European stock markets struggled Friday, the last trading day of January, as dealers found little news to whet their appetites amid a mixed performance on Wall Street.
The British FTSE 100 index slipped 0.47 percent to 4,390.7 points, the German DAX 30 index lost 0.91 percent to 4,058.60 points and the French CAC 40 closed 0.65 percent lower at 3,638.44 points.
The DJ Euro Stoxx 50 index of leading eurozone shares fell 0.73 percent to 2,839.13 points.
The euro stood at US$1.2456.
Markets took a breather towards the end of a month that has seen the DAX 30 and CAC 40 rally by over two percent, while the FTSE 100 has lost 1.9 percent.
Many analysts still subscribe to the idea of the "January barometer," which decrees that "as January goes, so goes the rest of the year."
Anais Faraj, European equity strategist at Nomura Securities, is not one of them.
But he said: "There is a strong seasonal pattern. If you look at the US and Europe, really since 1970, on average January has delivered a reasonably good return."
However, if history is any guide, investors could be in for disappointment over the next few weeks.
"On average over the last 30 years February has been very, very weak. It's one of the weakest months of the year," said Faraj.
"I think we're going to see a sharp drop [in the stock market] into February and then by the end of February the market will pick up," he predicted.
There was little news from New York to galvanize markets in Europe on the last trading day of January.
US stocks were mixed as European markets closed, with investors still trying to fathom the implications of a subtle change in the tone of the US Federal Reserve's stance on monetary policy which sparked a big sell-off a day earlier.
Shares in French Internet and telecommunications firm Iliad debuted on the Paris stock exchange with a 30.37 percent jump in value to 21.25 euros.
In Amsterdam, the AEX index slipped 0.26 percent to 353.31 points, the Swiss SMI was down 0.55 percent at 5,736.4 points, in Milan the Mib 30 lost 0.92 percent to 27,694 points, in Madrid the Ibex-35 shed 1.04 percent to 7,929.9 points and in Brussels the Bel-20 closed up 0.08 percent at 2,383.76 points.
Sweeping policy changes under US Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr are having a chilling effect on vaccine makers as anti-vaccine rhetoric has turned into concrete changes in inoculation schedules and recommendations, investors and executives said. The administration of US President Donald Trump has in the past year upended vaccine recommendations, with the country last month ending its longstanding guidance that all children receive inoculations against flu, hepatitis A and other diseases. The unprecedented changes have led to diminished vaccine usage, hurt the investment case for some biotechs, and created a drag that would likely dent revenues and
Global semiconductor stocks advanced yesterday, as comments by Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) at Davos, Switzerland, helped reinforce investor enthusiasm for artificial intelligence (AI). Samsung Electronics Co gained as much as 5 percent to an all-time high, helping drive South Korea’s benchmark KOSPI above 5,000 for the first time. That came after the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rose more than 3 percent to a fresh record on Wednesday, with a boost from Nvidia. The gains came amid broad risk-on trade after US President Donald Trump withdrew his threat of tariffs on some European nations over backing for Greenland. Huang further
Nvidia Corp’s GB300 platform is expected to account for 70 to 80 percent of global artificial intelligence (AI) server rack shipments this year, while adoption of its next-generation Vera Rubin 200 platform is to gradually gain momentum after the third quarter of the year, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said. Servers based on Nvidia’s GB300 chips entered mass production last quarter and they are expected to become the mainstay models for Taiwanese server manufacturers this year, Trendforce analyst Frank Kung (龔明德) said in an interview. This year is expected to be a breakout year for AI servers based on a variety of chips, as
HSBC Bank Taiwan Ltd (匯豐台灣商銀) and the Taiwan High Prosecutors Office recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to enhance cooperation on the suspicious transaction analysis mechanism. This landmark agreement makes HSBC the first foreign bank in Taiwan to establish such a partnership with the High Prosecutors Office, underscoring its commitment to active anti-fraud initiatives, financial inclusion, and the “Treating Customers Fairly” principle. Through this deep public-private collaboration, both parties aim to co-create a secure financial ecosystem via early warning detection and precise fraud prevention technologies. At the signing ceremony, HSBC Taiwan CEO and head of banking Adam Chen (陳志堅)
RSS