European stocks ended mixed on Friday, with French and Dutch markets cautious before EU referendums and UK markets toying with a key psychological barrier ahead of a holiday weekend.
The German DAX 30 index finished up 0.2 percent at 4,444.7, the French CAC 40 index lost 0.1 percent to 4,131.8 and the Dutch AEX index dropped 0.4 percent at 366.6. London's FTSE 100 index lost 0.2 percent at 4,986.3.
"We think that the [global] economic cycle is fairly much intact," said Richard Batty, global investment strategist at Standard Life Investments.
The euro added 0.5 percent to trade at US$1.2568 ahead of France's EU constitution referendum today. Dutch voters go to the polls on the constitution on June 1.
The technology sector lent support following gains in US technology stocks overnight that sent the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index up 1.9 percent.
Shares in New York Stock Exchange specialist firm Van der Moolen Holding ended up about 6 percent in Amsterdam after the company agreed to buy Curvalue Financial Services Group.
London markets were focusing on the banking sector, after Barclays said Thursday it's expecting higher bad-debt provisions this year and HSBC updated the market on Friday.
HSBC Holdings PLC shares slipped 0.2 percent after it said recent rises in UK interest rates and a slowing residential property market are affecting consumer confidence and levels of bad debt.
Irish telecom Eircom Group PLC dropped 3.7 percent after swinging to a pretax loss of 89 million euros (US$111 million) in fiscal 2005 from a profit of 52 million euros the previous year.
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],”