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Stocks struggle after Meta afterhours swoon

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Interest rates markets awaiting US GDP data later

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Mining sector M&A lifts FTSE to new all-time high

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Yen drops to last 34-year low

By Marc Jones and Ankur Banerjee

LONDON/SINGAPORE, April 25 (Reuters) - World stocks

snapped a three-day winning streak on Thursday as disappointing

forecasts from Facebook and Instagram parent Meta hammered tech,

while the yen's drop through 155 per dollar for the first time

since 1990 kept FX traders on intervention alert.

Both U.S. Q1 GDP data and more 'Big Tech' earnings were

scheduled for later in the day but for now it was Meta's 15%

after-hours price slump that was souring the mood.

Japan's tech-heavy Nikkei slid 2% in Asian trading

and European tech stocks were down 0.8% in early dealing

as traders did pretty much the opposite to the previous day

after Tesla had promised new models by early next year.

In an earnings-packed week, tech bellwethers are in the

spotlight, with Alphabet, Microsoft ( MSFT ) and Intel ( INTC )

also due to report on Thursday.

"If Meta is a guide, it seems the market is simply not

tolerant of in-line - if you've had a good run through Q1 & Q2

you either blow the lights out, or the market takes its pound of

flesh," said Chris Weston, head of research at Pepperstone.

Chief Investment Officer at Close Brothers Asset Management,

Robert Alster, added that Mark Zuckerberg's comments on Meta

needing to spend to keep up in the AI arms race had been another

major factor.

European earnings and M&A deals were flooding in too.

London's FTSE 100 hit another record high as

UK-listed miner Anglo American surged 11% on a buyout

offer from Aussie rival BHP, while Deutsche Bank

slipped and BNP Paribas edged up after the

euro zone's biggest lenders posted upbeat first-quarter profits.

US GDP

Beyond corporate earnings, investor focus will be on the

first quarter U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) data due out

later.

Recent hotter-than-expected inflation reports have pushed

back and reduced expectations for Federal Reserve interest rate

cuts, with markets now pricing in roughly a 70% chance of a

first reduction in September. They are not even fully convinced

there will now be another one this year, having expected around

six cuts at the start of the year.

The shifting expectations of U.S. rates have lifted Treasury

yields and the dollar, casting a shadow on the currency market.

Against a basket of currencies, the dollar was little

changed at 105.75.

The Japanese yen, which is sensitive to U.S.

Treasury yields, has felt the brunt of the dollar's ascent and

is down 9% this year, the worst performing G-10 currency.

On Thursday, the yen was fetching 155.65 per dollar after

touching 155.675, its weakest in 34 years, during the Asian

session. It is also past the 155 yen level that some traders had

marked as the latest line in the sand for Japan to act.

"Tokyo has still not intervened, and I reiterate that it

does look like there will be no intervention so long as

USD/JPY's climb continues in a relatively non-volatile fashion,"

said RBC Capital Markets' head of Asian FX strategy, Alvin Tan.

The Bank of Japan (BOJ) started its two-day rate-setting

meeting on Thursday, with expectations that it will keep its key

short-term interest rate target unchanged.

Attention will be on what BOJ Governor Kazuo Ueda's says

about the yen's struggles. Ueda will want to avoid any repeat of

an episode in 2022, when remarks by his predecessor triggered a

big yen tumble that forced Tokyo to spend an estimated $60

billion trying to stabilise it again.

"At this stage, if they were to intervene, they might as

well just throw their money into the sea," said Rob Carnell,

head of Asia-Pacific research at ING. "For all the good it will

do, except in the very short run."

In the commodity markets, U.S. crude rose 0.1% to

$82.89 per barrel and Brent was at $88.13, up 0.12% on

the day. Gold, which hit a record high earlier this

month, inched up to $2,326 an ounce.