European stocks fell for the first week in seven as earnings from GlaxoSmithKline PLC to Akzo Nobel NV disappointed investors, sparking concern the worst of the profits slump may not be over.
ICAP PLC sank 11 percent as the world’s largest broker of trades between banks lost 85 percent of its business in the most active part of the mortgage-bond market in six weeks. Drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline lost 3.1 percent as earnings missed analysts’ estimates. Akzo Nobel fell 5.6 percent as the world’s biggest maker of paints posted a first-quarter loss on sliding demand.
“There is still a lot of bad news to come out from the economy,” said Lothar Mentel, London-based chief investment officer at Octopus Investments Ltd, which manages the equivalent of about US$1.1 billion.
Investors should be “prepared for a bumpy ride until the end of the year,” he said in a Bloomberg Television interview.
The Dow Jones STOXX 600 Index slid 0.6 percent to 195.82, ending the longest streak of weekly gains on the measure since 2006. The gauge has rallied 24 percent since March 9 as investors speculated US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s plan to finance the purchase of as much as US$1 trillion in illiquid assets from banks will help to pull the global economy out of the economic slump.
The UK economy shrank more than economists forecast in the first quarter, marking the biggest contraction since the rise of then-British prime minister Margaret Thatcher in 1979 as manufacturing and business services posted record declines.
Earnings at 55 of the companies in the STOXX 600 that have reported earnings so far since April 7 declined by an average of 25 percent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Credit Suisse Group AG and Debenhams PLC were among companies that gave investors positive surprises when they reported first-quarter results this week.
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