Day: May 6, 2022

Italian football club Roma will take on Dutch side Feyenoord in the UEFA Europa Conference League’s first-ever final.

Roma beat English opponents Leicester City 1-0 Thursday in the semifinal’s second leg at Stadio Olimpico in Rome.

English forward Tammy Abraham scored the winning goal with a header and the Italian team won 2-1 on aggregate.

The first leg in England ended 1-1.

In another semifinal match, Dutch team Feyenoord drew 0-0 with France’s Olympique Marseille at the Velodrome Stadium in Marseille, but the goalless draw enabled Feyenoord to secure a ticket to the final.

Feyenoord previously won the first leg 3-2 in Rotterdam.

The third-tier Europa Conference League made its debut this season, and its first-ever final will be held in the Albanian capital Tirana on May 25.

Roma and Feyenoord will vie for the 2022 Europa Conference League title at the 21,690-capacity National Arena.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Scottish football club Rangers will face German side Eintracht Frankfurt in the 2022 UEFA Europa League final on May 18.

On Thursday, Rangers beat Germany’s RB Leipzig 3-1 in the semifinal second leg to advance to the Europa League final.

Rangers’ English right-back James Tavernier scored the opener in the 19th minute at Glasgow’s Ibrox Stadium.

Tavernier finished in the far post after Ryan Kent’s low cross from the left.

The Scottish team doubled the lead in the 24th minute as Glen Kamara sent the ball inside the far post.

Rangers led the first half 2-0.

In the 71st minute, Leipzig found a chance to narrow the deficit as French midfielder Christopher Nkunku scored a volley after Angelino’s cross from the left, making it 1-2.

Ten minutes later, Rangers’ English midfielder John Lundstram finished in the box after Kent’s cross was deflected by Leipzig goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi.

Near the end of the match, Leipzig took risks for a final chance, but Rangers defended their goal well to win 3-2 on aggregate.

Rangers will play their first Europa League final since 2008, when the Glasgow club completed the competition as the runners-up.

Meanwhile, Eintracht Frankfurt eliminated West Ham United, beating the English club 1-0 to reach this season’s Europa League final.

The German team have waited 42 years to be in the Europa League final as they were the 1980 champions.

Colombian forward Rafael Borre scored the winning goal for Eintracht Frankfurt at Frankfurt Stadium.

Eintracht Frankfurt won 3-1 on aggregate.

This season’s Europa League final will be held on May 18 at Seville’s Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan Stadium.

Source: Anadolu Agency

The US economy added 428,000 jobs in April, above market estimates, and the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 3.6%, the Department of Labor announced on Friday.

Market estimates for nonfarm payrolls were to see an increase of 391,000 last month.

Job additions for March were revised down by 3,000, from 431,000 to 428,000, according to data by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The unemployment rate remained steady, compared to 3.6% in March. The market expectation for the unemployment rate was to come at 3.5% last month.

The number of unemployed individuals in the US also remained unchanged at 5.9 million in April, compared to the previous month.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, more than 22 million people in the world’s largest economy lost their jobs in March and April 2020.

Source: Anadolu Agency

The US dollar index on Friday has climbed to its highest level in almost 20 years with worries of economic slowdown in the US economy, the Federal Reserve raising rates, and a major selloff in US stock exchanges.

The US dollar index, used to measure the value of the greenback against a basket of six foreign currencies that include the British pound, euro, Swiss franc, Japanese yen, Canadian dollar, and Swedish krona, jumped to $104.06 around 0655GMT.

This marked the highest level of the index since Dec. 17, 2002, according to official figures.

The 10-year US Treasury yield jumped to as high as 3.102% on Thursday — its highest since Nov. 16, 2018.

This highest level in almost four years came a day after the US Federal Reserve increased its benchmark interest rate by 50 basis points, raising investors’ worries that monetary tightening could cause a slowdown in the American economy and lead to a recession.

Investors have been selling US stocks and liquidating their positions to turn towards the US dollar, which raises the value of the dollar index.

Treasury securities are viewed as a safer bet for investors, compared to stocks, since they are backed by the US government.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Asian stock markets closed with losses except for Japan on Friday, while European stock exchanges were all in red as the major selloff continues in global markets.

The Asia Dow, which includes blue-chip companies in the region, was down 38 points, or 1.13%, to 3,348 points at 1033GMT.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 stock exchange was the only positive performer of the day, increasing 185 points, or 0.69%, to 27,003.

The Hang Seng, the benchmark for blue-chip stocks trading on the Hong Kong stock exchange, performed the worst by plummeting 791 points, or 3.81%, to 20,001.

China’s Shanghai stock exchange decreased 66 points, or 2.16%, to finish at 3,001.

India’s Sensex benchmark lost 866 points, or 1.56%, to 54,835, while the Singapore index fell 51 points, or 1.55%, to 3,291.

In Europe, the STOXX Europe 600, which includes around 90% of the market capitalization of the European market in 17 countries, decreased 5.74 points, or 1.3%, to 432.53 points at 1037GMT.

London’s FTSE 100 fell 60 points, or 0.81%, to 7,444, while Germany’s DAX 30 lost 148 points, or 1.06%, to 13,753.

France’s CAC 40 was down 74 points, or 1.17%, to 6,293, and Italy’s FTSE MIB was flat at 23,760 at the time.

Spain’s IBEX 35 declined 62 points, or 0.74%, to reach 8,372.

The selloff came after US indices plummeted on Thursday. The Dow Jones lost 1,063 points, or 3.1%, on Thursday for its worst single-day performance since 2020. The S&P 500 fell almost 3.6%, its second-worst day of the year. The Nasdaq Composite declined almost 5% to end the day at 12,317.69 — its lowest closing since November 2020.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies plummeted around 9% with a major selloff in technology companies’ stocks in the US markets late Thursday.

Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, sank to $35,867 early Friday, its lowest level since Jan. 27. This marked a 9.6% decline in price after Wednesday’s closing at $39,690.

Ethereum, the world’s biggest altcoin by market value, also dove below $2,696, its lowest level since Feb. 4. This was an 8.3% loss in price after closing Wednesday at $2,940.

Some altcoins saw their value tumble by up to 20%.

During that period, the cryptocurrency market saw $160 billion evaporating, as its market value dropped 8.8% to $1.65 trillion from $1.81 trillion in less than two days, according to data from the digital asset price-tracking website CoinMarketCap.

The decline in cryptos came after a major selloff in tech firms’ stocks in the US exchanges late Thursday, such as Netflix and Amazon shares falling 7.6% apiece, while Facebook’s parent firm Meta shares fell 6.7%.

The selloff in technology stocks came as investors are worried about the weak outlook of the US economy with fears of recession and the companies’ disappointing first-quarter earnings results.

Although the US stock market indices rallied on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve ruled out 75 basis points of rate hikes in future meetings, indices gave up all those gains, and even some more, on Thursday.

The Dow Jones plummeted 1,063 points, or 3.1%, on Thursday for its worst single-day performance since 2020. The S&P 500 lost almost 3.6%, its second-worst day of the year.

The Nasdaq Composite fell almost 5% to end the day at 12,317.69, its lowest closing since November 2020.

Source: Anadolu Agency