US stocks fell to one-month lows on Friday on worries about upcoming quarterly earnings news, while bond prices rose sharply, pushing the benchmark 10-year note's yield to a two-month low.
Mixed economic reports kept optimism about the recovery in check.
A surge in companies lowering the bar on their earnings outlooks this week has helped dampen hopes that a sustainable recovery in the US corporate sector is under way.
"Everyone's in a wait-and-see mode on third-quarter earnings," said Stephen Massocca, head of trading and president of Pacific Growth Equities. "There's a perception that stocks are overvalued, and that's holding the market back."
The US Department of Commerce said that brisk consumer spending helped the US economy grow at a slightly faster-than-expected pace, setting the stage for a second-half surge in growth. GDP grew at a revised 3.3 percent annual rate from April through June -- up from a 3.1 percent rate estimated a month ago.
A University of Michigan survey, however, showed consumer sentiment fell unexpectedly this month, hurt by persistent weakness in the job market, high gasoline prices and the US occupation in Iraq.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 30.88 points, or 0.33 percent, to 9,313.08, while the broader Standard & Poor's 500 Index dropped 6.42 points, or 0.64 percent, to 996.85. The technology-laced NASDAQ Composite Index dropped 25.17 points, or 1.39 percent, to 1,792.07, based on the latest available figures.
Motorola Inc topped the New York Stock Exchange's most actively traded list. Its shares fell on news that it will not be able to supply two popular digital camera cell phone models in time to meet expected high demand in this year's US holiday season, one of its biggest customers said on Friday.
But by the close, Motorola's stock had recouped those losses and ended flat at US$12.53, after the world's No. 2 cell phone maker said it is positioned for the crucial holiday season and reiterated its forecast.
Treasury yields, which move inversely to prices, dropped to two-month lows on worries that nervous Americans might tighten their belts.
The 10-year note gained 23/32 in price to 102 and 00/32, while its yield dropped to 4 percent from 4.09 percent the previous session and 4.16 percent last week.
The two-year note, meanwhile, rose 6/32 to a price of 100 and 04/32, pushing its yield down to 1.56 percent from 1.67 percent last Friday.
The 30-year bond climbed 27/32 to a price of 106 and 18/32, while its yield slid to 4.94 percent from 5.07 percent last week.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
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],”