European markets have been slow because people are worried about the world economy.

By the middle of the morning, the pan-European Stoxx 600 was down 0.2%. Stocks in the telecoms industry were down 1.2%, while oil and gas stocks were up 0.8%.

Next week, the U.S. Federal Reserve is likely to raise interest rates by 50 basis points. Even though that would be a smaller increase than the last few rate hikes, investors are getting more worried about whether the central bank will be able to avoid a recession next year while trying to stop inflation.

After the S&P 500 fell for the fifth day in a row, U.S. stock futures were down a little bit on Thursday morning as Wall Street tried to figure out how likely a downturn was.

Overnight, the mood in the Asia-Pacific region changed for the better. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index went up by more than 3% on Thursday after a local news outlet said the city is thinking about easing Covid measures even more, such as getting rid of the rule about wearing masks outside and making testing for new arrivals less strict. Most of the other markets in the region, on the other hand, went slightly into the red.

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If the Federal Reserve doesn't do this, the U.S. economy and S&P 500 will have a hard landing.

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