Spanish borrowing costs have soared to a euro-era record high on a market beset by doubts over a vast rescue loan for the country’s banks and by fears of a Greek exit from the eurozone.
The euro came under more pressure in early trading yesterday, unconvinced by the deal struck by the 17 eurozone nations over the weekend to extend Spain a banking sector rescue loan of up 100 billion euros (US$125 billion).
Spain’s benchmark 10-year government bond yield spiked to 6.834 percent, the highest since the creation of the euro, and by late afternoon was at 6.716 percent — a rate regarded as unsustainable over the longer term.
The nation’s risk premium — the extra rate investors demand to hold its 10-year bonds over their safer German counterparts — hit 5.43 percentage points, not far from the euro-era record of 5.48 percentage points struck shortly before the banking rescue.
Two major concerns stood out: doubts over Spain’s outlook even with the eurozone rescue, and Greek elections on Sunday, which in a worst-case scenario could send Athens back to using the drachma.
Adding to Spanish agony, Fitch Ratings on Tuesday downgraded 18 more Spanish banks a day after cutting its ratings on the two biggest banks, Santander and BBVA, despite the massive sector bailout.
Meanwhile, Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti insisted that his country would not need a bailout to survive the economic debt crisis.
In an interview with German radio, Monti tried to damp down the rumors that Rome is at risk of contagion, calling on the markets and financial observers “not to be governed by cliches or prejudices.”
However, markets also punished Italy, at risk of being the next domino to fall in the eurozone crisis as it struggles to boost growth and confronts a public debt mountain of 1.9 trillion euros.
Italy’s 10-year government bond yield leaped to a high of 6.301 percent from the previous day’s closing level of 6.032 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