Stocks drop as traders mull central bank moves

In afternoon trading Paris stocks dropped 1.4 percent and Frankfurt shed 1.0 percent following earlier Asian losses.

London equities dipped less than 0.1 percent one day after the Bank of England delivered a shock interest rate hike to counter decade-high UK inflation.

Wall Street opened lower, with the Dow sliding 0.5 percent.

Oil prices fell 1.6 percent on renewed demand fears linked to the Omicron Covid variant.

European indices had rallied Thursday after the US Federal Reserve and European Central Bank laid out inflation-fighting plans and the BoE hiked interest rates from a record low to 0.25 percent.

Asia had also leapt after Wall Street shot higher Wednesday upon the Fed plotting a more hawkish path by speeding up the taper of its pandemic stimulus and signalled that policymakers expect a number of interest rate hikes in 2022 and beyond as the economy rebounds.