FRANKFURT

Equities retreated on April 15 after Iran ramped up Middle East tensions by launching a barrage of missiles and drones at Israel over the weekend, fuelling fears of a wider conflict in the volatile region.

However, analysts said there was hope among traders that the crisis could be contained.

That sliver of optimism helped drag oil prices lower.

Wall Street stocks tumbled on Friday despite solid bank earnings as oil and gold prices shot up amid worries about a potential widening of conflict in the Middle East.

After spending the entire session in the red, the Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 1.2 percent, or 475 points, at 37,983.24.

A new dawn breaks in Cypriot banking with the appointment of Christodoulos Patsalides as the Central Bank of Cyprus' new governor, heralding both promise and challenge.

Buoyed by falling inflation, the European Central Bank is expected to keep borrowing costs on hold one last time on April 11 while laying the ground for a first interest rate cut in June.

The Frankfurt-based institution has left its key rates unchanged since October 2023, following an unprecedented streak of hikes to tame red-hot inflation.

The concessionaire company Fraport Twin Star Airport Management announced that Burgas Airport will kick off the active flight season with its first flight since Bulgaria's entry into the Schengen area by air, scheduled for the end of March.

Germany will play Ukraine and Greece in its final warmup games before hosting the European Championship.

The team will face Ukraine in Nuremberg on June 3, and four days later Greece, the 2004 European champion, in Mönchengladbach, the German soccer federation said on Tuesday.

A Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt to Dubai has been diverted to Rhodes where it landed just before 6 p.m. Monday.

The A330 plane's approach sounded the alarm to the local Fire Service, as there was information of smoke inside the plane, toward the back.

Flights abroad for the long weekends of Clean Monday and Independence Day on March 25 are showing increased occupancy rates of over 75%.

For those departing this weekend from Athens, the most popular destinations are Oslo, Bologna, Geneva, Amsterdam and Lisbon, while those departing from Thessaloniki mainly travel to Frankfurt, Berlin, Larnaca, Munich and Dusseldorf.

The European Central Bank froze interest rates again on Thursday as it held off from starting to cut borrowing costs amid concerns that sticky inflation is not easing as fast as hoped.

The Frankfurt-based institution's governing council held the benchmark deposit rate steady at a record four percent for a fourth straight meeting, as widely expected.

Germany was plunged into disarray on Thursday as strikes erupted across multiple fronts, disrupting travel plans for millions and compounding the economic challenges of a nation already mired in recession.