European stocks posted their biggest weekly decline since November, as reports signaled that the economic rebound in the US has slowed, while the European Central Bank (ECB) said risks remain to the eurozone’s recovery.
Vodafone Group PLC lost 2.1 percent after Verizon Communications Inc denied that it has considered buying the mobile-phone operator. Kazakhmys PLC and Evraz PLC slumped more than 7 percent this week, leading a gauge of mining stocks to its longest streak of losses in 13 years.
The STOXX Europe 600 Index fell 2.3 percent in the four-day week following the Easter holiday, completing its longest stretch of losses in more than 10 months. The slump pared the gauge’s advance so far this year to 2.7 percent. The STOXX 600 had gained as much as 6.7 percent amid speculation that central banks would continue to provide monetary stimulus.
“Markets are going to be vulnerable to bad news from the States,” Philip Saunders, who helps oversee about US$105 billion at Investec Asset Management in London, told Francine Lacqua on Bloomberg Television.
“Growth, or the lack of it in Europe, is the big issue. We’re in a depression and that’s not going to go away. The Japanese authorities have finally gotten round to dealing with it after 20 years. Let’s hope it doesn’t take that long in Europe,” he said.
Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda increased the lender’s monthly bond purchases to ¥7 trillion (US$72 billion) on Thursday. The central bank would double its monetary base within two years, according to a statement issued after Kuroda’s first meeting in charge of the institution.
National benchmark indexes still fell in all 18 Western European markets this week. The UK’s FTSE 100 dropped 2.5 percent, while France’s CAC 40 and Germany’s DAX retreated 1.8 percent. The stock market in Cyprus declined 2.5 percent after opening for the first time since March 15.
European stocks extended losses on Friday as a US Department of Labor report showed the US economy created fewer jobs last month than economists’ had forecast. Payrolls grew by 88,000 workers last month, their smallest increase in nine months. The median economist estimate in a Bloomberg survey had called for net hiring to climb by 190,000.
In Europe, ECB President Mario Draghi said that risks remain to the economic recovery in the second half of this year. The ECB left its benchmark interest rate at a record low of 0.75 percent on Thursday, matching most economist estimates.
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
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six