European stocks rose this week, pushing the STOXX Europe 600 Index to the highest in more than six months, amid optimism the region’s finance ministers will approve a Greek rescue and US economic data beat forecasts.
The STOXX 600 added 1.8 percent to 265.93 this week, the highest daily close since July 22. The benchmark measure has rallied 24 percent from its low on Sept. 22 last year and 8.8 percent this year, as investors speculated eurozone policymakers will contain the sovereign-debt crisis.
“I don’t think that Greece will default by any means,” said Ali Mahdavi, an equities trader at Newedge Group in London. “They have to save it in order to save the eurozone. The Greece situation will be resolved sooner rather than later. Now, with more positive news and also what we’ve had from the US, stocks have rallied back up.”
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti and Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos expressed optimism that an agreement on Greece could be reached at a meeting of the finance chiefs tomorrow.
The ministers delayed the rescue package even after Papademos won parliamentary approval on spending cuts.
All but one of the 19 industry groups in the STOXX 600 increased this week, led by a gauge of technology shares that gained 3.6 percent.
National benchmark indices rose in 15 of the 18 Western European markets. France’s CAC 40 Index added 2 percent. Germany’s DAX advanced 2.3 percent and the UK’s FTSE 100 Index increased 0.9 percent.
Moody’s Investors Service downgraded six eurozone countries on Monday, including Spain, Portugal and Italy, and threatened to cut the top “Aaa” ratings of the UK and France.
The ratings company also placed 17 banks and securities firms under review. UBS AG, Credit Suisse Group AG and Deutsche Bank AG are among lenders that may be downgraded.
In China, the central bank’s chief said the world’s second-largest economy would help the EU end the debt crisis.
“China will always adhere to the principle of holding assets of EU sovereign debt,” People’s Bank of China Governor Zhou Xiaochuan (周小川) said on Wednesday.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six