Asian markets fell yesterday and the euro dived to a new four-month low on news Greece is set to go to the polls again after talks to form a coalition failed, stoking fears it will exit the eurozone.
The developments came as new pro-growth French President Francois Hollande held his first talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the main proponent of austerity, to find common ground on tackling the crisis.
Tokyo fell 1.12 percent, or 99.57 points, to 8,801.17, while Sydney was 2.36 percent, or 100.8 points, lower at 4,165.5. Seoul closed 3.08 percent lower, easing 58.43 points to 1,840.53. Hong Kong slumped 3.19 percent, or 634.48 points, to 19,259.83, while Shanghai was down 1.21 percent, or 28.65 points, at 2,346.19.
Photo: EPA
Greece must hold fresh -elections after talks on forming a new government broke up without agreement on Tuesday, prolonging a tortuous crisis.
The precarious financial situation was also highlighted when Greek President Carolos Papoulias said about 700 million euros (US$894 million) had been withdrawn from Greek banks on Monday and he warned the situation could worsen in the coming days.
Adding to the pessimism were comments from German Minister of Finance Wolfgang Schaeuble, who said it was not possible to renegotiate an international aid plan for Greece.
Currency traders reacted badly, sending the euro tumbling to US$1.2686, its lowest level since Jan. 16, compared with US$1.2728 in New York late on Tuesday as they jumped out of risky assets.
The common currency also eased to a three-month low against the yen at ¥101.96, compared with ¥102.12, while the US dollar was changing hands at ¥80.40, from ¥80.37.
“There is a pervading sense of unease in financial markets, a disquieting feeling of having been in something like this position before and wondering if it might turn out the same,” National Australia Bank said in a note yesterday. “In Greece, there are increasing outflows from its own banking sector and broader discussion of contagion effects. The concern now is regarding contagion. It’s not Greece per se that is the problem, but the credibility of the euro as a currency.”
In early European trade yesterday, major stock markets slid at the open.
London’s benchmark FTSE-100 dropped 1.15 percent to 5,374.84 points, Frankfurt’s DAX 30 lost 0.87 percent to 6,344.92 points and in Paris the CAC 40 shed 0.77 -percent to 3,017.42.
The interest rate on Spanish bonds jumped to 6.495 percent, while Italian bonds approached the psychologically key 6 percent mark, at 5.946 percent.
On oil markets, New York’s main contract, West Texas -Intermediate crude for delivery in June, was down US$1.58 to US$92.40 a barrel, while Brent North Sea crude for June shed US$2.06 to US$110.18 in late afternoon trade.
Gold was at US$1,535.30 an ounce at 9am yesterday in London, compared with US$1,558.71 late on Tuesday.
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