European stock markets climbed on Thursday as better-than-expected US weekly jobless claims data outweighed fears over the worsening situation in Iraq.
The British FTSE 100 index gained 0.47 percent to 4,489.7 points, the German DAX 30 climbed 0.31 percent to 4,013.53 points and the French CAC 40 edged up 0.15 percent to 3,740.11 points.
The DJ Euro Stoxx 50 index of leading eurozone shares advanced 0.25 percent to 2,858.92 points.
The euro stood at US$1.2072.
Trading was marked by position-squaring ahead of the long Easter holiday weekend. Investors were lifted by news overnight that first-quarter net profit and sales at Internet giant Yahoo Inc had more than doubled.
On Wall Street, by London close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average retreated from an opening rally, drifting back 2.20 points to 10,478.10, while the NASDAQ composite index was off highs but still up 7.85 points to 2,058.09 helped by the positive Yahoo results and strong earnings on Thursday from diversified giant General Electric.
GE's robust performance gave a boost to Rolls-Royce shares, with the British aerospace engineer rising nearly 5 percent in value to 231.25 pence, topping the FTSE 100 leaders board.
Rolls-Royce shares extended Wednesday's strong gains which followed news that Boeing had selected both the British firm and GE to provide the engines for its new mid-sized 7E7 commercial jet.
Britain's leading supermarket chain Tesco jumped 3.98 percent to 251 pence after positive broker comment.
In Frankfurt, semi-conductor maker Infineon led advancing technology issues, adding 1.93 percent at 12.64 euros, as sector followers digested strong earnings news from Yahoo, Genentech and Dell.
In Paris, retailer Carrefour lost 2.95 percent at 39.09 after disappointing first-quarter sales which showed a weaker-than-expected performance from French hypermarkets.
Among second-line stocks, Eurotunnel sank 13.33 percent to 0.52 euros after its shareholders voted on Wednesday to oust the board of the troubled, debt-ridden operator of the Channel rail tunnel and put in place a new management team.
Analysts have warned that the new team faces some of the same problems.
And analysts at Fitch warned that the new management would find a "plane-load" of financing documentation, which conditions the Franco-British company into remunerating its debt-holders first and equity last.
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