European stock exchanges, buoyed by a strong showing in the oil sector and a positive start to the day on Wall Street, ended the week in positive territory on Friday.
The London FTSE 100 index gained 0.35 percent to close at 5,359.3 while in Paris the CAC 40 added 0.58 percent to reach 4,491.68. The Frankfurt DAX rose 0.26 percent to end the session at 5,005.93.
The Euro STOXX 50 index of leading eurozone shares added 0.39 percent to reach 3,359.65.
US stocks resumed their rally as upbeat comments from the tech sector eased concerns on the profit outlook after Hurricane Katrina and investors eyed a possible rate hike pause by the Federal Reserve.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.55 percent to 10,653.81 and the NASDAQ composite added 0.25 percent to 2,171.38 at 3:35pm GMT.
Some investors were betting that the Fed will hold back on lifting rates to keep lending cheap for companies and individuals as reconstruction efforts get underway in the southeast after Hurricane Katrina.
The central bank is due to meet on Sept. 20 to discuss whether to raise its key short-term interest rate, which currently stands at 3.5 percent.
In London oil group BP rose 1.67 percent to £6.3850, while Royal Dutch Shell added 0.88 percent to reach £18.34 as crude prices turned higher, albeit far from the record levels reached late last month.
Energy giant Centrica fell 1.70 percent to close at £2.6025 after issuing a warning on its annual results.
Elsewhere there were gains of 0.23 percent to 3,249.37 on the BEL-20 in Brussels, 0.20 percent to 34,233 on the SP/MIB in Milan, 0.43 percent to 10,486.6 on the IBEX-35 in Madrid, 0.33 percent to 6,703.62 on the Swiss Market Index and 0.25 percent to 394.91 on the AEX in Amsterdam.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The chipmaker last month raised its capital spending by 28 percent for this year to NT$32 billion from a previous estimate of NT$25 billion Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電子) yesterday launched a new 12-inch fab, tapping into advanced chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology to support rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices. Powerchip is to offer interposers, one of three parts in CoWoS packaging technology, with shipments scheduled for the second half of this year, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) told reporters on the sidelines of a fab inauguration ceremony in the Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區) in Miaoli County yesterday. “We are working with customers to supply CoWoS-related business, utilizing part of this new fab’s capacity,” Huang said, adding that Powerchip intended to bridge
Microsoft Corp yesterday said that it would create Thailand’s first data center region to boost cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, promising AI training to more than 100,000 people to develop tech. Bangkok is a key economic player in Southeast Asia, but it has lagged behind Indonesia and Singapore when it comes to the tech industry. Thailand has an “incredible opportunity to build a digital-first, AI-powered future,” Microsoft chairman and chief executive officer Satya Nadella said at an event in Bangkok. Data center regions are physical locations that store computing infrastructure, allowing secure and reliable access to cloud platforms. The global embrace of AI
Qualcomm Inc, the world’s biggest seller of smartphone processors, gave an upbeat forecast for sales and profit in the current period, suggesting demand for handsets is increasing after a two-year slump. Revenue in the three months ended in June will be US$8.8 billion to US$9.6 billion, the company said in a statement Wednesday. Excluding certain items, earnings will be US$2.15 to US$2.35 a share. Analysts had projected sales of US$9.08 billion and earnings of US$2.16 a share. The outlook signals that the smartphone market has begun to bounce back, tracking with Qualcomm’s forecast that demand would gradually recover this year. The San