Europe's main stock markets dived on Friday after disappointing US economic data crowned a volatile week that was rocked by investor concerns over the global impact of the slumping US housing sector.
World equity markets have been in turmoil over fears about a subprime credit crisis spreading to the global economy.
Frankfurt, London and Paris had clawed back ground on Thursday, after diving by more than 1.5 percent on Wednesday owing to jitters about US credit markets.
But stocks slumped again on Friday after the US government revealed that job growth had slowed by more than expected, and as a large mortgage lender announced it was not accepting new business.
In London the FTSE 100 index lost 1.21 percent to close at 6,244.30 points, while in Paris the CAC 40 shed 1.48 percent to 5,597.89, while in Frankfurt the DAX lost 1.30 percent to finish at 7,435.67 points.
The DJ Euro STOXX 50 index of top eurozone shares shed 1.38 percent to 4,229.53 points.
In Frankfurt, shares in Germany's Hypo Real Estate led the market downward, nosediving 6.33 percent to 41.16 euros, as rumors circulated that the German real estate group's exposure to the mounting US subprime crisis was higher than previously assumed.
The European energy sector was meanwhile lower as crude prices continued to fall from their recent record high point in New York.
In London, Anglo-Dutch group Royal Dutch Shell saw its "A" shares lose 1.60 percent to ?18.50, and peer BP tumbled 1.51 percent to ?5.54.
Shares in oil and gas giant Total sank 2.41 percent to 54.71 euros in Paris.
Elsewhere in Europe, in Amsterdam the AEX index lost 1.18 percent to 521.52 while Milan's SP/MIB lost 0.84 percent to 39,375, and in Madrid the IBEX-35 lost 0.98 percent to 14,534.3.
In Brussels the BEL-20 closed 1.04 percent lower at 4,281.14 points, while the Swiss SMI lost 1.19 percent at 8,671.43 points.
INFRINGEMENT: The investigation comes after a complaint from Vicor Corp, with the company seeking a limited exclusion order as well as cease-and-desist orders, the ITA said The US International Trade Commission (USITC) has launched a Section 337 investigation naming Taiwanese technology companies, including Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海), Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) and Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), as respondents. The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) pledged assistance if needed. The USITC said on Friday in a statement that it had voted to institute an investigation under Section 337 of the US Tariff Act of 1930 into certain vertical power delivery systems, related components and computing devices incorporating such systems. The investigation covers 20 companies from Taiwan, China, Germany and the US, the commission said, adding that it
IN GOOD FAITH: Lai said he appreciates Micron’s commitment to Taiwan and that it would continue expanding its investment in the country, while also working with labor President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday called for US memory maker Micron Technology Inc and its workers to negotiate “sincerely” ahead of a possible strike by the company’s union in Taiwan. Last week, a Taiwanese union representing workers at Micron said it had secured authorization from its members to strike over a dispute concerning the company’s bonus scheme, escalating a labor conflict at the chipmaker’s largest manufacturing hub. Micron employs about 15,000 people in Taiwan and has said it invested more than NT$1.6 trillion (US$49.6 billion) in the country. Speaking in Taichung at the opening of a new Micron advanced assembly and testing facility,
A man charged along with Super Micro Computer Inc co-founder Yih-Shyan “Wally” Liaw (廖益賢) of conspiring to send cutting-edge chips to China in violation of US export controls pleaded guilty, court documents said. Ting-Wei “Willy” Sun (孫廷瑋), a former outside contractor described by US authorities as a “fixer” who allegedly aided in the sales, pleaded guilty on Thursday at a hearing in federal court in New York as part of an agreement with prosecutors, court filings showed. Prosecutors claimed the men were part of a scheme to send Nvidia Corp-powered servers to an unnamed Southeast Asian company and then divert them to
Microsoft Corp chief executive officer Satya Nadella said companies should treat powerful artificial intelligence (AI) models as potential insider threats, assume they could be compromised and create an “emergency brake” system to prevent agentic models from going rogue. Nadella said that those deploying advanced AI should not rely on assurances from model makers. “We must assume a model is compromised and contain it from the start,” Nadella wrote on Saturday in a post on X. “Think of it like an emergency brake. An authorized person should always be able to pause or shut down a model mid-task.” The statement comes as Anthropic PBC
RSS