European stocks retreated this week as companies from Logitech International SA to Royal KPN NV and Oriflame Cosmetics SA reported disappointing results.
Logitech International SA dropped 13 percent after the world’s biggest maker of computer mice forecast lower revenue and operating profit. KPN sank the most in four years as the phone company said third-quarter earnings fell. Oriflame plunged 16 percent after sales missed estimates. PSA Peugeot Citroen lost 13 percent after accepting government debt guarantees in exchange for greater influence over the automaker’s strategy.
The STOXX Europe 600 Index slipped 1.3 percent to 270.51 this week. The equity benchmark has still rallied 16 percent from this year’s low on June 4 as European Central Bank President Mario Draghi pledged to defend the euro and US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke announced a third round of quantitative easing.
“The market is coming to terms with the weak global economic background,” said Alan Higgins, chief investment officer at Coutts & Co in London.
In Germany, the IFO institute said its business climate index, based on a survey of 7,000 executives, dropped to 100 this month from 101.4 last month, its sixth straight decline and the lowest reading since February 2010. Economists had predicted an increase to 101.6.
The Spanish economy contracted for a fifth quarter in the three months through last month and unemployment rose to a record 25.02 percent. Moody’s Investors Service lowered the credit rating of Catalonia and four other Spanish regions, citing “the deterioration in their liquidity positions.”
National benchmark indexes declined in all 18 Western European markets, except Greece and Ireland. Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC 40 fell 2 percent, while the UK’s FTSE 100 slipped 1.5 percent.
Of STOXX 600 companies that have released earnings since Oct. 9, 52 percent have exceeded per-share profit estimates, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Logitech dropped 13 percent this week, the most in a month. The company said it expects the PC market “weakness” to more than offset the positive effect of its new products and predicted sales and operating income for the second half of the next fiscal year to be lower than a year earlier.
A gauge of telecommunications stocks was the worst performer among the 19 industry groups on the STOXX 600, falling 3 percent.
KPN, the Dutch phone company partly owned by Carlos Slim’s America Movil SAB lost 11 percent as third-quarter profit slid 32 percent amid increasing German price competition and declining mobile subscription revenue. That was the stock’s biggest weekly drop since October 2008.
France Telecom SA tumbled 8.5 percent, the most in 13 months. The largest French phone company cut its dividend forecast for this year and said it expects to generate less cash next year as it battles cheaper competitors.
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