European stocks declined for a fourth week, led by banks and carmakers, as concern escalated that the global economy is slowing and as the leaders of the eurozone failed to restore investor confidence.
The benchmark STOXX Europe 600 Index dropped 6.1 percent to 223.13 this past week to its lowest level since July 2009. The gauge has declined 23 percent from its peak in February as concern mounted that Europe’s sovereign-debt crisis will spread to the larger economies of Italy and Spain.
The slump has pushed down the STOXX 600’s price-to-earnings ratio to 9.2 times the estimated earnings of its constituent companies, below the average multiple of 12.2 over the last five years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
GDP in the 17-nation eurozone rose 0.2 percent from the first quarter. Economists had predicted that the economy would expand 0.3 percent, according to the median of 34 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey.
“Despite attractive valuations at current earnings levels, stocks saw a very large selloff this week,” said Emmanuel Hauptmann, senior equity fund manager and partner at Reyl Asset Management SA in Geneva. “The GDP numbers in Europe show the core of the eurozone stagnating in the second quarter.”
National benchmark indexes fell in every western European market except Iceland this week. Germany’s DAX Index declined 8.6 percent, while the UK’s FTSE 100 index dropped 5.2 percent. France’s CAC 40 index slid 6.1 percent.
A gauge of European banks was the biggest drag on the STOXX 600 this week.
RBS led losses, dropping 22 percent and Barclays PLC fell 20 percent. Lloyds Banking declined 16 percent, while Danske Bank A/S slid 15 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],”
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
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained