European stocks posted their first weekly decline this year amid speculation the Chinese government will lift interest rates and as Goldman Sachs Group Inc posted earnings that failed to exceed analysts’ estimates.
Volkswagen AG and Porsche SE led declines in automakers, both falling more than 9 percent. EasyJet PLC sank 15 percent after saying its first-half loss may double. ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG fell after Citigroup Inc cut its recommendation on the stock. Utilities, a so-called defensive sector, posted the best performance among 19 industry groups in the benchmark STOXX Europe 600 Index.
The STOXX 600 dropped 0.9 percent this week, after rising for two straight weeks. Even so, the gauge is still up 2 percent this year as reports suggested the global economy continues to recover and investors speculated that European leaders will increase their efforts to contain the region’s debt crisis.
“Investors have very high earnings expectations on the sectors that did best last year and have been disappointed even with very good numbers,” said Raimund Saxinger, a fund manager at Frankfurt Trust Investment GmbH, which oversees about US$22 billion. “The automobile sector suffered this week as the market starts to realize ... it’s as good as it gets.”
The biggest two-day drop since August on Wednesday and Thursday was trimmed after a report that showed German business confidence unexpectedly rose to a record high this month. The Munich-based Ifo institute said its business climate index, based on a survey of 7,000 executives, climbed to 110.3 this month from 109.8 last month. That’s the highest reading since records for a reunified Germany began in 1991.
Volkswagen AG, Europe’s largest carmaker in China, slumped 9.3 percent, while Porsche SE slid 9.6 percent. European carmakers lost 4.2 percent this week, the second-worst performance among 19 industry groups.
Banking shares were among the best performers this week, rising 1.5 percent.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day