European stocks posted their biggest weekly gain since November, rising to a 22-month high after US lawmakers agreed on a budget, avoiding sweeping tax increases and spending cuts that had threatened to push the world’s largest economy into a recession.
The STOXX Europe 600 Index added 3.3 percent to 287.83 this past week, its largest rally in six weeks. The equity benchmark surged 14 percent last year as the European Central Bank introduced a bond-buying program and the US Federal Reserve opted for a third round of asset purchases.
“It’s good news that the US didn’t miss the deadline,” said Michael Morris, who oversees US$1 billion as head of European equities at Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management in London. “Though they’ve kicked the can down the road again and I don’t believe the bill solves the problem, there’s a window in the next few months when both parties can come to an agreement to deal with spending. So I wouldn’t be too gloomy about that.”
The STOXX 600 rallied to its highest level since February 2011 after the US House of Representatives passed a budget bill on Tuesday that delayed automatic spending reductions by two months. The legislation also prevented taxes from rising for more than 99 percent of US households.
A US Department of Labor report on Friday showed that the US economy created more jobs last month than expected. Payrolls increased by 155,000, beating economists’ average forecast of 152,000. The unemployment rate remained at 7.8 percent after the Labor Department revised the figure for November to 7.8 percent from 7.7 percent.
In China, manufacturing expanded for a third consecutive month last month. The purchasing managers’ index remained unchanged at 50.6, the National Bureau of Statistics and China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing said on Tuesday. A reading above 50 means that activity has increased.
A gauge of mining companies rose 4.2 percent, its biggest weekly rally in three-and-a-half months, as Xstrata PLC added 7.8 percent and Glencore PLC surged 7.7 percent. Anglo American PLC, a mining company with operations from Africa to Chile, jumped 5.2 percent.
Transocean soared 17 percent, its largest weekly advance since August 2010, after the world’s biggest operator of offshore drilling rigs agreed on Thursday to settle all US federal claims following the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon platform for US$1.4 billion. The accident killed 11 people and caused the world’s worst accidental oil spill. The US Department of Justice agreed to end its criminal probe, Transocean said in a statement.
ArcelorMittal added 5 percent. The world’s largest steelmaker sold the stake in ArcelorMittal Mines Canada Inc for US$1.1 billion to a group led by China Steel Corp (中鋼) and South Korea’s Posco.
Alcatel-Lucent SA surged 19 percent for the shares’ biggest weekly rally in almost two years. The telecommunications equipment maker slumped 17 percent last year. Imagination Technologies Group PLC rose 11 percent, its biggest weekly gain in more than a year.
Fresnillo PLC fell 2.6 percent as the price of silver dropped. UBS AG lowered its rating on the stock, saying the shares had outperformed the metal and its peers.
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],”
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
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