US stocks fell, driving the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index to this month’s first weekly loss, as European leaders struggled to solve the region’s debt crisis and the US Federal Reserve refrained from additional stimulus.
Equities rose the last two days of the week as data on jobless claims and manufacturing offset concern that Europe’s crisis is escalating. Energy producers dropped 4.9 percent this week, the most among 10 groups in the S&P 500.
Caterpillar Inc and Alcoa Inc slumped at least 8.6 percent. Intel Corp slid 7.1 percent, pacing declines among technology companies. Research In Motion Ltd tumbled 18 percent after delaying the next generation BlackBerry, which is designed to fuel a comeback.
The S&P 500 fell 2.8 percent to 1,219.66, breaking a two-week streak of gains. The Dow Jones Industrial Average sank 317.87 points, or 2.6 percent, to 11,866.39 this week.
“The market continues to be driven by headline stories about Europe, although the economic news has been more positive with respect to the US,” John Carey, a Boston-based money manager at Pioneer Investments, said in a telephone interview. The firm oversees about US$220 billion. “On alternate days, people are either paying attention to those improving fundamentals or worrying about what’s going on in Europe.”
Stocks slumped on Monday as Moody’s Investors Service said a EU summit failed to produce “decisive policy measures” and Fitch Ratings said a comprehensive solution has not yet been offered.
The S&P 500 extended its decline the next day following the Fed’s decision.
The S&P 500 rebounded from a three-day slump on Thursday after Labor Department figures showed initial jobless claims fell by 19,000 to 366,000 last week, the fewest since May, 2008, and two reports showed manufacturing in the New York and Philadelphia regions expanded more than forecast this month.
The index has failed to maintain gains, falling 3 percent since the end of last year after being up for the year on nine days since Oct. 27.
It fell within 1 percent of a bear market, or a 20 percent plunge, from its high on April 29 with its slump through Oct. 3. The measure has rebounded 11 percent since then.
WEAKER ACTIVITY: The sharpest deterioration was seen in the electronics and optical components sector, with the production index falling 13.2 points to 44.5 Taiwan’s manufacturing sector last month contracted for a second consecutive month, with the purchasing managers’ index (PMI) slipping to 48, reflecting ongoing caution over trade uncertainties, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The decline reflects growing caution among companies amid uncertainty surrounding US tariffs, semiconductor duties and automotive import levies, and it is also likely linked to fading front-loading activity, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said. “Some clients have started shifting orders to Southeast Asian countries where tariff regimes are already clear,” Lien told a news conference. Firms across the supply chain are also lowering stock levels to mitigate
NEW PRODUCTS: MediaTek plans to roll out new products this quarter, including a flagship mobile phone chip and a GB10 chip that it is codeveloping with Nvidia Corp MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday projected that revenue this quarter would dip by 7 to 13 percent to between NT$130.1 billion and NT$140 billion (US$4.38 billion and US$4.71 billion), compared with NT$150.37 billion last quarter, which it attributed to subdued front-loading demand and unfavorable foreign exchange rates. The Hsinchu-based chip designer said that the forecast factored in the negative effects of an estimated 6 percent appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar against the greenback. “As some demand has been pulled into the first half of the year and resulted in a different quarterly pattern, we expect the third quarter revenue to decline sequentially,”
Six Taiwanese companies, including contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), made the 2025 Fortune Global 500 list of the world’s largest firms by revenue. In a report published by New York-based Fortune magazine on Tuesday, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. (better known as Foxconn) ranked highest among Taiwanese firms, placing 28th with revenue of US$213.69 billion. Up 60 spots from last year, TSMC rose 60 places to reach No. 126 with US$90.16 billion in revenue, followed by Quanta Computer Inc. at 348th, Pegatron Corp. at 461st, CPC Corp., Taiwan at 494th and Wistron Corp. at 496th. According to Fortune, the world’s
DIVERSIFYING: Taiwanese investors are reassessing their preference for US dollar assets and moving toward Europe amid a global shift away from the greenback Taiwanese investors are reassessing their long-held preference for US-dollar assets, shifting their bets to Europe in the latest move by global investors away from the greenback. Taiwanese funds holding European assets have seen an influx of investments recently, pushing their combined value to NT$13.7 billion (US$461 million) as of the end of last month, the highest since 2019, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Over the first half of this year, Taiwanese investors have also poured NT$14.1 billion into Europe-focused funds based overseas, bringing total assets up to NT$134.8 billion, according to data from the Securities Investment Trust and Consulting Association (SITCA),
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