European stock exchanges advanced on Friday, powered by news that US consumer confidence last month, according to one survey, had shot up to its highest reading since January 2004.
The London FTSE 100 index gained 0.43 percent to close at 6,237.20, while in Paris the CAC 40 rose 1.07 percent to finish at 5,614.70. In Frankfurt the DAX added 0.86 percent to reach 6,747.17.
The Euro STOXX 50 index of leading eurozone shares rose 0.86 percent to 4,173.07.
On the currency market the dollar faltered against the euro here Friday, failing to sustain a rally following publication of the consumer confidence survey.
The single European currency in late-day trade was at US$1.2971 after US$1.2962 late on Thursday in New York.
The US currency initially firmed against the euro on news that the University of Michigan US consumer confidence indicator jumped to 98 points this month from 91.7 in December, its best reading in three years.
US stocks were mixed in late morning trading following a flurry of quarterly earnings reports as Citigroup reported slowing profits and General Electric announced improved earnings.
Telecom firm Motorola announced a moderation in profits and said it would be laying off 3,500 employees this year amid a fierce price war with rival Nokia.
The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.09 percent at 12,556.00 at 5:05pm GMT. The tech-heavy NASDAQ composite was up 0.16 percent at 2,447.10.
"The market continues to react more to bearish news than to bullish news. Companies that disappoint in any way with their earnings report are getting hammered," said Dick Green, an analyst at Briefing.com.
In London, hotel chain Intercontinental was among the day's big winners, jumping 3.59 percent on persistent takeover rumors.
Steelmaker Corus gained 1.4 percent on Indian press comment suggesting that Tata Steel could beef up its offer for Corus in its bidding battle with CSN of Brazil.
In Paris shares in utility group Suez fell 0.89 percent after French business heavyweight said that while he had secured sufficient financial backing to make a bid for Suez he would refrain from doing so because of an unstable market environment.
In Frankfurt SAP, the world's leading maker of business software, fell 0.60 percent, dragged down by a report from IBM showing that its annual financial results were below expectations.
Elsewhere there were gains of 0.35 percent to a record 9,155.12 on the Swiss Market Index, 0.12 percent to 4,472.73 on the BEL 20 in Brussels, 0.99 percent to 42,123 on the SP/MIB in Milan, 0.93 percent to 14,397.9 on the IBEX-35 in Madrid and 0.31 percent to 507.12 on the AEX in Amsterdam.
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
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