European stock markets closed lower on Friday as concerns over the long-term effect of Hurricane Katrina on the US economy continued to mount.
The London FTSE 100 index ended flat, off 0.03 percent at 5,326.8 points, while in Frankfurt the DAX 30 index dipped 0.11 percent to 4,837.81 and in Paris the CAC 40 fell 0.46 percent to 4,403.90.
The DJ Euro STOXX 50 index of leading eurozone shares declined 0.24 percent to 3,274.42.
Over on Wall Street, stocks traded lower as concerns over the devastation in New Orleans and the impact of Hurricane Katrina on the economy offset a pullback in crude oil prices and a broadly positive August employment report.
US non-farm payrolls increased by a seasonally adjusted 169,000 last month, below the 197,000 expected by economists, although upward revisions totaling 44,000 in prior months put total employment slightly higher than expected.
In London, Old Mutual dropped 2.25 percent to £1.4125 after the insurer said it was offering 43.60 kronor (US$5.90) per share for Skandia, valuing the Swedish insurer at 44.9 billion kronor.
"There are some positive aspects, but we think it's relatively value-neutral," said Johnny Vo, insurance analyst at Fox-Pitt, Kelton. "The point is that Old Mutual is becoming less of an emerging market play, and more of a European play."
Under the offer, which is conditional on receiving the backing of the Skandia board by Sept. 23, Skandia shareholders would receive 16.50 kronor and 1.37 new Old Mutual shares for every Skandia share they own.
The bid is higher than an earlier proposed cash and shares offer by the company of 42 kronor per share.
Skandia shares were quoted at 41.50 kronor in closing Stockholm trading, below the bid price, suggesting that investors were not convinced that it would be successful.
In Paris, weaker-than-expected earnings from cosmetics giant L'Oreal in the first half sent the stock down 3.7 percent at 63.75 euros. Net profit rose to 892 million euros from a pro forma 878 million last year, well below expectations, but dealers also noted that the shares had closed at a 52-week high Thursday.
Elsewhere in Europe, the Swiss Market Index fell 0.33 percent to 6,532.07, the Amsterdam AEX shed 0.15 percent at 389.31 and the Milan SP/MIB ended flat, off 0.04 percent at 33,672.0.
The Brussels BEL-20 rose 0.14 percent to 3,228.50 and the Madrid IBEX-35 climbed 0.11 percent to 10,145.0.
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
MAJOR BENEFICIARY: The company benefits from TSMC’s advanced packaging scarcity, given robust demand for Nvidia AI chips, analysts said ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, yesterday said it is raising its equipment capital expenditure budget by 10 percent this year to expand leading-edge and advanced packing and testing capacity amid strong artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing chip demand. This is on top of the 40 to 50 percent annual increase in its capital spending budget to more than the US$1.7 billion to announced in February. About half of the equipment capital expenditure would be spent on leading-edge and advanced packaging and testing technology, the company said. ASE is considered by analysts