European shares advanced on Friday on hopes that possible action on interest rates and mortgage insurance could help limit the damage to the global economy from problems in the US housing sector.
The UK FTSE-100 rose 1.5 percent to 6,303.30, the German DAX-30 gained 1.6 percent to 7,638.17 and the French CAC-40 gained 1.3 percent to 5,662.70.
They were led by companies with ties to the commodities sector, like steelmaker ArcelorMittal, mining giant Rio Tinto and oil producer Royal Dutch Shell. ArcelorMittal rose 2.8 percent, Rio Tinto gained 3.7 percent and Royal Dutch Shell added 1.4 percent.
US Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke said the central bank would be paying "particularly close attention to the timeliest indicators" to assess how the recent credit crisis and financial market turmoil is affecting the real economy.
Drew Matus, an economist at Lehman Brothers, said that the speech didn't commit to any rate action, but Bernanke showed the Fed wasn't "out of touch." Also, the Bush administration announced a plan to help stem mortgage defaults.
Shares in French luxury-goods firm PPR advanced 4.1 percent after saying that its first-half net income nearly tripled following strong performance from luxury brands Bottega Veneta, Yves Saint Laurent and YSL Beaute.
Millennium BCP shares added 3.9 percent on a Portuguese television report that its chief executive, Paulo Teixerira Pinto, has quit. He has been in a power struggle with the bank's chairman after the firm failed to take control of Banco BPI earlier this year.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last