Facebook recovered from a calamitous drop in user numbers earlier this year, and its parent company Meta reported a profit ahead of Wall Street targets, defying low investor expectations with a quarterly report that sent shares up 19% in after-hours trading.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg also stated that the company would cut costs and invest in artificial intelligence tools to improve recommendations and ads, indicating that Meta is focusing on making money while also working on its long-term goals of building the metaverse.

The Meta (NASDAQ: FB) stock rocketed 19% after-hours trading on Wednesday, currently priced at $207 a share.

MACROECONOMIC DATA ANALYSIS

According to Reuters polls of over 500 experts, the global economy would grow more slowly than projections formed three months ago, amid climbing commodity prices and an escalation in the Russia-Ukraine conflict potentially prompting another downgrade. World economic output was already under strain due to monetary tightening as central banks struggle to contain growing inflation, but it took a hit when Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, sending commodity prices skyrocketing and sparking waves of economic sanctions.

The Swiss National Bank reported a loss of 32.8 billion Swiss francs ($33.75 billion) in the first quarter, owing to lower bond prices and a stronger Swiss franc, the central bank said on Thursday. The bank lost 36.8 billion francs on its foreign currency investments made during the franc's taming operation. Renowned as a safe-haven currency, the Swiss franc lost some of its ground against the U.S. dollar, with the USD/CHF currency pair trading 0.02% higher.

CURRENCIES

The U.S. dollar was soaring on Wednesday morning, approaching levels not seen in two decades. The euro was slammed by a building energy crisis in Europe, while investors absorbed the Bank of Japan's (BOJ) latest policy decision which directed the yen to 20-year lows. The U.S. dollar index which compares the greenback against a basket of six other major currencies, escalated by 0.44% to 103.412.

GOLD

Gold prices sunk to a 10-week low on Thursday, as demand for the dollar-denominated precious metal was harmed, and the metal's appeal as an inflation hedge was weakened by an imminent Federal Reserve interest rate hike. The safe haven inched 0.14% higher to $1,888 per ounce.

OIL

Oil prices inched slightly higher on Thursday, despite declining fuel demand in China, the world's largest oil importer, as a result of COVID-19 regulations and restrictions. Crude stocks increased by only 692,000 barrels last week, falling short of estimates, while distillate inventories, which include diesel and jet fuel, plummeted to their lowest level since May 2008. Brent futures inched 0.20% higher to $105.17 a barrel, and WTI oil futures edged 0.37% higher to $102.41 per barrel.

INDICES

USA: S&P500 +0.21%, Dow Jones Industrial Average +0.19%, Nasdaq Composite -0.05%

Europe: FTSE 100 +0.95, DAX +1.85%, CAC 40 +1.98%

Asia: Nikkei 225 +1.75%, Hang Seng +1.65%, CSI 300 +0.66%, Nifty 50 +1.66%