European stock indexes rounded off their worst quarter in at least three years amid falling profits and concern terrorist attacks in the US will delay a rebound in economic growth until next year.
Even though profits may get worse in coming months, some investors are buying stocks, betting that share prices have dropped too far given that falling interest rates will prompt a rebound in profit growth next year.
"Earnings will collapse in the next three months," said James Clunie, head of global equities at Aberdeen Asset Management, which oversees about US$4 billion. "Policy-makers in the US, Europe and Japan are cutting rates and pumping money into the economy. That means share prices are going to go up."
Benchmark indexes in the UK, Germany and France finished their best week in at least 13 years as companies including ING Groep NV, Zurich Financial Services AG and Credit Suisse Group jumped more than 25 percent after reaching two-year lows or more a week earlier.
Clunie was buying shares of Volvo AB before the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11. He kept buying as shares of the No. 2 truck maker dropped 16 percent in the following six sessions, on expectations tax cuts in the US and interest rate cuts around the world will help earnings growth recover next year.
The US Federal Reserve cut the overnight bank lending rate to an eight-year low of 3 percent on Sept. 17. The move was followed within 48 hours by rate cuts in Japan, the UK, Switzerland, Canada and by the European Central Bank.
Central banks have pumped cash into the money markets to ensure commercial banks don't run short of money, lending US$120 billion the day after the attacks. The US Congress is also mulling US$50 billion of extra government spending.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained