European benchmark stock indexes fell for the first week in three on concern the war in Iraq is leading consumers and businesses to cut spending, crimping sales at companies like Air France SA and Volkswagen AG.
Munich Re tumbled to its lowest in a decade after the world's largest reinsurer had a record loss in the fourth quarter and analysts said the company may need to sell new shares.
The Dow Jones Stoxx 50 slipped 0.4 percent Friday and is down 5.5 percent since last week. The Stoxx 600 Index slid 0.3 percent to 182.71, for a decline this week of 5.1 percent.
All 18 of the Stoxx 600 industry groups slid this week, led by travel and leisure stocks and insurers, both of which slumped 8 percent. The best-performing index on the Stoxx 600 was utilities, which declined 2.2 percent over the past five sessions.
European benchmark indexes also dropped this week. France's CAC 40 fell 5.5 percent, the German DAX shed 7.2 percent and the UK's FTSE 100 lost 4 percent.
Air France shed 5.5 percent to 8.74 euros yesterday. Its shares have fallen 17 since last Friday's close. The company said Wednesday that the Iraq conflict is stunting sales and in response it's cutting capacity.
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines NV lost 2.4 percent to 6.08 euros, for a drop this week of 7.6 percent. British Airways Plc and Deutsche Lufthansa AG have also announced capacity cutbacks because of the war. British Airways, Europe's biggest carrier, slid 3.6 percent to 108.5 pence, for a decline this week of 13 percent.
Volkswagen, Europe's largest carmaker, shed 3.2 percent to 30.75 euros, and has dropped 7.7 percent since last Friday's close. It said Thursday that customers are "holding back" on purchases because of the conflict in Iraq.
TUI AG dropped 7.1 percent to 9.05 euros, sending this week's decline to 18 percent. Europe's largest travel company said Monday it will step up cost cutting as tourism wanes because of the war.
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],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
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