European stock markets closed mixed on Friday in directionless trading, mirroring a similar trend on Wall Street, dealers said.
Investors had waited most of the day for a speech by US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke who had been expected to provide clues about the outlook for US interest rates -- a key concern of the market.
Speaking in the US state of Wyoming, Bernanke said that international terrorism was a threat to globalization, but made no reference to monetary policy.
On the main European markets, the London FTSE 100 index closed up 0.16 at 5,878.60 points, in Paris the CAC 40 fell 0.03 percent to 5,111.13 while in Frankfurt the DAX lost 0.04 percent to close at 5,811.47 points.
The DJ Euro STOXX 50 index of leading eurozone shares fell 0.02 percent to 3,781.17 points.
US stocks held in a narrow range Friday amid a dearth of economic news, with traders seemingly unwilling to take new positions ahead of a late summer weekend.
In London, miners and banks led the FTSE 100. Britain's fifth-biggest retail bank Lloyds TSB gained 0.57 percent to ?5.26 owing to speculation that it could face a takeover bid.
Other banks gained on positive broker comments, with Barclays climbing 0.85 percent to ?6.4950 and HBOS gaining 0.69 percent to ?9.49.
Miners meanwhile gained on a rebound for commodities prices, with the share price of Anglo American progressing 0.68 percent to ?23.58.
Elsewhere in Europe, in Madrid the IBEX-35 fell 0.11 percent to 12,042.9 points, in Brussels the BEL 20 gained 0.03 percent to 3,887.71 points and in Amsterdam the AEX gained 0.30 percent to 465.14 points.
In Italy, the SP/MIB gained 0.12 percent to 37,718 points.
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