At the close of the trading day, there was a sharp decline on Wall Street which was one of its worst days since the start of the pandemic. The Dow Jones was down three point five seven percent, while the S-&-P-500 was down four percent.
The biggest drop was at retail giant Target, where its share price plunged 25 percent, after reporting a staggering 52 percent drop in first-quarter profit.
In Asia, Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell three point one percent. And in Australia, the A-S-X 200 closed down one and a half percent.
In the UK, inflation is now at nine percent, meaning prices are rising faster than they have been in 40 years.
The driving inflation is supply chain stress exacerbated by Russia's war in Ukraine, and lockdowns on China's key manufacturing cities.
