European stock exchanges moved higher on Friday on corporate news and following a US job creation report that fell short of expectations but suggested that US economic momentum would maintain a healthy pace.
In London the FTSE 100 index added 0.46 percent to end the week at 6,310.90 points, while in Paris the CAC 40 rose 0.27 percent to close at 5,677.30. The Frankfurt DAX gained 0.50 percent to finish at 6,885.76.
The Euro STOXX 50 index of leading eurozone issues gained 0.41 percent to reach 4,228.39.
US stocks traded mixed as investors digested a strong two-day rally and the employment data that suggested the economy was moving ahead with only modest inflation pressures.
Peter Morici, an economist at the University of Maryland, said the report highlights "moderate growth [that] will be good for the stock market."
Dick Green at Briefing.com added: "The payroll numbers reveal a very strong labor market that will fuel a continued strong economy in 2007."
In London supermarket chain Sainsbury shot up 13.87 percent as investment funds CVC, KKR and Blackstone said they were mulling a takeover offer.
Elsewhere in the sector Morrison rose 5.90 percent, while Tesco added 3.69 percent.
Royal Dutch Shell fell 1.84 percent after several analysts lowered their recommendations on the group, which on Thursday said it foresaw lower production in the years to come.
In Paris steel tube producer Vallourec was the day's big loser, shedding 5.75 percent after predicting a slowdown in sales growth this year.
Automaker Renault fell 4.18 percent, dragged down by a decline in net earnings at Nissan in the third quarter. Renault has a 44.3 percent stake in the Japanese manufacturer.
Construction group Vinci gained 1.87 percent on better than expected sales figures for last year.
In Frankfurt energy giant E.ON jumped 3.63 percent after the withdrawal of its rival, Gas Natural of Spain, from a takeover battle for Spanish electricity company Endesa.
Elsewhere there were gains of 0.88 percent to a record 4,507.29 on the BEL 20 in Brussels, 0.24 percent to 506.78 on the AEX in Amsterdam, 0.41 percent to a record 14,631.2 on the IBEX-35 in Madrid, 0.32 percent to 42,596 on the SP/MIB in Milan and 0.46 percent to a record 9,217.87 on the Swiss Market Index.
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to