets became rivers and seawater poured into houses.

Dozens of boats moored in the marina were sunk while others were tossed onto downtown streets.

DeSantis described the destruction in the southwest part of his state as a “500-year flood event.”

“We’ve never seen storm surge of this magnitude,” he said.

Tom Johnson of Fort Myers had a front row seat to the destruction from his apartment on the second floor of a two-story harbourside building.

“I was scared because I’ve never been through that,” the 54-year-old told AFP. “It was just the most horrifying sounds with debris flying everywhere, doors flying off.”

His home was undamaged but one of his neighbors, Janelle Thil, was not so lucky and had to ask other residents for help after her ground floor apartment began to flood.

“They got my dogs and then I jumped out of the window and swam,” the 42-year-old said.

When Thil returned to her apartment after the storm passed, she said she opened the door and “had to wait about five minutes for all the floodwaters to come out.”

“I loved my home,” she said. “But I’m alive and that’s what matters.”

A US Coast Guard official said Thursday that helicopter crews were plucking people from the rooftops of homes inundated by floodwaters.

Eighteen migrants were missing from a boat that sank during the hurricane on Wednesday, though nine others had been rescued, the Coast Guard said. Among them were four Cubans who swam to shore in the Florida Keys.

– ‘Major disaster’ –

Much of Florida’s southwest coast was plunged into darkness after the storm wiped out power.

Tracking website PowerOutage.us said 2.1 million homes and businesses remained without electricity in the Sunshine State on Friday.

Two barrier islands near Fort Myers, Pine Island and Sanibel Island, popular with vacationers, were essentially cut off when the storm damaged causeways to the mainland.

Sanibel got “hit with really biblical storm surge,” DeSantis said, and rescuers were using boats and helicopters to evacuate residents who rode out the storm.

Biden has declared a “major disaster” in Florida, a move that frees up federal funding for storm relief.

“I want the people of Florida to know that we will be here at every step of the way,” he tweeted.

– Cuba power out –

Before pummeling Florida, Ian plunged all of Cuba into darkness after downing the island’s power network.

Electricity was gradually returning Thursday, but many homes remain without power.

Laura Mujica joined dozens of Cuban women gathered in the capital Havana on Thursday to demand electricity be restored in the city.

“We took to the street, because we haven’t had electricity for several days and we are tired of it. 

“We women decided to take to the streets to empower ourselves and protest so that the electricity will be fixed,” said the 20-year-old.

At least two people died in Pinar del Rio province, state media in the country of more than 11 million reported.

Human-induced climate change is resulting in more severe weather events across the globe, scientists say.