European stocks closed lower on Friday in a volatile session, with credit-market jitters again reverberating through the market as Cadbury Schweppes delayed the sale of its US beverage unit on worries over the financing that potential buyers could receive.
A shaky FTSE 100 index lost 0.6 percent to close at 6,215.20, a day after London's biggest one-day selloff in percentage terms in four years -- a retreat that resulted in the index's biggest weekly loss since 2002.
The German DAX 30 index gave up 0.8 percent to stand at 7,451.68 while the French CAC-40 index dropped 0.6 percent to 5,643.96.
All European indexes closed with sharp losses on Thursday, as Wall Street plunged on concerns about shaky credit markets and the troubled US housing sector.
One of the main concerns for European and US investors is that takeover activity engineered by private-equity firms -- one of the key reasons for several European markets recently hitting all-time highs recently -- could dry up.
"Stocks have been supported by takeover hopes. As finance becomes more expensive, this support is disappearing," said Jeremy Chantry, head of research at London-based stockbroker Hichens, Harrison & Co.
Eric Vergnaud, an economist at BNP Paribas, said markets may be overlooking positive signs.
"In a tumultuous week, some key news almost went unnoticed: the IMF raised its forecast for world growth, which is now expected to exceed 5 percent in both 2007 and 2008, after 5.5 percent last year and 4.9 percent in 2005," he told clients.
"The dynamic momentum of the emerging countries, led by China, India and Russia, have driven up world economic performances, and a new equilibrium is taking shape that no longer depends on the performances of the US, Japan or Europe," Vergnaud said.
A case in point came from candy and beverage group Cadbury Schweppes, which said it's decided to extend the sale timetable for its US beverages business following volatility seen in the leveraged debt markets. Cadbury shares rose 2.4 percent as investors expressed relief that the sale wasn't scrapped.
Across the 13-nation eurozone, the EuroStoxx 50 index was off by 0.26 percent at 4,242.05 points.
In Amsterdam, the AEX index gave up an additional 1.19 percent to 526.69 points, while the Swiss SMI was essentially unchanged at 8,705.57 points.
In Milan the SP/MIB was down 0.23 percent at 39,581 points, but in Madrid the Ibex-35 bucked the overall trend and gained 0.32 percent to 14,587.50 points.
Brussels' BEL-20 closed 0.64 percent lower at 4,341.99 points.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure