European stocks fell, with the benchmark STOXX Europe 600 Index declining for a seventh week, as concern mounted that the EU might delay a second rescue plan for Greece.
The STOXX 600 index retreated 0.4 percent to 267.17 this week for its longest weekly losing streak since 2008. European stocks pared their weekly loss after German Chancellor Angela Merkel signaled a willingness to compromise on demands that bondholders shoulder part of a Greek rescue and French President Nicolas Sarkozy said a “breakthrough” had been made on the Mediterranean country’s debt crisis.
“It may prevent a credit event and subsequent contagion,” said Atif Latif, the director of trading at Guardian Stockbrokers in London. “We see this as a small step towards an agreement.”
COMPROMISE
Merkel said on Friday that she would work with the European Central Bank to resolve the crisis. Almost US$4 trillion has been erased from the value of global equities since this year’s peak on May 1, amid signs the US economy was struggling to rebound and concern that Greece’s credit crisis might spread.
“We would like to have a participation of private creditors on a voluntary basis,” Merkel told reporters in Berlin at a joint press conference with Sarkozy. “This worked out jointly with the ECB. There shouldn’t be any dispute with the ECB on this.”
Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou earlier named Evangelos Venizelos as finance minister in a Cabinet overhaul aimed at fending off a rebellion in the ruling PASOK party and passing austerity measures.
Former US Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan said that a Greek default was “almost certain” and could drive the US into recession.
“As the Greek saga unravels, we believe investors are not rewarded for taking risk,” Fredrik Nerbrand, head of global asset allocation at HSBC Holdings PLC in London, wrote in a report. “For now, our main focus is capital preservation.”
CASH HOLDINGS CLIMB
Global investors increased their cash holdings to the highest in a year this month and reduced their holdings of equities and commodities, according to a BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research survey of investors conducted from June 3 to June 9.
A net 18 percent of 282 respondents were “overweight” cash, the highest since June 2010, according to the survey. The 282 respondents managed a combined US$828 billion.
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
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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