European stocks climbed for a sixth straight week, the longest winning streak in more than two years, amid speculation that central bank policymakers would add to stimulus measures to support the economy.
The STOXX Europe 600 Index climbed 0.7 percent to 256.26 last week, for the longest stretch of gains since April 2010. The measure has rallied 9.6 percent from this year’s low on June 4 as the European Central Bank (ECB) and People’s Bank of China cut their benchmark interest rates and euro-area leaders eased repayment rules for Spanish banks and relaxed conditions for possible aid to Italy.
National benchmark indexes rose in 12 of the 18 western European markets. Germany’s DAX rallied 2.3 percent, France’s CAC 40 advanced 0.4 percent and the UK’s FTSE 100 increased 0.1 percent.
ASML Holding NV is due to become the first member of the Euro STOXX 50 Index to report earnings this quarter when Europe’s biggest maker of semiconductor equipment releases results on Wednesday. The shares gained 2.7 percent this week as Intel Corp said it would invest as much as US$4.1 billion in the Dutch company.
Companies in the STOXX 600 will earn 23.93 euros a share this fiscal year, according to analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. The projections have been cut from more than 25 euros a share at the start of the year, the data show.
“Earnings season is going to be very complicated,” said Bruno Ducros, a fund manager at CamGestion in Paris, which oversees about US$2 billion in stocks. “So far, there have been a number of profit warnings.”
European stock strategists are backing away from their most-pessimistic forecasts. While sticking to predictions for losses of as much as 16 percent, Morgan Stanley’s Ronan Carr raised his recommendation on European equities to neutral on July 2 and Alain Bokobza of Societe Generale SA said he has started to reduce the underweight call he has had for at least two years. Exane BNP Paribas said investors can find bargains among companies most reliant on economic growth.
Aegis surged 45 percent as Dentsu, the 111-year-old Japanese advertising company, agreed to buy the UK company in a £3.16 billion (US$4.9 billion) deal. Aegis pushed an index of media shares in the STOXX 600 to the biggest gain of the year, with a 3.5 percent advance.
Vivendi SA jumped 7.9 percent. Chairman Jean-Rene Fourtou said that the company may sell its US$8.1 billion stake in Activision Blizzard Inc, the largest US video-game publisher.
Afren PLC, a UK-based oil and gas company focused on Nigeria and Iraq, climbed 8.4 percent. Exxon Mobil Corp and Eni SpA are examining possible bids for Afren, the UK’s Daily Mail said last Monday. Either one could offer at least £2 a share, the newspaper reported, without saying where it got the information.
Spanish banks fell, led by Bankia SA, which dropped 23 percent. Banco Popular Espanol SA slid 5.2 percent.
Spanish lenders’ net borrowings from the ECB jumped to a record 337 billion euros (US$411 billion) last month as the European bailout agreement for the nation’s lenders did not ease their access to funding.
Net average ECB borrowings climbed from 288 billion euros in May, the Bank of Spain said on its Web site July 13. Gross borrowing was 365 billion euros, up from 325 billion euros in May, and accounting for 30 percent of gross borrowing in the whole euro region.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
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
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last